Americans squeamish over horse meat

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© St. Petersburg Times
published September 4, 2002

SAN ANGELO, Texas -- If you relish cheval burgers with your onion rings and cold brew, do not look to menus in American restaurants. Sure, you can find horse meat in most states, but you will be hard-pressed to hear chefs trumpeting this fact.

In beef-loving America, eating horse flesh is anathema. We raise cows, hogs and sheep for food, not horses. Most us see horses as pets, companions, playmates and beasts of burden. We cannot imagine roasting or barbecuing the likes of Trigger, Silver, Flicka, Black Beauty and Mr. Ed.

But many other countries, especially those recently hard hit by mad cow and other disease, consider horse meat to be a nutritious staple and will pay big bucks for it. The Dallas Morning News reports that of the 6.9-million horses in America in 2001, 57,000 were slaughtered, mostly for human consumption.

Two U.S. companies, both in Texas, have cornered a large part of the world's equine flesh market. An Illinois company that sold horse meat burned down last year and has not rebuilt. With 150 workers, Dallas Crown Inc. and Beltex Corp. kill nearly 1,000 horses a week. The process -- from herding the animals into corrals, to condemning them to the killing room, to packing and shipping tasty loins -- takes all of four days.

The protein-rich, lean meat is sent to the butchers and restaurateurs of Asia, mainly Japan, and Europe, mainly France. Here in the United States, zoos buy the meat for their big cats and other carnivores.

In America, unlike in other horse-flesh producing nations, such as Romania and Belgium, public opposition to eating horse runs high. Animal-protection groups, led by the Texas Humane Legislation Network, are trying to shut down the multimillion-dollar industry.

Interpreting a 1949 Texas law as prohibiting possession, sale or shipment of horse meat for human consumption, the organization argues that Crown and Beltex are operating illegally. The network has gained the support of the Texas attorney general.

For their part, Crown and Beltex are mounting a vigorous campaign to save their skins. They see themselves as legitimate outfits serving at least two legitimate needs: They help satisfy the palates of millions of diners worldwide, and they pay owners to dispose of animals that have outlived their usefulness.

About the horses that are slaughtered, Oliver Kemseke, the owner of Crown, voiced his puzzlement over American's love of horses to the Morning News: "Most of (the horses) here are cripples or have back problems or are crazy in the head. We're a business just like any business. But it's a sensitive matter what we do. . . . These people don't understand. . . . We don't kill a horse unless there's something wrong. . . . There are a lot of horses in this country, and you people don't eat it. It's just a piece of meat."

Critics believe that Kemseke, a Romanian, and his colleagues tell only part of the story. Greedy horse dealers, critics argue, sell healthy horses to Crown and Beltex. As a result, an everything-is-fair-game atmosphere has developed. Many horse thieves are said to steal for and sell only to the slaughterhouses.

But Kemseke and officials at Beltex enjoy strong support in some surprising places, according to the Morning News. Many horse owners who cannot or are unwilling to pay for caring for injured or old mounts like Kemseke. These owners do not want to pay hundreds of dollars for traditional disposal, which involves injection, perhaps burial or transport to a dump.

Another surprising supporter is Dr. Tom Lenz, president-elect of the 7,000-member American Association of Equine Practitioners. "The issue is what do you do with unwanted horses," he said. "Some people can't afford to keep them."

Lenz, who has witnessed slaughters at Beltex, said the industry kills horses "humanely." The companies use the same method used to kill cows and other live stock that we eat: a quick killing blow of a stun gun to the head. Veterinarians worry that if the Texas network succeeds in banning horse meat processing in this country, our unwanted animals will be sent to the busy killing floors of Canada and Mexico.

A mystified Kemseke believes that Americans' sentimentality has made the horse a sacred cow. Further, the closing of U.S. plants would result in the needlessly expensive, unintended consequence of euthanizing and burying tens of thousands of horses annually. Kemseke reasons that if we are going to kill horses anyway, why not use the meat as food? In reality, he said, Americans cannot stop horse slaughtering everywhere in the world.

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