Horsemeat

Never felt so glad to be a vegetarian! Though even if I were a carnivore, I would still buy meat and make meals from scratch rather then buy packaged meals. A friend runs a horse sanctuary and said, apart from the obvious emotional factors for her, she would be unhappy to eat horse meat as they are given so many veterinary medications banned from human consumption. I think this may already have been covered here.
When we were meat-eaters we were given a delicious meat in Sweden, which turned out to be reindeer. Wish I hadn't asked! as we spent happy hours watching these beautiful beasts in the snow in the garden.

I didn't know that about geese [mating for life, that is]. What I do know is that there's no creature on the planet more angry than an angry goose [and I'm including charging rhinoceroses here as well].

We ate one of our cockerels last Sunday....delicious! We have one in the freezer and three more to kill. They are home bred but surplus to requirements so we usually kill them just before the next breeding season. We pluck them as soon as they are killed (easier when they are still warm) then hang them in a cold place overnight and draw them the next day. They usually weight between 4lbs and 6lbs when oven ready.

..... and I don't have a problem.

That's a shame I like geese. We used to eat our hens when they got too old and went off lay. That was in the days when the Egg Marketing Board would call round and collect eggs from small producers.

Dad used to stroke the hen until it was in a stupor before dispatching it. I learnt to pluck and draw the hen - but only once the head had been removed. I have this weird phobia about dead things but once the head has been removed the carcass is meat and. Don't have a problem.

We ate some of our chickens and one of our geese. Actually the idea of getting a pair of geese was that they would breed and then we would have edible lawn-mowers. Goslings eat a lot of grass, you see. We have a lot of grass and it's on a steep slope and hard to cut.

Unfortunately, the goose died suddenly. We're not sure if she had a heart attack or if she had eaten foxglove leaves. We buried her.

Then the gander got aggressive in his grief (geese usally mate for life) and he wouldn't accept another goose as a companion. So DH had to kill him (humanely; I can give details if people want but thought I'd better refrain). Then we ate him. People tell you geese have a lot of fat on them. Bertie didn't.

So the goslings never happened and we never got to eat our home-grown lawn-mowers.

Apart from the possible health issues of hormone contamination etc, I can't see the problem, apart from the emotional one. It's all dead flesh.

It's all about profit.

Sheesh.

It's strange that, the softer we get about livestock the more we try to detatch ourselves with what happens to them before they are on our dinner plate. Not many of those of us that eat meat would be able to tuck into an animal that had lived with us prior to it's slaughter but we're happy to eat something that went through a very unpleasant end to it's life so we could eat it. And I'm including myself in this as a meat eater. I always had fantasies about living the self sufficient life but realised I couldn't hack the more unpleasant sides to it.

How on earth can meat go through so many countries, agents and processors and be sold a dirt cheap prices and still make a profit? I think the poor Rumanians must have paid to have the animals taken away!

Bags, yes, I think Compassion in World Farming is doing all it can. I subscribe to their emails. They sent one earlier today about the current practice of sending live bullocks to Libya, by sea, to be slaughtered when they get there. If there is a conflict between profit and welfare, the choice will all too often be for profit. This is slightly 'off-topic' - I was just trying to point out that other animals beside horses are involved.

I agree Lily and Bags, eating horse isn't really a problem in itself but consumers being told that horse is cow is definitely a 'no no'. Aassuming it can be proved that the horsemeat is from a licensed abattoir couldn't the retailers involved put large stickers on the offending items, clearly stating 'Contains horsemeat' and then sell them at a reduced price? Result - no dumped lasagnes etc, and lots of cheap dinners for people who aren't averse to a bit of horse. Serving suggestion... add raw carrots and garnish with sugar lumps...

I ate some spaghetti bolog...neighs. It gave me the trots but I'm in a stable condition now.
Seriously though, let this be a warning to us all. Cheap food is not going to be wholesome, so best to cook from scratch wherever possible using local ingredients. When I hear the words "food industry" my blood runs cold.
My local butcher has a sign outside his shop: "100% beef, no horsing around".
Says it all!

I wonder if this will bring about a change in peoples attitiude to eating horsemeat, given that a lot of people have been eating it without realising they were doing so? I don't think I could eat it myself but would certainly prefer horses staying in this country for slaughter rather than being transported long distances.

And I agree with lily. Happy to eat horsemeat, but not to be told it is beef.

nightowl and daisy – some animals. Not all farming is cruel. I do not like the cruel practices either, which is why I'm a supported of the organisation Compassion in World Farming. Check it out. You might like it too.

I agree. Someone, somewhere has done something that must be illegal and also, presumably, profitable. Ah, the joys of globalisation! And British suppliers are required to meet the highest welfare and hygiene standards (quite right, too) so the scaly bastards people we buy our food from put them out of business and buy from whoever is cheapest!

Thank you nightowl for your post about how animals are reared, treated and killed. This is what's important to me too. I wish it was more important to those who run the industries and companies that produce our food.

Lilygran The problem seems to be discovering who is making a large and fraudulent profit. Not only did Romanian horsemeat go first to France and then to Luxembourg before being shipped to the UK in the form of ready meals, but two agents were involved in the process. One was in Cyprus and that one sub-contracted the job of supplying the meat for these meals to another agent in another country – hardly surprisingly, I have forgotten which country, but it wasn't Romania, France or Luxembourg. It's virtually impossible to trace who did what and, more importantly perhaps, who knew what.

Seems to me the real problem here is that some supplier (at the moment looks like a French firm) has legitimately bought horsemeat from a properly licensed abattoir in Rumania which they have then sold on to British food processors as beef. Or British food processors have knowingly bought it as horse and sold it as beef. Eating horse isn't a problem in itself. Someone, somewhere, is making a profit by misrepresentation.

I think that's true Bags but I also think the 'ethics' of food has become a consideration because of the very unethical (IMO of course) manner in which animals are farmed and treated. My grandfather was a farmer who reared and killed his own livestock. They were well cared for and allowed to live in a way that met their specific needs. They were killed quickly without a long stressful journey to an abattoir where they would be killed on an industrial scale. We have come so far from that in my lifetime that my choices, and those of many others have been affected.

Anyway, off out with DGS now

The 'ethics' of food is a very modern thing caused, for the most part, I think, by its ready availability in modern times, at least in western countries. Whe what you ate was whatever you could find, or raise yourself, I don't think food ethics bothered people much. Which, for me, just goes to show that in spite of all our moaning about the world going to the dogs, things have actually improved in recent times for human beings.

Phew! I was wondering what was difficult about having access to virtually every kind of food there is!

I didn't mean strike a nutritional balance. More a considered and ethical balance.

Joking Bags. Good grief indeed.