For all practical purposes I am a vegetarian. I also happen to love horses considering that I did some horse-riding in high school. As someone who takes a philosophical approach to life, I often wonder what is a reasonable explanation for killing and eating some animals while not others. Apparently, there is none, and that is why Chinese eat dogs and French love horse meat while Hindus consider it a sin to eat beef and Muslims cannot even imagine consuming pork.
Considering that we use industrial farming techniques to produce our beef while horses are not raised that way, my gut feeling was that horse meat would be a lot more expensive, using the simple logic of demand and supply (I got curious about this story after finding out that horse meat was discovered in burgers sold in the United Kingdom and they were appalled because like us Americans they do not eat horse meat, but the reason it was added to burgers was because it is cheaper and manufacturers could increase their profits). That is why we should all study Economics. Well, a lot of the horse meat comes from poor countries like Romania. Iulian Cazacut, the director at Doly-Com says that you can buy a horse for slaughtering for as little as $0.60 a pound while it costs more than four times for beef. Apparently, people dump their horses after they are unable to work in farms and they end up in these slaughter houses in poor countries where there is hardly any regulation and practically no inspection of meat or horses (that is how horses treated with a painkiller for animals phenylbutazone or bute are slaughtered but this drug can be a carcinogen for human beings). As such, it is an unregulated market, and thus, cheaper. Producing beef with all the controls and inspections costs a lot more.
Considering that we use industrial farming techniques to produce our beef while horses are not raised that way, my gut feeling was that horse meat would be a lot more expensive, using the simple logic of demand and supply (I got curious about this story after finding out that horse meat was discovered in burgers sold in the United Kingdom and they were appalled because like us Americans they do not eat horse meat, but the reason it was added to burgers was because it is cheaper and manufacturers could increase their profits). That is why we should all study Economics. Well, a lot of the horse meat comes from poor countries like Romania. Iulian Cazacut, the director at Doly-Com says that you can buy a horse for slaughtering for as little as $0.60 a pound while it costs more than four times for beef. Apparently, people dump their horses after they are unable to work in farms and they end up in these slaughter houses in poor countries where there is hardly any regulation and practically no inspection of meat or horses (that is how horses treated with a painkiller for animals phenylbutazone or bute are slaughtered but this drug can be a carcinogen for human beings). As such, it is an unregulated market, and thus, cheaper. Producing beef with all the controls and inspections costs a lot more.