Top Chef Canada is set to air an episode tonight on Food Network Canada serving up horse meat. The theme of the show is classic French cooking. The announcement that horse meat would be used in cooking on the show has stirred up outrage and controversy. A Facebook page, Boycott Top Chef – Protect the Horses, has even been created for viewers to voice their concerns and opinions.
Food Network Canada released a statement on their Facebook Page in response:
“Please be assured it is not our intention to offend our viewers. The challenge in this episode involves having the competitors create a truly authentic, traditional French menu. One of the most traditional French foods is horsemeat. Horsemeat is also considered a delicacy in many cultures around the world. While we understand that this content may not appeal to all viewers, Food Network Canada aims to engage a wide audience, embracing different food cultures in our programming.”
Though Canada plays a large part in the horse meat business, slaughtering over 90,000 horses a year, it is not widely consumed in the country. Though it isn’t the most popular dish, it is still possible to purchase horse meat at some butcher shops and restaurants in Quebec. Horse meat is considered very lean, low in fat and is popular in Japan, Brazil, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, but it is most popular in Belgium and France.
I for one am okay with all of this. I don’t see the problem with serving up horse meat. Just because we don’t consume horse meat widely in North America does not give us the right to say to another culture that what they are doing is immoral. All of the anti-horse slaughter activists that have been protesting the airing of this show are being hypocritical and close-minded. Though they don’t blatantly say it, I feel that they are clearly denigrating the French culture with their comments. Whatever happened to cultural diversity and respect for others beliefs? Guess it’s been thrown out the window with the rest of their common sense.
Is horse an acceptable meat course? Peter Smith, writer for Good Worldwide, LLC, stated that “Eating horse meat hasn’t always been a taboo in the United States. During World War II, it was sold as an alternative to meat rations, and, until at least 1954, a dedicated stall at Pike Place Market in Seattle sold horse meat.” Maybe we need to look back at our own history to remember where we came from and also remind ourselves that just because we are Americans, it doesn’t give us the right to bash other people’s cultural practices, no matter how much we don’t like it.
May 17, 2011 at 11:28 PM
I believe the problem in the U.S. is horses are now perceived as pets, or worse, family members. We no longer see a wide consumption of squirrels or wild rabbits either. Those 2 food sources alone probably provided more protein for previous generations than any current livestock. I lay the blame squarely on the Disney effect. i.e. Animals are good, people are bad.
We try to protect dolphins but eat the tuna, using “cuteness” as a factor in what is edible.
The decrease in U.S. horse slaughter houses has resulted in a drop in horse prices and has increased the number of older and lame animals. If there is a demand, we should fill it thus, increasing health of our own stock.
May 20, 2011 at 10:39 PM
People – you really need to be aware of what is going on before you speak. Old horses? Lame horses? I live not too far from one of the horse slaightering plants (since closed). An exquisitely beautiful foal was born right on the kill floor.
The tragic plight of the PM foals is especially heart rendering. Premarin is made from the urine of pregnant mares, who are tied in stalls unable to lie down. get no exercise, have reduced water consumption (makes the urine more concentrated) for six months. Constantly thirsty, this leaves them unhealthy, covered with sores and with infections and drastically shortens their lives. They are taken off line to give birth and in some cases the foal is weaned dangerously early (if allowed to nurse at all) so the mare can be brought back into season and bred again. The average life span of a PMU farm mare is 8-9 years, compared to 20-30(sometimes more) that is more typical of a horse. And at the end of production the mares are sent to slaughter as well…often with their last foal at their side.
Every time a mare is pregnant there is a foal. Premarin requires urine from pregnant mares so women can swallow this urine. These foals are a “waste product” to the urine farmers. We are talking around 40,000 to 50,000 foals a year from US and Canada (number would be higher, but there is a higher than normal mortality rate among these foals, usually due to exposure or starvation). They are sent to feed lots and then to Canadian auctions that cater almost exclusively to the horse meat trade to be sent mostly to Europe and Japan.
