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Horse meat

Paardenrookvlees (Dutch-style smoked and salted horse meat) on bread
Type	Meat

Horse meat forms a significant part of the culinary traditions of many countries, particularly in Eurasia. The eight countries that consume the most horse meat consume about 4.3 million horses a year. For the majority of humanity's early existence, wild horses were hunted as a source of protein.^[1][2]

History

During the Paleolithic, wild horses formed an important source of food for humans. In many parts of Europe, the consumption of horse meat continued throughout the Middle Ages until modern times, despite a ban on horse meat by Pope Gregory III in 732.^[3] Horse meat was also eaten as part of Germanic pagan religious ceremonies in Northern Europe.^[4]

The earliest horses evolved on the North American continent, and by about 12,000 BC, they had migrated to other parts of the world,^[5] becoming extinct in the Americas.^[6][7] The now-extinct Hagerman horse of Idaho, about the size of a modern-day large pony, is one example of an indigenous New World horse species.^[8] In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spaniards, followed by other European settlers, reintroduced horses to the Americas. Some horses became feral, and began to be hunted by the indigenous Pehuenche people of what is now Chile and Argentina.^[9] Initially, early humans hunted horses as they did other games; later, they began to raise them for meat, milk and transport. The meat was, and still is, preserved by being sun-dried in the high Andes into a product known as charqui.

France dates its taste for horse meat to the Revolution. With the fall of the aristocracy, its auxiliaries had to find new means of subsistence. The horses formerly maintained by the aristocracy as a sign of prestige ended up being used to alleviate the hunger of the masses.^[10] During the Napoleonic campaigns, the surgeon-in-chief of Napoleon's Grand Army, Baron Dominique-Jean Larrey, advised the starving troops to eat the meat of horses. At the siege of Alexandria, the meat of young Arab horses relieved an epidemic of scurvy. At the battle of Eylau in 1807, Larrey served horse as soup and as bœuf à la mode. At Aspern-Essling (1809), cut off from the supply lines, the cavalry used the breastplates of fallen cuirassiers as cooking pans and gunpowder as seasoning, thus founding a practice that carried on until at least the Waterloo campaign.^[11][12]

Horse meat gained widespread acceptance in French cuisine during the later years of the Second French Empire. The high cost of living in Paris prevented many working-class citizens from buying meat such as pork or beef; in 1866, the French government legalized the eating of horse meat, and the first butcher's shop specializing in horse meat opened in eastern Paris, providing quality meat at lower prices.^[13]

During the siege of Paris, horse meat, along with the meat of donkeys and mules, was eaten by anyone who could afford it, partly because of a shortage of fresh meat in the blockaded city, and also because horses were eating grain that was needed by the human populace. Though large numbers of horses were in Paris (estimates suggested between 65,000 and 70,000 were butchered and eaten during the siege), the supply was ultimately limited. Not even champion racehorses were spared (two horses presented to Napoleon III of France by Alexander II of Russia were slaughtered), but the meat became scarce. Many Parisians gained a taste for horse meat during the siege, and after the war ended, horse meat remained popular. Likewise, in other places and times of siege or starvation, horses are viewed as a food source of last resort.

Despite the general Anglophone taboo, horse and donkey meat was eaten in Britain, especially in Yorkshire, until the 1930s,^[14] and, in times of postwar food shortages, surged in popularity in the United States^[15] and was considered for use as hospital food.^[16] A 2007 Time magazine article about horse meat brought to the United States from Canada described the meat as "a sweet, rich, superlean, oddly soft meat, and closer to beef than to venison".^[17]

Nutrition

Horse meat has a slightly sweet taste reminiscent of beef. Many consumers allege not being able to tell the difference between beef and horse meat.^[18]

Meat from younger horses tends to be lighter in color, while older horses produce richer color and flavor, as with most mammals. Horse meat can be used to replace beef, pork, mutton, venison, and any other meat in virtually any recipe. Horse meat is usually very lean. Jurisdictions that allow for the slaughter of horses for food rarely have age restrictions, so many are quite young, some even as young as 16 to 24 months old.^[19]

Production

This article appears to contradict itself on consumption in Mexico. Please see the talk page for more information. (November 2021)

In most countries where horses are slaughtered for food, they are processed in a similar fashion to cattle, i.e., in large-scale factory slaughter houses (abattoirs) where they are stunned with a captive bolt gun and bled to death. In countries with a less industrialized food-production system, horses and other animals are slaughtered individually outdoors as needed, in or near the village where they will be consumed.^[23]

Ten largest producers of horse meat in 2018^[24]

