# Help me understand the horse meat drama **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 25, 2013, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-horse-meat-drama/651340 "2013-02-25T12:21:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-horse-meat-drama/651340/41 "2013-02-26T07:28:55Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Well, there’s another issue. If they are sneaking it in, that means the meat may not be properly inspected. Exactly, but the outrage (such as there is one) is not about the specific outcome that we have been eating scabby horse, it’s about the unknown outcomes that the loss of control must have permitted. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-horse-meat-drama/651340/42 "2013-02-26T09:17:35Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Part of it is that horses, especially in the US and other countries, can be given a whole ton of different drugs that are **not approved** for use in meat intended for human consumption. > > The other part is that once you get meat that isn’t what it says it is, that means somewhere along the chain of handling, something went very very wrong. That should lead you to question the safety, quality, and indeed, the species of meat that you’re eating. Also, labeling issues. Food corps have a history of being resistant to useful labeling, such as all their lobbying against having to declare whether their food product is GMO or not. Sometimes food corps want to [add things to your food on purpose](http://www.thelibertybeacon.com/2013/02/23/aspartame-in-milk-without-a-label-big-dairy-petitions-fda-for-approval/), [without having to tell you](https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/02/20/2013-03835/flavored-milk-petition-to-amend-the-standard-of-identity-for-milk-and-17-additional-dairy-products). If your beef isn’t entirely beef, what else are they (purposely) not telling you? ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-horse-meat-drama/651340/43 "2013-02-26T10:02:03Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > As I understand it, it’s got a lot to do with a suplus of horses in Romania where they changed traffic laws, rendering horses useless/worthless - Do you have a cite for this? I’m wondering because, as I said in the other thread, Romania has very recently finished their very first motorway. At first there was indeed no law against taking a pony and trap onto the motorway (AFAIK, or people just did it any way). This wasn’t much of a problem until recently, because the motorway wasn’t finished, but now you want to drive at a decent speed on that stretch. So a law against horses on the motorway makes sense. You also sometimes see signs on specific roads indicating no horse and cart/no tractor; I think that’s just because it’s a bad road. But I have some doubts that this has left enough surplus horses to supply Ikea with meat balls. I don’t think people would get rid of their horses en masse: you’re just not allowed to take them onto the motorway anymore. There are still plenty of uses for a horse, especially in Romania. Surely not all European meat has been contaminated with dodgy Romanian horse just because they can’t go on the motorway anymore? It’s got to be bigger than that, considering the amounts. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-horse-meat-drama/651340/44 "2013-02-26T10:49:39Z")
I’m pretty sure Europe gets North American horse. Right now we export horses to Mexico and Canada for slaughter and from there it makes its way to Europe. I don’t know all the details about that. Obama signed a bill authorizing the inspection of horse meat so horse processing plants can reopen. There are some restaurants that want to serve horse, and there is some demand in certain immigrant communities. We Americans might have to get used to seeing it more often. It seemed the Humane Society’s plan backfired. They didn’t want horses slaughtered so they got a rider taking away money for inspections of horse meat. No inspections, no horse processing. Horses were then shipped to Mexico & Canada and I guess the horses were treated inhumanely enough by our standards it’s better to allow horse slaughter in the US again. Something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-horse-meat-drama/651340/45 "2013-02-26T12:53:44Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > Do you have a cite for this? I’m wondering because, as I said in the other thread, Romania has very recently finished their very first motorway. At first there was indeed no law against taking a pony and trap onto the motorway (AFAIK, or people just did it any way). This wasn’t much of a problem until recently, because the motorway wasn’t finished, but now you want to drive at a decent speed on that stretch. So a law against horses on the motorway makes sense. You also sometimes see signs on specific roads indicating no horse and cart/no tractor; I think that’s just because it’s a bad road. No cite - only what I’ve heard repeated in the news etc (which strongly concurs with the above) ---
**Author:** ![solosam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@solosam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solosam)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-horse-meat-drama/651340/46 "2013-02-26T13:41:18Z")
> [@SmellMyWort](#): > > Cows and pigs are cute, and also damn tasty. Your post sounds like militant PETA crap. LOL, I am the most anti-PETA person in the world. My point was that if you are going to be a vegan, or join PETA, you should at least apply the argument consistently instead of picking and choosing which animal you care about. But I’m not. I think they’re all good eatin’s. I understand the arguments about the contaminated and unsupervised food supply much more than I understand the “ick factor” argument. ---
