Comments on: Is there horse meat in dog food?

By: Lindsay Stordahl

Lindsay Stordahl — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:50:36 +0000

Thanks for your comment Amber. I think many people agree with you. I don’t eat most meat for the reasons you described.

If you want meat in your diet, then buy meat from animals that have lived a healthy, humane life. The meat will be healthier for you anyway.

By: amber salisbury

amber salisbury — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:14:47 +0000

There have been alot of points made about this and everyone will alwase have there own opinion but i have been studing this for 2 years now and because of that i quit eating meat. just amagen with me for a moment.

you are a year or to old and in the prime of life. YOu are in a cage and have been sints you were born. you are to big to turn around now. you must stand or lay in your little cage for the rest of your life. you remember your mother and siblings and you wish they were here, not the stupid gross guy in the cage next to you he keeps biting you so now you have scars all over your back. but you cant see them because you are coverd in your own shit. but someone comes down the little isle and lets you out your so happy to get to move you try to run but you cant you dont no how you have never gotten to run in your hole life. but even though you keep falling you are happy but then they load you in a trailer with a ton of others and you get in fights with them and your coverd in blood because none of you have ever bein socholized. the coverd in blood you get dragged out of the dark trailer that you have bein in for maby months and your eyes are burned by the light but your happy when they put you in a nother cage away from the pigs you are there for two days and they dont feed you or water you and your realy hungry. then you are hurded up in to a room with all the meanies agen. but one by one you are run thew a shoot and they lay a matel arm agenst your side and its cold one second later you feel and electroc shock run threw your entire body and you fall limp in a trance in pane but you come out seconds later so you can feel the large metel macheine picking you up by your hind legs and you fight it when you are up side down you feel a cold blade agenst your throught they slice your throught and you die thats all you were ever born for was to die so humans can eat you . you a pig are now dead hanging from the machiene being cut apart so humans can eat you.

this is the life story of meny pigs hows it eny diffrent then what they do to horses. horses die so we can eat pigs die so we can eat cows die so we can eat. what is the diffrence it is all wrong. some may say its the circle of life or the food chain but i dont think it is because animals raised for slauter howses on feed lots are raised in small cages and never get a chance to run we breed animals so we can kill and eat there young how is this right that is why i dont eat meat or eaven where leather if i can help it. just think and dont put your needs infront of an animals there alive to.

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By: Lindsay Stordahl

Lindsay Stordahl — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:45:43 +0000

Thank you, Patricia. I am deeply bothered by how our country treats all kinds of animals before they become “food,” and I often struggle with what to do about it.

By: Patricia

Patricia — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:33:00 +0000

In the U.S., raising horses for consumption has never been part of our culture and I don’t think the practice should make it’s way into it now. Regardless of whether people in other countries eat it or not. Other cultures also eat monkey brains, pork a**hole, dogs and cats, that does not mean that I should take up the practice as well, sorry Waltraut you lost me there. We should do all we can to discourage a market for horse meat consumption for humans. We have enough problems with the horrible state of our agriculture and livestock as it is, with the environmental pollution, food safety issues, our general health and the horrific state of animal welfare. We do not need to keep adding to the mess but rather try and deal with the overwhelming current problems.
As for feeding horse meat to my dog, it is completely unregulated and unsafe (reasons mentioned above by all of you) and I would not think of feeding it to him even if it was regulated. I would not feed him any commercial brands for that matter. I buy and feed him organic from local farms=fresh, raw and whole (pheasant,chicken, duck & beef 1 to 2 x’s a yr-rotating his proteins for better digestion and variety)along with fruits and vege’s. It is cheaper and far superior to any commercial brand. I do not believe we should encourage a horse meat market for dog food either, for all the same reasons I listed above. If one must buy commercial dog food, stay away from anything listing “by-product”, if you are unsure call the brand and ask.
In regards to horse slaughter in general, I keep seeing people state things like “If they are going to
die anyways, why not put them out of their misery…” Why is killing the only option? As per USDA 92% of horses sent to slaughter are healthy. We have allowed for unregulated markets that have driven a demand for surplus, some people are making a lot of money killing horses. Again our state of affairs in regards to our horses is in terrible, over breeding, Primarin Estrogen industry, wild horses, and kill buyers who make millions selling horses to slaughter and selling the (tainted) meat. Legalized and regulated horse meat consumption is not a solution to overpopulation but will only open the flood gates because it will drive people to breed even more horses for slaughter, just as they have done with cattle. More pollution, more misery and so on.

I do not believe that slaughter is “euthanasia” or is some how putting them out of their misery. It is horrific for ANY animal, especially prey animals, like horses because they have high drive nervous system, flinching and thrashing, which makes it difficult to shoot them with the captive bolt gun to “stun”. Brain wave activity studies performed in sacrifice studies, showing the difference in pain felt in having the throat slit to the spinal cord vs western conventional slaughter practices, have shown increased pain spikes after being shot with the captive bolt that continues and does NOT go down, another words it heightens the pain. In addition, their head is not made stationary so they need to be shot several times because they are shot in the eye or other parts of the head rather than intended location which is between the eyes. As was stated above, the facilities and captive gun was made for cattle which have brains set farther back and have narrow foreheads so it makes it difficult. All of this adds to the terror, pain and suffering because they still are not unconcious at the point they are hoisted upside down and bleed, it just adds to the suffering. The only thing the captive gun does is after being shot so many times it makes it easier for the slaughter handler to handle the horse to hoisting because it is more subdued, even though the horse is experiencing tremendous pain. It is horrific and brutal, for all animals. That is why I am vegan. I feel a deep guilt for feeding my dog animals but I do believe that unlike us, canines are carnivores/omnivores. That is another reason I go out of my way to go to the farm where I get the birds for his food, I get to see how the birds live and how they die.