	Country	Number of animals	Production (tonnes)
1.	China	1,589,164	200,452
2.	Kazakhstan	718,027	126,520
3.	Mexico	634,845	83,922
4.	Mongolia	397,271	57,193
5.	Russia	250,248	45,388
6.	United States	114,841	29,275
7.	Canada	127,656	27,395
8.	Brazil	188,531	24,566
9.	Australia	86,244	24,148
10.	Kyrgyzstan	155,177	23,762
	Total	4,262,004	642,621

In 2005, the eight principal horse meat-producing countries produced over 700,000 tonnes of it. In 2005, the five biggest horse meat-consuming countries were China (421,000 tonnes), Mexico, Russia, Italy, and Kazakhstan (54,000 tonnes).^[25] In 2010, Mexico produced 140,000 tonnes, China 126,000 tonnes, and Kazakhstan 114,000 tonnes.

Use

As horses are relatively poor converters of grass and grain to meat compared to cattle,^[10] in the western countries they are not usually bred or raised specifically for their meat. Instead, horses are slaughtered when their monetary value as riding or work animals is low, but their owners can still make money selling them for horse meat, for example in the routine export of the southern English ponies from the New Forest, Exmoor, and Dartmoor.^[26][27] British law requires the use of "equine passports" even for semiferal horses to enable traceability (also known as "provenance"), so most slaughtering is done in the UK before the meat is exported,^[27] meaning that the animals travel as carcasses rather than live. Ex-racehorses, riding horses, and other horses sold at auction may also enter the food chain; sometimes, these animals have been stolen or purchased under false pretenses.^[28] Even prestigious horses may end up in the slaughterhouse; the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner and 1987 Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year winner, Ferdinand, is believed to have been slaughtered in Japan, probably for pet food.^[29]

A misconception exists that horses are commonly slaughtered for pet food.^{[citation needed]} In many countries, such as the United States, horse meat was outlawed for use in pet food in the 1970s. American horse meat is considered a delicacy in Europe and Japan, and its cost is in line with veal,^[30] so it would be prohibitively expensive in many countries for pet food.^[31]

Meat from horses that veterinarians have put down with a lethal injection is not suitable for human consumption, as the toxin remains in the meat; the carcasses of such animals are sometimes cremated (most other means of disposal are problematic, due to the toxin).^{[citation needed]} Remains of euthanized animals can be rendered, which maintains the value of the skin, bones, fats, etc., for such purposes as fish food. This is commonly done for lab specimens (e.g., pigs) euthanized by injection. The amount of drug (e.g. a barbiturate) is insignificant after rendering.^{[citation needed]}

Carcasses of horses treated with some drugs are considered edible in some jurisdictions. For example, according to Canadian regulation, hyaluron, used in treatment of particular disorders in horses, in HY-50 preparation, should not be administered to animals to be slaughtered for horse meat.^[32] In Europe, however, the same preparation is not considered to have any such effect, and edibility of the horse meat is not affected.^[33]

Attitudes towards horse meat

Horse meat is commonly eaten in many countries in Europe and Asia.^[35][36] It is not a generally available food in some English-speaking countries such as the United Kingdom, South Africa,^[37] Australia, the United States,^[38] and English Canada. It is also taboo in Brazil, Ireland, Poland and Israel and among the Romani. Horse meat is not generally eaten in Spain, except in the north, but the country exports horses both as live animals and as slaughtered meat for the French and Italian markets. Horse meat is consumed in some North American and Latin American countries, but is illegal in some others. The Food Standards Code of Australia and New Zealand definition of 'meat' does not include horse.^[39] In Tonga, horse meat is eaten nationally, and Tongan emigrants living in the United States, New Zealand, and Australia have retained a taste for it, claiming Christian missionaries originally introduced it to them.^[40]

Earlier in Islam consuming horse meat is not haram, but makruh, which means it should be avoided, but eating it is not a sin like the eating of pork, due to its other important usage. The consumption of horse meat has been common in Central Asian societies, past or present, due to the abundance of steppes suitable for raising horses. In North Africa, horse meat has been occasionally consumed, but almost exclusively by the Hanafi Sunnis;^{[citation needed]} it has never been eaten in the Maghreb.^[41]

Horse meat is forbidden by Jewish dietary laws because horses are not ruminants and do not have cloven hooves and are therefore not kosher.^[42]

In the eighth century, Popes Gregory III and Zachary instructed Saint Boniface, missionary to the Germans, to forbid the eating of horse meat to those he converted, due to its association with Germanic pagan ceremonies.^[43][4] The people of Iceland allegedly expressed reluctance to embrace Christianity for some time, largely over the issue of giving up horse meat.^[44] Horse meat is now currently consumed in Iceland, and many horses are raised for this purpose. The culturally close people of Sweden still have an ambivalent attitude to horse meat, said to stem from this^{[clarification needed]} edict.