**Author:** ![solosam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@solosam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solosam)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-horse-meat-drama/651340/47 "2013-02-26T13:44:41Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > I agree with **Alessan** about food taboos. And there isn’t any dolphin or sea turtle in anyone’s tuna. The concern about dolphins and sea turtles is that they get caught in tuna nets and get injured or die, not that they get processed and included in the tins. They are killed and then wasted. Devil’s Advocate here: If our food supply can mix horses in with the cows, how do you know there is no dolphin mixed in your tuna? _DUN DUN DUUUUUNNNN!_ ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-horse-meat-drama/651340/48 "2013-02-26T13:55:22Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > The “Oh, eating horse is no big deal” argument misses the point entirely; it could have been chicken or pork or duck and you’d still have the same safety problem, not to mention the problem of being cheated. If I pay for beef, I want beef; not horse, not chicken, just beef. On the Straight Dope, perhaps. In the world at large, a huge portion of this has to do with the ick factor. Exhibit A: > [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Here’s a somewhat similar American problem - and who knows, it’s probably happening elsewhere too - [widespread substitutions of more expensive fish](http://oceana.org/en/news-media/publications/reports/oceana-study-reveals-seafood-fraud-nationwide) in sushi restaurants and (to a lesser extent) grocery stores. You could be getting something too high in mercury (if you’re a pregnant woman), too endangered for your liking (if you’re trying to eat sustainably), something that gives you serious digestive issues, or just way overpriced for the cheap piece of fish it actually is. For instance, only 7 of the 120 samples of red snapper that they DNA-tested were the real thing. …and no one’s freaking out about it. There have been a couple of news reports about it, and there’s industry and food safety concerns and calls for changing labeling procedures, but there’s no widespread outcry and no one’s pulling fish off the shelf until it can be properly labeled. And Exhibit B: > [@DSeid](#): > > Not sure if that is what pisses people off though – just think about the “pink slime” debacle. The stuff was fine protein too, collagen mostly, and _was_ beef. But many got very upset because it was not what they thought they were buying (even though some us love our collagen in other forms). And people widely lost their shit when they found out that their beef was contaminated with…more beef. This is 10% concern over food safety, and 90% emotional food taboo outrage. In the US, emotional \*recreational \*outrage, since the horsemeat hasn’t been found here. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-horse-meat-drama/651340/49 "2013-02-26T14:01:27Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > On the Straight Dope, perhaps. In the world at large, a huge portion of this has to do with the ick factor. Exhibit A: > …and no one’s freaking out about it. There have been a couple of news reports about it, and there’s industry and food safety concerns and calls for changing labeling procedures, but there’s no widespread outcry and no one’s pulling fish off the shelf until it can be properly labeled. I know, right?! I’m a (non-proselytizing) **vegetarian** and I’m way more pissed off and concerned about the mislabeling of fish than most people I know, even though I’m not eating it. People go apeshit over their kids eating “pink slime”-containing burgers in school cafeterias but aren’t saying boo over maybe having given them (or eaten while pregnant) higher-mercury fish to eat. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-horse-meat-drama/651340/50 "2013-02-26T15:44:35Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > On the Straight Dope, perhaps. In the world at large, a huge portion of this has to do with the ick factor. Exhibit A: > > > [@](#): > > > > Here’s a somewhat similar American problem - and who knows, it’s probably happening elsewhere too - widespread substitutions of more expensive fish in sushi restaurants and (to a lesser extent) grocery stores. You could be getting something too high in mercury (if you’re a pregnant woman), too endangered for your liking (if you’re trying to eat sustainably), something that gives you serious digestive issues, or just way overpriced for the cheap piece of fish it actually is. For instance, only 7 of the 120 samples of red snapper that they DNA-tested were the real thing. > > …and no one’s freaking out about it. There have been a couple of news reports about it, and there’s industry and food safety concerns and calls for changing labeling procedures, but there’s no widespread outcry and no one’s pulling fish off the shelf until it can be properly labeled. Thing is, that’s an American example you are quoting, but this isn’t an American issue. The question is are the Europeans freaking out because its horse meat, or for the safety reasons? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-horse-meat-drama/651340/51 "2013-02-26T15:49:08Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Thing is, that’s an American example you are quoting, but this isn’t an American issue. The question is are the Europeans freaking out because its horse meat, or for the safety reasons? The safety. Nobody I’ve spoken to is freaking out because we ate a different species from the one we expected. It’s done anyway. The supermarkets are freaking out a bit because it looks bad. The media _wants everyone_ to be freaking out, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they cherrypick some VoxPops from a few people who perhaps are freaking out. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-horse-meat-drama/651340/52 "2013-02-26T16:22:36Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > I agree with **Alessan** about food taboos. And there isn’t any dolphin or sea turtle in anyone’s tuna. The concern about dolphins and sea turtles is that they get caught in tuna nets and get injured or die, not that they get processed and included in the tins. They are killed and then wasted. > [@Yllaria](#): > > I agree with **Alessan** about food taboos. And there isn’t any dolphin or sea turtle in anyone’s tuna. The concern about dolphins and sea turtles is that they get caught in tuna nets and get injured or die, not that they get processed and included in the tins. They are killed and then wasted. 😕 How did you double post \*twelve \*hours apart!? ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-horse-meat-drama/651340/53 "2013-02-26T22:33:14Z")
I want anything labeled “beef” to be beef. I don’t want to eat meat from a horse not raised for slaughter. I don’t want to eat meat from a cow or pig not raised for slaughter. I don’t want to eat meat from Enos Slaughter either. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-the-horse-meat-drama/651340.md?page=2)