# So why don't we Yanks eat horses? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 30, 2009, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222 "2009-08-30T02:05:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/41 "2009-08-31T00:10:47Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Oh, that would make it so much easier! > > ‘Good evening. I am the main Dish of the Day. May I interest you in the parts of my body? May I urge you to consider my liver? It must be very rich and tender by now, I’ve been force-feeding myself for months. > > 'It was eventually decided to breed an animal that actually wanted to be eaten and was capable of saying so clearly and distinctly. And here I am.’ There’s a scene just like that in the four book Trilogy: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The heros are in Milliway’s (aka the Restaurant at the End of the Universe), and they (as the book states) “meet the meat”. A cow comes out to take their order offering its various body parts for dinner, then goes outside and shoots itself. It’s one of my favorite scenes. One of the arguments that ensues is whether it is worse to eat a sentient animal that knows what is about to happen, but is willing, or a non-sentient animal that has no idea what is about to happen and maybe if it did, might object. ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/42 "2009-08-31T00:22:51Z")
> [@sweetie pea](#): > > Not that I particularly want to, but the thread discussing the fate of battlefield horses got me to wondering about the issue. I vaguely recall hearing once that Americans find the idea repugnant because of the strong association we make between horses and the winning of the west. This would sort of imply that eating horsemeat is unpatriotic, but up until about the 1970’s, we were still feeding it to our dogs. It’s probably all about culture and what your culture was willing to chow down. In the East, they eat dogs. Many places eat insects which are really quite nutritious. Then you have the Jews and Moslems who’d think we’re barbaric for eating pork. And, the Hindus who’d be repulsed by our debate about what dead animal flesh we should and shouldn’t partake in. Why are we so abhorrent about eating horse meat in the west? Probably because it was never done. Horses were too valuable, and we already had cows on the hoof, so we didn’t need another big domestic animal to eat. Why the French seem to be able to eat horses while we Anglos find the idea abhorrent? I don’t know. Then again, the French are the same people who went out to the garden to find something to cover with garlic and butter and came back home with a bunch of snails. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/43 "2009-08-31T01:38:36Z")
Well one reason horses aren’t eaten in the U.S. is that the meat would have to be imported. There are currently no slaughter houses in the U.S. that will process horse meat. From a April 2009 news article at the link below. [http://www.2news.tv/news/local/42998877.html](http://www.2news.tv/news/local/42998877.html) “Opposition to killing horses for food has shut down horse slaughterhouses in the United States. The last domestic slaughterhouse closed two years ago and some U.S. horses are now being sent to slaughter in Canada and Mexico.” ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/44 "2009-08-31T04:31:19Z")
Americans also rarely eat sheep (as opposed to lamb) or goat. It’s just a cultural thing. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/45 "2009-08-31T04:48:43Z")
> [@qazwart](#): > > Probably because it was never done. Horses were too valuable, and we already had cows on the hoof, so we didn’t need another big domestic animal to eat. This is simply not true. There is a wealth of archaeological and literary evidence showing that in ancient and early medieval times, horse was eaten. We stopped. The French started again. Some areas never stopped, some areas never started. ---
**Author:** ![Jerseyman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Jerseyman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jerseyman)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/46 "2009-08-31T04:51:30Z")
In ancient and medieval times there weren’t any ‘Americans’ to eat anything or any horses until the Spaniards brought them. And at first, until the natives saw how whites could train them, eating horses was all they could think to do with them. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/47 "2009-08-31T05:09:35Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > This is simply not true. There is a wealth of archaeological and literary evidence showing that in ancient and early medieval times, horse was eaten. We stopped. The French started again. Some areas never stopped, some areas never started. But he’s right. Horses were rarely raised and slaughtered for their meat. For meat, sheep, goat and cattle are better choices. Now sure, when your horse could not be used for farm work or riding anymore, in the past you ate it. (Waste not, want not) But like I said, horses are rarely used for work in the USA anymore. They are pets, not farm animals. **qazwart** “Then you have the Jews and Moslems who’d think we’re barbaric for eating pork.” Of the Jews I know, none have a problem with gentiles eating pork. In general, Jews _hope_ that all follow the Noahide Laws: (wiki)"\*The seven laws listed by the Tosefta and the Talmud are[3] 1. Prohibition of Idolatry: You shall not have any idols before God. 2. Prohibition of Murder: You shall not murder. (Genesis 9:6) 3. Prohibition of Theft: You shall not steal. 