Henry Mayhew describes the difference in the acceptability and use of the horse carcass between London and Paris in London Labour and the London Poor (1851).^[45] Horse meat was rejected by the British, but continued to be eaten in other European countries such as France and Germany, where knackers often sold horse carcasses despite the papal ban. Even the hunting of wild horses for meat continued in the area of Westphalia. Londoners also suspected that horse meat was finding its way into sausages and that offal sold as that of oxen was, in fact, equine.^{[citation needed]}

While no taboo on eating horse meat exists per se, it is generally considered by ethnic Russians to be a low-quality meat with poor taste, and it is rarely found in stores.^{[citation needed]} It is popular among such historically nomadic peoples as the Tatars, Kyrgyz, and Kazakhs.^[46]

Taboos

In 732 AD, Pope Gregory III began a concerted effort to stop the ritual consumption of horse meat in pagan practice. In some countries, the effects of this prohibition by the Catholic Church have lingered, and horse meat prejudices have progressed from taboos to avoidance to abhorrence.^[44] In a study conducted by Fred Simoons, the avoidance of horse meat in American culture is less likely due to lingering feelings from Gregory's prohibition, but instead due to an unfamiliarity with the meat compared to more mainstream offerings.^[47] In other parts of the world, horse meat has the stigma of being something poor people eat and is seen as a cheap substitute for other meats, such as pork and beef. - In any case, Pope Gregory's law is no longer in force, so there is no prohibition now for Catholics to eat horse meat (other than on abstinence days).

According to the anthropologist Marvin Harris,^{[10][page needed]} some cultures class horse meat as taboo because the horse converts grass into meat less efficiently than ruminants.

Totemistic taboo is also a possible reason for refusal to eat horse meat as an everyday food, but did not necessarily preclude ritual slaughter and consumption. Roman sources state that the goddess Epona was widely worshipped in Gaul and southern Britain. Epona, a triple-aspect goddess, was the protectress of the horse and horse keepers, and horses were sacrificed to her;^[48] she was paralleled by the Irish Macha and Welsh Rhiannon. In The White Goddess, Robert Graves argued that the taboo among Britons and their descendants was due to worship of Epona, and even earlier rites.^[49] The Uffington White Horse is probable evidence of ancient horse worship. The ancient Indian Kshatriyas engaged in horse sacrifices and horse meat consumption, one of which is Ashwamedha Yajna as recorded in the Vedas and Ramayana and Mahabharata, but in the context of the ritual sacrifice, it is not "killed", but instead smothered to death. Also Ancient Indians consumed horse meat.^[50] In 1913, the Finnic Mari people of the Volga region were observed to practice a horse sacrifice.^[50]

In ancient Scandinavia, the horse was very important, as a living, working creature, as a sign of the owner's status, and symbolically within Old Norse religion. Horses were slaughtered as a sacrifice to the gods, and the meat was eaten by the people taking part in the religious feasts.^[51] When the Nordic countries were Christianized, eating horse meat was regarded as a sign of paganism and prohibited. A reluctance to eat horse meat is common in these countries even today.^[52]

Opposition to production

The killing of horses for human consumption is widely opposed in countries such as the U.S.,^[53][17] the UK^{[54][failed verification]} and Greece where horses are generally considered to be companion and sporting animals only.^[55] In ancient Greece horses were revered and horse slaughter is forbidden by law also in modern Greece as horses are considered companions and a symbol of beauty, strength and pride. For horses going to slaughter, no period of withdrawal, the time between administration of the drug and the time they are butchered, is required. French former actress and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot has spent years crusading against the eating of horse meat.^[56] However, the opposition is far from unanimous; a 2007 readers' poll in the London magazine Time Out showed that 82% of respondents supported chef Gordon Ramsay's decision to serve horse meat in his restaurants.^[57]

Around the world

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South America

Argentina

Argentina is a producer and exporter of horse meat, but it is not used in local consumption and is considered taboo.^[58]

Chile

In Chile, it is used in charqui. Also in Chile, horse meat became the main source of nutrition for the nomadic indigenous tribes, which promptly switched from a guanaco-based economy to a horse-based one after the horses brought by the Spaniards bred naturally and became feral.

Although not nearly as common as beef meat, horse meat can be readily available in some butcheries throughout the country. It is generally less expensive than beef and somewhat associated with lower social strata.

