And that, of course, is unethical and should be punished. But am I wrong to think that much of this scandal is emotional? I mean, if, for example, I really liked Ikea meatballs, it wouldn't bother me a bit to find out they had horsemeat in them.
Bingo on the emotional response. You can’t eat Silver fer chrissakes.
Label it correctly and lets eat!
Sure. There’s nothing empirically wrong with horse meat as food, any more than dog meat. But just because there is an emotional component to a thing doesn’t mean the argument has no value either. I was of the opinion that horse meat is just another meat product, for a time, but I’m coming to another point of view on that. Horses raised as meat animals are one thing... But I think sending working and companion animals off to slaughter is a failure on our part to hold up our end of a bargain.
Many of us have had a great dog, even a few great dogs, in our lifetime. When they age, we try to make their final years as comfortable as possible... Because they’ve earned it. When they die, if we can we find a good spot to bury them... Because we valued their companionship. They earned it. We don’t— ever— just take our old dog down to the local Korean restaurant and sell them by weight.
Same with horses. Animals we care for as working and companion animals... Have I think a different implied contract than other animals raised for their meat. The deal is that they serve us in exchange for trust in us to take care of them. When they’re too old to work or carry a rider there’s nothing wrong with still honoring that contract with a comfortable retirement in a nice grassy field. There is something wrong, I think, with shoving them up in to a trailer bound for a slaughterhouse in Mexico. We asked a lot of them and didn’t finish our part of the deal.
Yah, it’s an emotional play, but it isn’t wrong.