I believe it is our purpose in being here to evaluate everything we do and how it effects our environment and other beings. To stretch our capability of reasoning, problem solving and compassion. Instead of reaching to the lowest common denominator for answers, think of higher alternatives. Just because we have dominion over something or someone does not mean we have the right to dominate and destroy.

Thanks for listening and for sharing all of your great thoughts!

p.s. Kristi, I wish the best for your friend and her horse. Since you have been in the vet industry, perhaps you could help her say a quiet and gentle goodbye to her horse and friends could start a fund for her to bury or dispose. I know you do not know me but I would be more than happy to help in order to see you, your friend and the horse have a dignified last goodbye.

By: Lindsay Stordahl

Lindsay Stordahl — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:22:15 +0000

Thank you for your comments, Kristi. I admire your lifestyle and hope that myelf and others can work toward eating healthier and caring for animals better.

For most of us, at least for me, the problem is the way horse meat gets into dog food, not that horse meat is there.

By: kristi

kristi — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:58:37 +0000

And to comment about lisa s. ” companion animals are given many things that ruin the meat”. I completely agree. We raise almost all our own small livestock for our dinner table. Chickens, goat, turkey, rabbit, and we hunt for venicson and other game. But that comment is un just. All commerically prepared foos we eat is junk. Not just companion animals. Even organic labeled meats are subject to un healrhy lifestyles. For example compare a real farm fresh chicken egg to an organic chicken egg from the store. The diiference is huge. Firmer shell, tougher mebrane, golden orange yolk. Those qualites are hardly even present in an organic chicken egg bought at the store. And then milk. Even organic milk. ( my uncle use to be a part owner of horizon organic milk compnay). They use un natuarl methods to assit production. Things that I am sure are not good for our bodies and encourage cancerous cells. But that’s the way of the world. What’s wrong with horse meat in dog food? Nothing. But the political nature of our government and the geeed for the dollar has taken the common sense out of everday issues. Life is a circle. Embrace it.

By: kristi

kristi — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:46:41 +0000

I was recently contacted by a friend. She Had a 24 year old horse that lived a good life. It was time to put it down though. She called me asking advice, since I’m a country bumkin and old fashioned and I have been in vet medicine for 10 plus years.
She had some options.
1. 300 euthanasia fee from the vet and then a 300 or more disposal fee, rendering in our area was not an option
2. Can’t take it slaughter anymore and make money
3. Kill her own horse.and then cremate in her pasture
She’s sentimental I could only tell her sorry, and I hope christmas would be better next year, since she had to spend money on the horse.
But It got me thinkin. We feed raw or barf diets to our dogs, wouldn’t it be better for everyone to just help my friend and take her horse from her. Shoot it inbetween the eyes, put it out of its painful life it was living from old age and instantly kill it, then cut up the meat for my dogs?
My dogs would indeed be getting a better diet than any commericially perpared kibble no matter the quality of ingrediants. (High temperatures used in making kibble break down many nutrional elements).

By: Lindsay Stordahl

Lindsay Stordahl — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:18:27 +0000

Thank you, Lisa, for your comment. You are very well-informed about this issue, and I appreciate the information. I also encourage everyone to eat meat that comes from grass-fed, locally raised animals that are not given hormomones and antibiotics and are not kept confined.

By: Lisa S.

Lisa S. — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:09:53 +0000

The slaughterhouses are not built for horses, they are built for cows, pigs, and sheep.Horses have longer necks and therefore are able to move away from Canada’s bolt gun and are often not properly stunned before being bled out.
Horses are companion animals and are given many chemicals that ruin their meat.
All animals that are slaughtered are killed inhumanely…there is no way around it.
I suggest everyone visits a feedlot and a slaughterhouse and thinks of this as they shop for meat.
I also think that if you eat meat you should buy llocally raised, drug free, and antibiotic free meat. This would support the local economy, send a strong message to the factory farms, improve your health,and reduce a lot of suffering that these animals endure.
My boyfriend regularly hauls cattle from auction to farm to farm to farm to farm to auction to feed lot and finally to slaughter….the local meat is by far healthier.
Anybody that eats horsemeat or gives it to their pets is perpetuating very cruel ends to a companion animals life and also harming their own health.
I am part of a group that finds homes for slaughterbound horses every week…they are NOT unwanted they have fallen into the wrong hands.
The bad economy and the killbuyers making lots of money by buying the auction horses, craigslist, free horses, cheap horses, any horse that they can get their hands on and selling them to the slaughterhouses.
If there was no demand this would not be happening.