Uruguay

In Uruguay horses are appreciated for their companionship and horse meat shouldn't be consumed, as it constitutes a taboo that dates back from Spaniard ancestry at colony times. There's a saying that preaches: a lomo de caballo criollo se hizo la patria (on criollo horse back the nation was made). However the country produces horse meat to be exported to France and China. Also a common belief is that horse meat is locally used to make salami. Slaughtering horses are fierce untamed colts.

North America

Canada

A small horse meat business exists in Quebec.^[59] Horse meat is also for sale in Granville Island Market in Vancouver, where according to a Time reviewer who smuggled it into the United States, it turned out to be a "sweet, rich, superlean, oddly soft meat, closer to beef than venison".^[17] Horse meat is also available in high-end Toronto butchers and supermarkets. CBC News reported on March 10, 2013, that horse meat was also popular among some segments of Toronto's population.^[60]

Despite this, most of Canada shares the horse meat taboo with the rest of the English-speaking world.

This mentality is especially evident in Alberta, where strong horse racing and breeding industries and cultures have existed since the province's founding, although large numbers of horses are slaughtered for meat in Fort MacLeod,^[61] and certain butchers in Calgary do sell it.

In 2013, the consumer protection show Kassensturz of Swiss television SRF reported the poor animal conditions at Bouvry Exports, a Canadian horse meat farm in Fort MacLeod, Alberta.^[62] Migros, the primary importer of horse meat into Switzerland, started working with Bouvry to improve their animal welfare, but in 2015 Migros cut ties with Bouvry because though improvements had been made, they had not improved sufficiently. Migros had "set itself the ambitious goal of bringing all suppliers abroad up to the strict Swiss standards by 2020".^[63]

Mexico

As of 2005^[update], Mexico was the second-largest producer of horse meat in the world.^[64] By 2009, it became the largest producer of horse meat in the world.^[65] It is only exported as it is not used or consumed in Mexico.^[66]

United States

Horse meat is generally not eaten in the United States, and is banned in many states in the country. It holds a taboo in American culture very similar to the one found in the United Kingdom.^[67] All horse meat produced in the United States since the 1960s (until the last quarter of 2007) was intended solely for export abroad, primarily to the European Union. However, a thriving horse exportation business is going on in several states, including Texas, primarily exporting horses to slaughterhouses in either Canada or Mexico.^[68]

Restriction of human consumption of horse meat in the U.S. has involved legislation at local, state, and federal levels. Several states have enacted legislation either prohibiting the sale of horse meat or banning altogether the slaughter of horses.

California outlawed in 1998 via ballot proposition the possession, transfer, reception, or holding any horse, pony, burro, or mule by a person who is aware that it will be used for human consumption, and making the slaughter of horses or the sale of horse meat for human consumption a misdemeanor offense.^[69]

In 2007, the Illinois General Assembly enacted Public Act 95-02, amending Chapter 225, Section 635 of the state's compiled statutes^[70] to prohibit both the act of slaughtering equines for human consumption and the trade of any horse meat similarly to Texas Agriculture Code's Chapter 149.

Other states banning horse slaughter or the sale of horse meat include New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Mississippi. In addition, several other states introduced legislation to outlaw the practice over the years, such as Florida, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and New York.

At the federal level, since 2001, several bills have been regularly introduced in both the House and Senate to ban horse slaughter throughout the country without success. However, a budgetary provision banning the use of federal funds to carry out mandatory inspections at horse slaughter plants (necessary to allow interstate sale and exports of horse meat) has also been in place since 2007. This restriction was temporarily removed in 2011 as part of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2012^[71] but was again included in the FY2014 Agriculture Appropriations Act and subsequent federal budgets, hence preventing the operation of any domestic horse slaughter operation.

Until 2007, only three horse meat slaughterhouses still existed in the United States for export to foreign markets, but they were closed by court orders resulting from the upholding of aforementioned Illinois and Texas statutes banning horse slaughter and the sale of horse meat.

The taboo surrounding horse meat in the United States received national attention again in May 2017 when a restaurant in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh served a dish containing horse tartare as part of a special event the restaurant was hosting with French Canadian chefs as guests. The restaurant, which otherwise does not serve horse meat (which is legal to serve and consume in Pennsylvania), received an inspection and a warning from the USDA not to serve horse meat again. A Change.org petition subsequently went up to advocate making serving horse meat illegal in Pennsylvania.^[72]

From the 1920s and through the 1950s or 1960s, with a brief lapse during World War II, horse meat was canned and sold as dog food by many companies under many brands, most notably Ken-L Ration. Horse meat as dog food became so popular that by the 1930s, over 50,000 horses were bred and slaughtered each year to keep up with this specific demand.^{[73][74][75][76][77][78]}

Europe

Austria