Horsemeat for dinner anyone?

Good to have a choice, n'est-ce pas?

Oh yes - lucky to be able to have the choice, I'd say. I have always realised that.

Bags you wrap the hedgehog in clay and bake it on an open fire. The spikes (and presumably dead, roasted fleas) stay in the baked clay when you break it open. Simples!

No thanks. I don't eat my fellow creatures. And it's usually the wealthiest countries that do have a choice of meat to eat.

Actually, i suppose roasted fleas have some nourishment in them, as in "don't shout, they'll all want one" (fly in soup).

One of my N american nieces decided to be a vegetarian (she objects to some animal farming practices) and was for several years. Then she went to work in darkest (no electricity, no water on tap) Peru and realised that poor people just eat what they can get, animal or otherwise, so she ate what she was given by her host family, including goat meat, while she was there. She intends to be vegetarian again when she returns to the US. She has that choice because there is plenty of everything, including a wide enough variety of non-animal foods, which there was not in darkest Peru.

I remember eating horse, it was sold ay the market in London's Church Street
can't remember it tasting any different from most meat. think it is only the 'pet' aspect that is off putting, they also sold live eels, mum liked them but I never liked the taste of those

Its a sensible idea and I must say I don't understand the British distaste for horsemeat it's very common in France. But I also wonder what happened to other meat sources such as rabbit which we used to eat very often when I was a child, and pigeon pie too.

And, having lived in East Africa on a diet which was 90% Matooke (steamed green banana) anything at all to relieve the monotony was welcome.

I love rabbit - it is very tasty.

I love horses and have no qualms about eating horsemeat. I think what she is suggesting does in fact make sense.

MiceElf Rabbit (home produced and imported) and squab (young pigeon) were still widely available in the UK last year and I haven't heard any reason why there should suddenly be a shortage now.

Article in the OP is from 15th November last year, so why has this been resurrected?
Is it being sold any more in the butchers?

we went to Smithfields last year in hopes of getting 'something different' and all they sold was the usual beef lamb pork, on the grounds that we had to get up at dawn , I was very disappointed, but have to admit that the meat we did get tasted 200% better then what we can get here

I have eaten horse salami and horse bresaola in Italy. The salami wasn't nice at all and we fed it to the ducks (they loved it!) the bresaola tasted just like beef.
As a lifelong horse fanatic I think what she says makes perfect sense. There are so many starved and abandoned ponies now who might have a better life if they were being farmed for meat. And if we were eating horses perhaps it would mean an end to the horrible live export business.

Somebody mentioned grey squirrels. During the war General Omar Bradley was staying with Lord Halifax and was amazed to find that, inspite of food rationing, no one was eating the squirrels. The gamekeeper was ordered to trap some squirrels and prepare them for the kitchen. This the gamekeeper (very) grudgingly did. Unfortunately he didn't realise that they have a scent gland under the tail which must be CAREFULLY removed when you skin them. The meat was quite inedible because it was tainted with the scent and the experiment wasn't tried again.

Do we really believe that farm animals are treated better than horses, simply because they have value as meat? And that horses would be treated better if they were also seen as food animals? Dream on.

As for it ending the live export trade, how exactly would that work? We export thousands of live sheep and cattle to be killed and eaten abroad even though we also eat those animals here.

And one final point; although I don't eat meat of any kind, I do think there is a difference between eating animals that have been bred for food and eating an animal that has been bred to become a companion animal, that has been brought up to have trust in humans and to work in partnership with us, only to be killed and eaten when it's useful days are over. That to me is the ultimate betrayal of trust and no different from eating my pet dog or cat.

Agree with nightowl.

Yes.

Could never eat my pet....but that cat over the road that poos in my garden, now I just might......

Horse meat is leaner & healthier than beef or lamb and I often enjoy a horse steak from my local supermarket as it is less expensive than beef.
As for eating pets, as a boy every year I reared pet lambs and one or two of them ended up in the deep freeze. Larry was very tasty with some mint jelly!

I agree with nightowl too, but then I would! (Both vegetarian)

I used to have a horse and loved him to bits - wouldn't have eaten him though - far too old and tough.

I see nothing wrong with eating horse - provided it's been treated well and not transported halfway across Europe without food, drink or rest as happens now. I like to know where my dinner comes from and that it's preferably had access to the outside, has space, good food not been ill treated. This applies to any animal, horse, cute calf, clever pig, wooly little lamb or fluffy bunny.

I feel that there should be no difference whatever animal you eat if you have decided to be a meat eater whatever animal it is dies for your appetite I have probably eaten horse in Europe I have definitely eaten dog regularly although I didn't realise it at the time I see absolutely no difference between a horse and a cow or lamb unless the horse was my personal pet. Like a rabbit, I wouldn't eat my own pet but have enjoyed rabbit in the past

I eat very little meat now but still feel that you can't differentiate between any animals unless they are personal to you

I love horses, but agree with others who say the real issue is animal welfare, rather than whether the fact horse meat isn't generally sold in the Uk.
I eat meat, possibly 3 times a week. I only buy free range hens, can't find any free range ducks, so won't buy them, as I find the notion of ducks with their beaks off, and no access to water simply abhorrent. I buy lamb from our local butcher, as I see his sheep enjoying life on the moors, before they make the journey to his shop. He also sells free range pigs and venison.

I don't eat farmed fish.

I don't want to become vegetarian, but I do want to do what little I can to ensure we don't cook anything that hasn't walked about, and enjoyed some freedom