# why horsemeat hoax in Europe **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 11, 2013, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-horsemeat-hoax-in-europe/649975 "2013-02-11T15:02:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![guesswhoiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e274bd/32.png) [@guesswhoiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guesswhoiam)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-horsemeat-hoax-in-europe/649975/1 "2013-02-11T15:02:46Z")
What motivation does the perpetrators have to use horsemeat instead of beef? Aren’t horses more expensive than cows? ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-horsemeat-hoax-in-europe/649975/2 "2013-02-11T15:16:32Z")
Horse meat farmed for human consumption is more expensive than beef raised the same way. There are however loads of old nags floating around - ex-racehorses, working horses, even wild horses - that are not intended for the human food chain. Those are inexpensive in comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-horsemeat-hoax-in-europe/649975/3 "2013-02-11T15:28:49Z")
Apparently a lot of it is donkey rather than horse. There are loads of knackered old working donkeys in Europe, easy to see how they might be sold into the food chain. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-horsemeat-hoax-in-europe/649975/4 "2013-02-11T15:35:45Z")
Moves within Romania to change road traffic has resulted in a large number of surplus animals coming up - That law was passed 6 years ago but it is only recently that it has been enforced with even the slightest vigour, it could also mean that such material has been in the human food chain for much longer than previously thought. This then raises the question of why it has not been picked up sooner ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-horsemeat-hoax-in-europe/649975/5 "2013-02-11T15:39:31Z")
There are a lot of excess horses in the U.S., especially with the economy being so poor in many areas. “horses” are expensive to own and keep properly. They arent expensive to buy and slaughter. not expensive at all. Don’t care if it’s old, sick, lame, aggressive, bucks, rears, etc? $200 and it’s yours. Meat yield is around 600 pounds. The buyer doubled his money at $1/lb. When was the last time you could buy beef of any quality for under $1/lb? The average price for lean ground beef in the U.S. is $4 as of dec., 2012 I can only Imagine the profit motive would be 1000 times greater in a chronically poor country like Rumania with weak government oversight. ---
**Author:** ![busterpickle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@busterpickle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/busterpickle)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-horsemeat-hoax-in-europe/649975/6 "2013-02-11T16:14:23Z")
> [@](#): > > There are a lot of excess horses in the U.S., especially with the economy being so poor in many areas. “horses” are expensive to own and keep properly. They arent expensive to buy and slaughter. not expensive at all. Don’t care if it’s old, sick, lame, aggressive, bucks, rears, etc? $200 and it’s yours. Meat yield is around 600 pounds. The buyer doubled his money at $1/lb. When was the last time you could buy beef of any quality for under $1/lb? The average price for lean ground beef in the U.S. is $4 as of dec., 2012 > > I can only Imagine the profit motive would be 1000 times greater in a chronically poor country like Rumania with weak government oversight. $200 for the horse prior to rendering, or, after? That would explain the difference in $1/lb for horse and $4/lb for cow. The cow is grown, transported, and then rendered. Any ways, typically, in the US, an animal destined to be human food has to be certified. if you go to an animal auction you will see papers for this. In a way, its kinda sad. I have seen some poor old horses and other animals in stalls that were barely alive. With a plastic envelope on the outside with papers indicating that they were for sale and not for human consumption. Probably for animal food or some other use like vet school. At least for vet school they’d be furthuring science. ---
**Author:** ![sidecar\_jon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@sidecar\_jon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidecar_jon)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-horsemeat-hoax-in-europe/649975/7 "2013-02-11T16:30:38Z")
I think reports are of some horse drugs being present too, so very much “old sick nags”… and i can understand why a poor Rumanian would not care at all about other rich Europeans but not just why its been going on for long really… Horse meat wise,how about organic wild raised pony for £1… that’s what a lot of Dartmoor ponies go for and straight off to France. Pretty much every year the owners are on the news saying how much they love pony’s, then shipping them off to be killed. hummm ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-horsemeat-hoax-in-europe/649975/8 "2013-02-11T16:35:14Z")
There was a place, when I was a kid, that had 50/50 horse/beef burgers. Pretty damn tasty and lean too. But in America too many horses are basically “pets’ and I don’t think it’s right to eat pets. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-horsemeat-hoax-in-europe/649975/9 "2013-02-11T16:37:28Z")
It’s out of control over there. A buddy of mine emailed me that he bought a cucumber but it turned out to be a horse cock. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-horsemeat-hoax-in-europe/649975/10 "2013-02-11T16:57:12Z")
race horse owners are getting rid of the slowest. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-horsemeat-hoax-in-europe/649975/11 "2013-02-11T17:12:58Z")
I heard about this on the news this morning. Apparantly, the main reason is that Romania changed its laws to ban horses from public roads. This has resulted in lots & lots of surplus horses. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-horsemeat-hoax-in-europe/649975/12 "2013-02-11T18:06:01Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > I heard about this on the news this morning. Apparantly, the main reason is that Romania changed its laws to ban horses from public roads. This has resulted in lots & lots of surplus horses. TBF, the only motorway of the country was full of little horse-drawn carts. It was a little inconvenient! And now that the motorway is finally finished, it would be nice if you actually drive on it… ---
**Author:** ![sidecar\_jon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@sidecar\_jon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidecar_jon)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-horsemeat-hoax-in-europe/649975/13 "2013-02-11T19:34:58Z")
8 February 1983, Shergar was kidnapped…can it be a coincidence?..