As long as women purchase and swallow horse urine (premarin) there will be these unfortunate little baby foals that were born to die.
And when the owner of horse farms die, often their stock is dispersed. One of these is Ramses Arabians. Tthe more than 100 pure bred registered Arabian horses were sold to a buyer who will send them to slaughter in 30 days if not already sold. Do a google for Ramses Arabians and see just what “old” and “lame” horses are being sent to slaughter. ( ramsesarabianhorses dot com )
This happens a lot. People who have sold horses to places where the horses are in danger try to get their horses back. Old? Lame? Entire semi-truck loads of yearlings are commonly sent to slaughter.
December 2, 2011 at 2:29 PM
Thank you, Soahs, for your accurate description of the sad reality of the horse slaughter industry. I cannot grasp the level of ignorance that is commonly displayed by people who support it – 50 weanlings ended up in the meat buyers ‘pen’ at an auction I purchased some foals at last fall in AB. Some were actually bred by performance breeders of quarterhorses.
We have a slaughter plant in Northern AB, and horses sent there include yearlings, two year olds, broke horses over 10 and everything in between. Most of the horses/foals I have who I own who were purchased at auction, or from feed lots were destined for slaughter – they can be registered with the AQHA.
Two foals were purchased right off a meat truck, when they were on their way to slaughter with their mare’s/moms who were not offered for sale – they were just one month old, and very ‘well bred.’ They are thriving, and are stunning – clearly well bred but the papers for them were not offered, since this was a ‘clandestine’ transaction.
Old??? Lame??? Most of the horses I’ve seen who were going to the slautherhouse never even had a chance at a life, and others were ridden for years, and then discarded, sold at auction, purchased by the meat buyer. What a betrayal.
December 3, 2011 at 4:26 PM
You are truly an angel to rescue foals like this – innocent little babies who would not have had a chance for life.
To the rest of you who cannot see anything wrong with this – the article urges us to “remind ourselves that just because we are Americans, it doesn’t give us the right to bash other people’s cultural practices, no matter how much we don’t like it.”
Certainly, I do not have the right to tell people what to eat. But I DO have the right to speak up wherever animals are suffering. When a horse is stolen and raced to the slaughterhouse while their frantic owner desperately searches for them, we DO have the right to speak out for laws that any freeze branded horse cannot end up being slaughtered. Maybe one of the previous owners doesn’t even know and would be so glad to get their horse back.
Just because it is “tradition” for the French to eat horses does not give them the right to insist the horses they eat are being cut up while still alive. The Europeans demand it.
There are those of you who complain we are interfering with French Culture by trying to save horses from being cut up while still alive (skulls are being found with no evidence of captive bolts being used). A Kentucky Derby winner was sent to a slaughtering plant. The former owners of this racehorse missed him and inquired about getting him back. But he was already slaughtered. And there are those who say people like us are interfering with French Culture when we want to save such a horse? I would dearly love to have a Kentucky Derby winner in my barn if I still had horses.
People you can shout at us from the rooftops all you want. You can criticize us who try to save horses all you want. But while you are shouting and criticizing then shout this: farm animals are raised for food. Horses are not. They often are sold to a forever home, who may have lost their job and their farm. They have to sell their horses. There is a good chance the former owner does not know. Give these horses a chance. And I hope I am not insulting “French Culture” by saying so.
December 4, 2011 at 3:13 PM
Well said, Soahs… and to claim that being anti-slaughter means saying anything about the french culture is actually a misrepresentation of fact by pro-slaughter individuals, as there are many countries in the world where people eat horse meat, including Belgium and Japan. Just because something is practiced by a culture doesn`t mean it is right, or should continue on indefinitely. It is a fact that horses who have achieved prestigious status in competitions have been slaughtered for meat – it`s a fact, and an sad betrayal, and an outright atrocity.