Why are people sensitive about using horses as a source of meat?

Question

Once a horse is no longer of any use as a beast of burden, people get upset if the horse is butchered for food for either dogs or humans. Yet we have absolutely no qualms about exploiting cows for everything they have, even so far as to mount their skulls on our walls as decorations. Why don't we like using horses for meat when horses and cows are almost the same animal (in terms of their contribution to human society)?

Answer 1

In America, the horse is a sacred cow. 'Nuff said.

Answer 2

I think it is the fact that many people see horses as large companion animals, like how we often see dogs. I actually think that American Indians believed them to be large dogs. I'm unsure.

But I really think it is more of an attachment/companionship issue. We do not mind eating cows as many people do not bother to befriend them as they might a horse. Personally, I would not have qualms about eating horse. I think that the opinion differs, but most people hold against eating horse because of the whole issue of attachment. I've known plenty of folks that keep pigs, yet don't eat them because they are more like pets than livestock.

Answer 3

Because it's abhorrent.

I feel guilty enough about the cows, pigs & chickens, but my whole life I was conditioned to accept these as a food source. They are raised to be a food source & would not exist if there weren't a market for them in this sense (so if everyone stopped eating chicken, it's not as though you're saving their lives & they'll be roaming the countryside freely. It just means that farmers wouldn't raise them anymore. They would eventually cease to exist).

Horses are different. They are companion animals, in the same way that pets are. To think about eating horses, dogs & cats is only a step up from eating human flesh (which, even were I in a plane crash in the arctic & dead human carcasses were the only food source I would literally rather starve to death than go there!)

I don't eat any animal that I think of as an animal, that is not a food source (including rabbit, duck, deer, moose).

I would like to be a vegetarian but I don't eat enough vegetables & I tend to be anemic. My body craves protein so I (albeit with some guilt) will eat white meat & occasionally red meat but in small amounts and I would NEVER under any circumstance consume an animal that I think of as a pet, just as I would never resort to cannibalism because it's beyond disgusting, unconscionable & just nightmarishly awful!

But that's just me! I know other people who eat "venison" & don't seem to have a problem with eating animals that live in the wild. I think it's creepy & wrong.

Answer 4

While I am not sure of the quality of the meat, I would probably liken it to the same reason why we are hesitant to eat any personal domestic animal. Let me explain what I mean by personal domestic animal. While regular domestication, like cows, is the use of the animals for our direct profit, such as food or work production. But personal domestic animals, often times have a more intimate relationship with their owner. While they can be used as a source of work production, they often are also used as source of enjoyment (e.g. as pets or for the sake of riding). Because enjoyment does directly serve our bodily necessities, it elevates the quality of the relationship with the animal bringing forth an emotion connection.

It is much easier to kill an animal for a source of food with which you don't have an emotion connection, than to kill an animal which has an emotion connection with you.

-Kerplunk!

Answer 5

Because the appearance of a horse is considered by many as being more aesthetically pleasing than a cow and because of a culturally relative distinction that we have internalized that some animals are fit for consumption and other animals are not.

Answer 6

Most horse carcasses are used for dog food. But your average riding horse has become your companion through thick and thin. Same as your dog. And horses live a full life and the meat is tough and stringy. But cattle are brought to slaughter while still very young, thus making them most delicious. This is what cattle are bred for, not a lifetime of riding but for a moment on my plate. Horses, on the other hand, are bred for a lifetime of riding and not for the pleasures of the palate.

Answer 7

In the past we had a deep bond with horses. They were our major mean of transportation. Even through the tough times of war they were there with us. I guess we all still feel that kind of pond.
And besides, when a little girl asks for a pony, I'm 100% sure she doesn't want to be handed a slab of meat on a plate and be told "Here's your pony! Eat up"

Answer 8

In the US horses are regarded as pets, it is a cultural thing. Other cultures readily eat horses. We eat cows all the time, other cultures regard them as sacred. Some cultures eat dogs, we don't. I personally wouldn't want to eat horsemeat, but I love my burgers and steak from cows.

Answer 9

Same reason they don't like dogs as meat. People see them as pets and not a food source.

Horse meat is quite good but dog isn't to my liking.

Answer 10

Besides the cultural and social stigmas, Horse meat might be too tough to eat unless they are raised in cruel boxed-in conditions.