Horsemeat: It’s still what’s for dinner

In many places besides the U.S., that is.

As I and many other bloggers predicted several months back, the closing of the last three U.S. horsemeat slaughterhouses has done nothing to stop American wild horses from being butchered for food. They’re just being butchered in Canada or Mexico.

Part of why nobody’s adopting a wild mustang these days? Cost:

Room and board for a horse is around $200 per month now -- and the cost of fuel, hay and grain, and basic care is climbing. At the same time, because of a surplus of unwanted horses, auction prices have plunged, down to $100 or less from an earlier average of $300 to $500. If you figure in the cost of euthanasia and disposal at $750, it’s a swing of about $1,200 for the owner looking to get rid of an unwanted equine.

But, some people who want to enshrine the slaughterhouse ban into federal law are a bit shaky on history:

“Horses have never been raised as a food animal in this country,” says Stacy Segal, equine protection specialist for the Humane Society of the United States. “We give them medications that would never be allowed for a slaughter animal. None of the mechanisms to protect meat for human consumption are in place.”

Wrong on all counts. Many American Indian tribes, if not specifically raising horses for food, certainly considered that to be the normal end of a horse after it was too old to carry someone on its back. And, both Indians and mountain men had no problem “going heavy” on horses in a pack trail to allow for food for “filler.”

Lewis and Clark ate horsemeat without batting an eye, for doorknob’s sake. And, a century ago, it was still fairly common for white farmers and ranchers on the high plains to eat horsemeat.

As for Segal’s second sentence, sure, if a horse is a prize Thoroughbred, it gets all doped up. But, some Western rancher who actually rides a horse as part of the job? Not so much.

For a more visual experience on how the slaughterhouse ban is hurting wild horses, see the High Country News slideshow.