Yeah. I’m asking the OP.
Some fish are bred as companions/pets. Goldfish are a form of carp. Lots of people eat carp. Should they not?
Next thing someone will come along and say they have a soul.
I just don’t get the irrational point of view about the “relationship” we have with certain animals. Horses are beautiful animals so it’s wrong to eat them. It’s icky to eat a cat so we shouldn’t allow it. I happen to think eating a squid is pretty gross, but I think it should be perfectly legal.
Horses, cats, dogs, rats, bats, etc.. As long as an animal is not endangered and the breeding/slaughtering is done humanely I see no reason why there should be any prohibition in this country against their meat being commercially available.
Au contraire. So, by your logic, people shouldn’t eat cows, either.
Yeah, it’s got quite a strong taste, but it’s actually quite nice. Same with whale meat.
Read the post your replying to before you reply:
PM me and I’ll send you some, if you like.
BTW, I’ve never noticed a lot of horse people being vegetarians. Maybe there are, but the normal hot dog/hamburger stands at shows do a pretty good business.
The word you are looking for is “sentient”.
As for horses and smarts, pigs are almost certainly smarter than horses. In the West, we are just not used to seeing them as food items (although maybe more so in Europe). It’s purely an “ick” factor thing.
I’ve had horse sashimi in Japan. I wasn’t crazy about it, but I wasn’t opposed to eating it.
Dontcha mean “Cow contraire”? 
Wikipedia addresses some of these issues in their horse meat article. The stuff is taboo in the US, but not in France or Japan. It is no longer put in dog food, partly because it fetches a better price abroad, mostly because the practice was banned in the US during the 1970s. Horse meat - Wikipedia
The NYT article argued that slaughterhouses put a floor on the price of horses. If they still existed in the US, horses wouldn’t be so difficult to sell. So while the economy has played a role, so has the slaughterhouse ban.
Really Not All That Bright: I’d like to reflect more on the dog issue.
No, it isn’t. We’re not in a Star Trek novel.
Sentient means able to perceive or feel things; it applies pretty much to all mammals. Sapient means capable of acting with thought or judgment.
And I don’t deny that pigs are sapient, by the way. They’re at least as smart as dogs.
So? Plenty of people in this world eat dogs too. Are you intimating that dogs have, for lack of a better concept, “personality” and as such we shouldn’t eat them? Personally, my cats have plenty of personality, and absolutely are on the same plane as any dog. Rabbit owners would probably say the same thing of their bun pets.
You may not like cats, and that’s fine. I just think it’s likely that any biases we have as to what is and is not a meat animal are bound up in culture instead of anything else. When an idea violates those biases, we cover up our recoil by hiding it behind misguided notions of what constitutes intelligence or sapience in animals that really don’t make any sense.
I’m not interested in eating cat, or dog, or horse either, but I think **pkbites **and **Ascenray **have the right of it.
OK, then you’re wrong.
About what? Are you denying that there are non-human animals that can act with thought, or something else?
I’m not saying that dolphins, pigs, dogs, chimps, or horses have HUMAN intellect.
I’ve got some in my kitchen cabinet, which is located in New York City. But then I live with a Newfoundlander, who is my source for all things Canadian.
Sapient means being wise, not simply being able to act with thought. It would be anthropomorphizing to say a non-human animal is “wise”.
Is the beef lobby at all active about keeping horsemeat out of the food system?
At least here in the midwest, they’re pretty good at keeping prices high and retail shelving at a minimum for lamb, veal, and other meats that compete with beef and pork.
Equines also might pose some competition to bovines in the leather industry. Both horsehide and cowhide are tough and serviceable garment leathers, but horsehide has the edge in elegance and prestige.
I’ve had horse. Prefer cow or pig.
Due to my status as an immigrant to Canada and the Rock, and as I am also married to a Newfoundlander, I am required to ask where she or he is from.
What is The Rock, Vancouver Island? I’m assuming because it’s an island and Vancouver is the very model of Soviet Canuckistan-ishness, though I prefer Victoria.