Horse Slaughter Prevention Act

I realize I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but anybody who thinks the California and Chicago foie gras bans are simply isolated responses to a supposedly unusually cruel practice need to get their heads out of the sand:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0609080098sep08,1,7356097.story

At least the foie gras bans were based on assertions, however false and/or overblown, of cruelty. We're now moving into the territory of legislating the "it's okay to eat animals as long as they aren't cute" rationale.

If this one goes through, what do you figure is next on the list? And I don't mean that rhetorically at all... I'm genuinely trying to figure out what the next target most likely will be.

It's actually a pretty big blow to Illinois, since one of the three horse slaughterhouses in the country is in Dekalb. The US is also the largest exporter of horsemeat for human consumption in the world.

I suppose now it'll just be for dog and cat consumption.

Aren't pigs supposed to be really smart? Even smarter than dogs or horses? This worries me.

edk wrote:Aren't pigs supposed to be really smart? Even smarter than dogs or horses? This worries me.

Well, now I have to. The classic:

A travelling salesman came upon an old farmer sitting on his porch, next to the farmer was a pig with only one leg. The salesman was about to give his sales pitch when his curiosity got the best of him.

"Excuse me sir, but why does your pig only have one leg?" asked the salesman.

"Well sonny , I'll tell ya. One day I was out plowing the back 40 when my tractor overturned, pinning me underneath. I was losing blood and thought I would die when that pig came running. He dug and rooted around with his nose till he got me out and he dragged me back to the house. Saved my life that pig did."

"Wow, that's really amazing," said the salesman, "but I still don't know why the pig only has one leg."

"Well I'll tell ya," said the farmer. "One night me and the wife were asleep at about 3am when a fire broke out in the kitchen. Well that pig broke down the door, came into our bedroom waking us up and getting us out before the fire could get us, saved our lives that pig did!"

"Well that's really great but why does the pig only have one leg?"

"Well sonny, when you get a pig that smart, you don't want to eat him all at once!"

Rabbits?

I clicked on this topic with more than just a slight bit of interest since the husband and I returned this afternoon from 5 days of fly fishing and riding near Big Sky, MT. The morning of one of our rides, we were discussing this very issue with the cowboy who owned the guide service we were riding with and the other cowboy who was to be our guide for the day. Both of them have spent their entire lives around horses and have the utmost respect for the animals. I've been riding for the last 17 years and feel the same. I was kind of surprised to hear them both say that they were very much in favor of the slaughter until I heard their reasoning. If the horses don't get slaughtered, they end up in landfills. Nothing worse than a landfill full of dead horses especially when they could possibly be carrying disease. Then you run the risk of other animals getting into landfills and having access to those remains.

Another aspect is that a lot of premium pet foods no longer use horse meat because people just don't like the idea of feeding it to their pets. It's developed a reputation as being substandard.

No one wants to really think about the idea of horses being slaughtered, but on the other hand as House Agriculture Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte points out in the Tribune article, what to you do with 90,000 horses?

Excellent points. I've never understood why eating cow meat and pig meat and lamb meat (is there any cuter animal than a lamb?) is fine in our culture, but not horse meat.

But the more important issue:

Kwe730 wrote:I clicked on this topic with more than just a slight bit of interest since the husband I returned this afternoon ...

Where did you go to return your husband? Was he under warranty? Did you exchange him for another model, or did you get a credit?

On NPR some Southern senator was asked, well, if horses, why not protect other animals like cows from slaughter? To which he replied, "Why, that's ridiculous! Everyone knows a horse is different from any other animal!"

Is that because it's the only one whose hindquarters can hold elective office?

nr706...Thanks for catching that little flaw in my post...

Hmmm... on the 'let's eat cute things' front, are there any Chicago restaurants serving cuy (guinea pig)?

But how far will they take it? Just about anything except for monkfish and sea cucumber can be considered cute, and I've seen some spectacularly-colored sea cukes at pet stores (no lie).

nr706 wrote:is there any cuter animal than a lamb?

Suckling pig. Very tasty too, alas and alack... The cycle of life is cruel*... (Blame Bog)...

Antonius

* In trying to explain how these things go to a small child, I stick to the mantra: everybody has to eat somebody else.

Antonius wrote:

nr706 wrote:is there any cuter animal than a lamb?

Suckling pig. Very tasty too, alas and alack... The cycle of life is cruel*... (Blame Bog)...

I sometimes shop at a couple of Russian owned markets in Niles where they sell suckling pig. They both have signs above the little pink carcasses wrapped in plastic that say "baby pigs for sale". I'll bet that has made for some interesting parent-child moments.

Addresses of Russian markets in Niles selling suckling pig, please?

annieb wrote:Addresses of Russian markets in Niles selling suckling pig, please?

The friday before Labor day, I saw "baby" pigs at both Farmer's Best and Sun View markets. I don't know if they just had them for the holiday, but either place would probably special order one for you. Also, I don't know if these "baby" pigs were actually suckling pigs or not. They may have been a little more mature, but they looked pretty small to me (I am not an expert on pigs). I would try Farmer's Best, since that market seems to be Russian owned (at least most of the customers and employees are Russian), and suckling pig is a traditional Russian specialty. Let us know what you find out.

BTW: Farmer's Best also had lump charcoal at $17.95 for 40 lbs.


Farmers Best Produce
8526 W Golf Rd
Niles, IL 60714
(847) 965-0260

Sun View Market
9020 W Golf Rd
Niles, IL 60714
(847) 298-3355

I've heard that there is some law obtaining here that sets an age for just how wee the pigs can be but any details or official looking confirmation thereof I have neither seen nor heard. My source in this regard was someone who informed me that he knew a place where you could get them 'underage', as it were... That said, I've seen some very small piglets on sale over the years, though none in the last few years...

Soon, the underground meat market will reach prohibition era levels, I suppose... (complete with undercover G-meat-men, as they apparently already have at the state-level in Washington, judging from the other thread*)...

Antonius


* http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=92381#92381