4. Prohibition of Sexual Promiscuity: You shall not commit any of a series of sexual prohibitions, which include adultery, incest, bestiality and male homosexual intercourse. 5. Prohibition of Blasphemy: You shall not blaspheme God’s name. 6. Dietary Law: Do not eat flesh taken from an animal while it is still alive. (Genesis 9:4) 7. Requirement to have just Laws: You shall set up an effective judiciary to enforce the preceding six laws fairly."\* They do not expect Gentiles to keep Kosher. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/48 "2009-08-31T05:13:04Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > But he’s right. Horses were rarely raised and slaughtered for their meat. Agreed, but I think “why don’t people eat horses” is a very different question from “why don’t people raise horses primarily as a food animal.” As far as I know, the primary use for horses has always been as a work animal, at least in historic times. ---
**Author:** ![Yeah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/dbc845/32.png) [@Yeah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeah)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/49 "2009-08-31T05:28:44Z")
> [@scm1001](#): > > if you are going to eat horse make sure it is well cooked. Hundreds of people in france have caught trichinosis over the years through uncooked horse. However, in general horse is probably less disease ridden than most domesticated meat we eat. I, personally, would not worry about cooking horseflesh well in France. Here is the editorial note from a CDC MMWR report of trichinosis in humans from the ingestion of horsemeat. "Editorial Note: Horsemeat has rarely been implicated as a source of trichinosis. The first reported outbreaks due to this meat source occurred in Italy in 1975 (1) and in France in 1976 (2). In both instances, the infected horsemeat had been imported from Eastern Europe. How horses become infected with trichinosis is unknown. Horses are commonly observed to be herbivorous; however, experimental studies prompted by the outbreak in Italy indicate that horses will ingest meat placed in their feed and will become infected with trichinosis when fed infective larvae (3). The unusually large numbers of cases involved in the two 1985 outbreaks are related to the size of the implicated animal species (the carcass of the horse associated with outbreak 1 was 278 kg) and the preference among French consumers for raw or lightly cooked horsemeat, prepared as steaks, in soups, or ground (“steak tartare”). At the time of the second outbreak, the French Ministry of Agriculture temporarily banned importation of horsemeat from all countries and will currently accept it only if certified trichinae-free by an approved inspection procedure. “Little is known about Trichinella infection in horses in the United States, but it is assumed to be extremely rare. Between late October and December 31, 1985, samples from 20,000 horses killed in the United States were examined for Trichinella, with negative results. Trichinosis in horses in the United States would presumably represent an unlikely public health hazard because few citizens eat horsemeat, and those who do probably cook it. Since 1975, 30 to 289 U.S. trichinosis cases have been reported per year, approximately 80% of which were associated with the ingestion of pork (4).” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Philosopher)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/50 "2009-08-31T12:29:56Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I guess by “time immemorial” I really just meant “since the Middle Ages.” I guess I used the wrong term. > > I will be visiting England and France in March of next year and I do intend to try horse. You won’t be able to find it in England; there’s just as strong a taboo against it here as there is in the US. For that reason I doubt the taboo against it in America is to do with the “winning of the west”. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/51 "2009-08-31T12:46:59Z")
I never said I expected to find it in England. I expect to find it in France. I read that they have butcher shops that only serve horse. ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/52 "2009-08-31T16:35:58Z")
