Why is horse meat bad for you

The larger the fish, the higher the concentration of mercury. At the risk of sounding redundant, at no point do the people who tend to racehorses consider that the majestic beast nodding off from barbituates might end up on a plate. This anti-inflammatory and pain medication is prescribed to just about every racing horse on the tracks today. You Might Also Like. But horse meat has always lurked in the shadow of beef in the United States.

Its supply and demand are irregular, and its regulation is minimal. Horse lovers are committed and formidable opponents of the industry, too. The management of wild horse herds is a complex issue, which might create difficulty for Trump. Horse meat has a long history of causing problems for American politicians. Horses originated in North America.

They departed for Eurasia when the climate cooled in the Pleistocene , only to return thousands of years later with the conquistadors. Horses became a taboo meat in the ancient Middle East, possibly because they were associated with companionship, royalty, and war. As butchers formed guilds, they too strengthened the distinction between their work and that of the knacker, who broke down old horses into unclean meat and parts.

By the 16th century, hippophagy—the practice of eating horse meat—had become a capital offense in France. However, a combination of Enlightenment rationalism, the Napoleonic Wars, and a rising population of urban working horses led European nations to experiment with horse meat in the 19th century.

Gradually, the taboo fell. Horses were killed in specialist abattoirs, and their meat was sold in separate butcher shops, where it remained marginalized. Britain alone rejected hippophagy, perhaps because it could source adequate red meat from its empire. America also needed no horse meat. For one part, the Pilgrims had brought the European prohibition on eating horse flesh, inherited from the pre-Christian tradition. But for another, by the s the New World was a place of carnivorous abundance.

Even the Civil War caused beef prices to fall, thanks to a wartime surplus and new access to Western cattle ranges. Innovations in meat production, from transport by rail to packing plants and refrigeration, further increased the sense of plenty.

Periodic rises in the price of beef were never enough to put horse on the American plate. Of course, no one wants to eat mislabeled food, but our revulsion to eating horse goes further than that. And, as Victor Fiorillo reports on Foobooz , it may not always be, thanks to at least one adventurous Philly restaurateur who is planning to put horse back on the menu.

During WWII, as rationing made it more difficult for families to find beef, American butchers across the country sold horse meat, and consumers literally ate it up. At roughly half the cost of beef, horse was served as a protein supplement until well after the war in some places, though.

Time reported that during the inflationary years of the early s, a butcher shop in Connecticut was wholesaling about 6, pounds of horse meat every day. During World Wars I and II, when beef prices soared, people turned to horse meat as a cheaper alternative. However, the practice was publicly frowned upon, and the horse meat was often fraudulently mixed with other products.

Buying fast food always comes with its risks. In , a European food scandal shook the market when customers learned popular food companies were adding unregulated horse meat in what were supposed to be beef burgers.

And being the largest fast-food company globally, its standards are regularly tested for efficacy and food quality. Horse meat may not be a thing in the US, but it is very much savored in other countries worldwide. In fact, the first domesticated horses , more than 5, years ago, were supposedly a source of food for the natives. In other parts of the world like Sweden, Canada, Italy, or Russia, people have mixed feelings about eating horse meat, and the legal standards vary.

Raising horses for slaughter is a mainstream business in many countries. One estimate states that almost five million horses are slaughtered each year for meat consumption throughout the world. China produces and eats the most horse meat in the world. A figure put the number of horses slaughtered in China at 1. Besides that, it is considered a delicacy and often a staple food in other countries of the world. What are dead horses used for instead? Though this practice is still found throughout the world, animal glue has been mostly taken over by synthetic adhesives.

Collagen, which is a simple form of gelatin, is a crucial ingredient in glues. It is naturally found in the connective tissues of mammals. Horse glue is fairly outdated — it takes longer to set, and only some companies use it in specific areas like woodworking, bookbinding, mending antique objects, or pipe organs.

Dead horses are also composted. Composting is a natural process where bacteria break down animal carcasses to prepare a soil amendment.