I'm a liberal pagan living in West, Texas. Yes. That West, Texas.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

KENTUCKY DERBY WINNER FOR DINNER????

I wasen't going to post about horses going to slaughter cause it freaks out NIT WIT and LEO, but after seeing that beautiful horse break his foot in the Preakness, I thought it might be a good idea after all.Twenty years ago jockey Bill Shoemaker rode Ferdinand to win the Kentucky Derby and then he also went on to win the 1987 Breeder's Cup Classic. Ferdernand also was named older male of the year.Four years ago Ferdinand ended up in Japan slaughtered for food. The horse wasn't sick, he was just unsuccessful as a stud.I hate to say anything good about a Republican but in this case I will. Ed Whitfield a Republican congressman from Kentucky has been trying to close down and halt all the slaughtering of horses just to satisfy Asian and European palates. Last fall it looked like he had got a ban on slaughtering horses in this country.A practice that shouldn't even exist as we don't eat horses and other than money there is no reason why we should be supplying those who do.But due to some slick lawyers, duplicitous organizations such as the American Quarter Horse Association and a few who-gives-a-shit elected officials, especially in Texas, there are three horse butchering companies operating legally in the United States. Two of them are in Dallas-Fort Worth's backyard..Dallas Crown in Kaufman and Beltex in Fort Worth. It looked like they were going to be put out of business when Congress cut off funding for U.S. Agriculture Department inspections of the plants.Without inspections they wouldn't be allowed to produce.But the plants said they would pay for the inspections and the USDA said that would be ok, and a federal court agreed in March.
It is estimated that more than 91,000 horses were slaughtered last year in those three slaughtering plants, all of which are owned by foreigners that eat horses. There is no more than a guess as to how many were racehorses, but some who are fighting the plants have suggested as much as 10 percent of the total killed were once enteretaining track-goers and bettors.
Another star of the track we know of? The only horse ever to beat two Triple Crown winners, Exceller in 1978, was chopped up in Sweden in 1997.
So like I said, I wasn't going to mention it until I saw what happened to Barbaro during the Preakness. Lucky for him he is interested in the fillies and maybe he won't end up on some French assholes plate served with a wine sauce.It could still turn out bad for him, as he may like the fillies, but if he doesn't produce some good colts, he could end up in one of those plants too. Other than writing your congressmen, representatives, Senators,and the Governor, I don't know what we can do..Maybe go there and burn the fucker to the ground..if some Frenchmen accidentally get turned into crispy critters? Well, we can serve him on a plate instead of horsie...

14 comments:

BriteYellowGun said...

I don't know...Just because we don't eat horses in this country doesn't make it "wrong" to eat them. We always want to force our beliefs on the rest of the world and we have no right to do so. In China, if it walks, crawls, flies, swims or grows they eat it. There's over a billion people that want food in their stomachs so they'll eat just about anything. Is a horse really any different than a cow or a chicken or even a cute cuddly rabbit? Sure, they are more physically attractive to us but what it boils down to in the long run is that there are hungry people out there that just see it as food.

Cassandra said...

I've lost my craving for a cheeseburger.
But Mr. BYG has a point. Some people think eating cows is horribly wrong because they consider them to be sacred. Some don't eat pigs. I won't eat snails. That just grosses me out. But there are cultural differences in what people consider acceptable to eat.
I liked to eat sand as a kid. Yum!

yellowdoggranny said...

think you are missing the main objection i have about the slaughter houses for horses...they were build and ran by people from foreign coutries so they can slaughter american horses to ship to their country and others who eat ..and 10 percent of the horses being slaughtered are throughbred race horses that cant race or fuck any more...so are sold to these places to be killed and eaten...im just saying i dont think it is exceptable for them to come here and open up a business that takes our horses and kills them for profit so some asshole in anothe courntry can eat them...i dont give a shit about people in india that don't eat cows cause they are scacred..i give a shit that they come here and do to our animals that they cant do in their own country...and a horse than is a champion deserves a better fate than to be eated by some fucking frenchman, japanese, or swede..or chinese or who the fuck ever...

Nancy said...

I just posted a story about my great grand dad being murdered for three of his horses. He was also 1/2 French and never ate horses.

Willie Nelson's The Red Headed Stranger...he shot a woman for trying to steal his horse.

I get your point JackieSue and I agree with you.

zero said...

so wait... they ate the horse?

Cassandra said...

Ahh... I see...

apositivepessimist said...

hmmm i wonder if the horses dick is considered a potent delicacy.

i am very happy that i don't live in france, japan, sweden or china.

Donna said...

That's just wrong. I mean do they have companies that slaughter cats and dogs (because there ARE people overseas that have a taste for it) to sell to people overseas as a meal? I think back in the day horses were used mainly as a tool for transportation..such as a forklift, or an elevator, plane, trains, and automobiles.. But now horses are more as pets, as well as work items. This practice should not be happening at all.

Anonymous said...

I heard about this and was sick then and still sick now just hearing about it. It should be stopped somehow.

apositivepessimist said...

hmmm didn't ed bacchus play lovie's husband on gilligans island.


oh wait. no. it was jim. and the surname is probably spelt different.

you ain't shitting me js...probably why i would want the basement as well.

Nancy said...

When I did child care I had a Dad that was Ojibwa from the Fond da lac tribe and he would always tease me about eating dog meat. Seems the Lakota like dog. To get him back I would say at least I don't wear a rabbit choker.

BriteYellowGun said...

I guess what it really boils down to is that if there is money to be made by slaughtering horses for food, then you better believe somebody is going to do it.

Pixie said...

When I was in France I didnt see any horse for sale (well I dont think I did ) but their meat is compleatley different then the US or the UK's. They had the live snails for sale on the deli counter, and they had skinned rabbits in the meat dept but the worst thing was the chicken, they sell it plucked and packaged but it still has its neck and head (unplucked) and its feet!!!

As others have said though different cultures eat different things, like Veal is frowned upon in the UK because of the contraversial methods used to raise veal calfs, but here I see it around quite often.

Another nasty custom is the way Koreans kill the dogs they eat. The think that if the animal is beaten to death in a sack that the meat is more tender.Poor thing!

Unknown said...

I left a comment but blogger ate it!
It was smart and witty but I'm too timed to redo it. I just don't think I could eat my friend Flicka.