> [@qazwart](#): > > There’s a scene just like that in the four book Trilogy: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. \It’s not “just like that,” it’s just that. The quote comes directly from that book, and like your feeling on it, it’s among my favorite scenes in all of the books. It’s the second book, by the way. They go directly from the “factory planet” to Milliways, as it’s the “closest restaurant,” but it’s a few billion years in the future, being built in the same location. \ As for horse meat, I’d try it, but I can’t believe the economics of raising horse meat would compare favorable to that of more traditional food animals like sheep/goats/beef/chicken. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/53 "2009-08-31T17:37:11Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I never said I expected to find it in England. I expect to find it in France. I read that they have butcher shops that only serve horse. They do, but only because (wiki) _“In France, specialized butcher shops (boucheries chevalines) sell horse meat, as ordinary butcher shops have been for a long time forbidden to deal in it.”_ The top producers are China, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Argentina, Italy, Brazil, & Kyrgyzstan. > **[Horse meat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsemeat)** > > Horse meat forms a significant part of the culinary traditions of many countries, particularly in Europe and Asia. The eight countries that consume the most horse meat consume the meat from about 4.3 million horses a year. For the majority of humanity's early existence, wild horses were hunted as a source of protein. > Archaic humans hunted wild horses for hundreds of thousands of years following their first arrival in Eurasia. Examples of sites demonstrating horse butchery by archaic humans inc... ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/54 "2009-08-31T17:38:51Z")
> [@butler1850](#): > > As for horse meat, I’d try it, but I can’t believe the economics of raising horse meat would compare favorable to that of more traditional food animals like sheep/goats/beef/chicken. Right: “_As horses are relatively poor converters of grass and grain to flesh compared to cattle[5], they are not usually bred or raised specifically for their meat. Instead, horses are slaughtered when their other value as riding or work animals is low…_” ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/55 "2009-08-31T17:40:40Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Isn’t horse meat supposed to be really gross? Smoked horse tastes just fine on a sandwich. ---
**Author:** ![xnylder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbce88/32.png) [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/56 "2009-08-31T18:20:47Z")
RE Specialized horsemeat butchers: Not surprisingly, Quebec has them. Here’s a [few](http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&source=hp&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=boucherie+chevaline+montreal&fb=1&split=1&gl=ca&view=text&ei=7hKcSoumCKrunQeK07yWCA&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=more-results&resnum=1#)in the Montreal area. Search for “boucherie chevaline” if you want to find more. Some larger grocery stores here do stock horse, though most often as ground meat. IMHO, with a good taste and texture at half the price of beef, what’s not to like? ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/57 "2009-08-31T20:36:39Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > You would not believe the thoughts expressed when I used to take in stewed heart for lunch … a few hispanics born out of the country were not bothered but everybody else was horrified. All it was was either pork or duck heart depending on what I managed to score in the grocery. When they brought in tripe, the anglos still had hissy fits at being subjected to organ meats…they would probably have shit bricks and bitched to HR if I had the temerity to bring in horse… Organ meats have the same stigma as horse meat in the US- poor people’s food. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/58 "2009-08-31T20:43:53Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > Organ meats have the same stigma as horse meat in the US- poor people’s food. I can’t be sure about the US, but in Britain, organ meat like kidney (steak and kidney pie) and (beef) liver are fairly common, and both can be had in your garden variety decent pub/restaurant, but horse meat is pretty much taboo. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/59 "2009-08-31T20:49:06Z")
What would we have made glue from? Horses just weren’t popular food unless there was a need. In the Revolutionary War, troops sometimes killed and ate horses. Lewis and Clark killed dogs they brought with them for meat (they stayed fresh until it was time to eat them, and carried themselves). If times got bad, people would have eaten horses. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222/60 "2009-08-31T20:54:14Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > I can’t be sure about the US, but in Britain, organ meat like kidney (steak and kidney pie) and (beef) liver are fairly common, and both can be had in your garden variety decent pub/restaurant, but horse meat is pretty much taboo. The idea of steak and kidney pie grosses out a lot of us Yanks. Liver is up there with Brussels sprouts as a food very few of us like. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-dont-we-yanks-eat-horses/508222.md?page=4)