Horse slaughters

Published under Uncategorized.

It’s not everyday that you see something banned because it’s "un-American."  Shunned, sure… but banned?  As in, outlawed.  Made illegal. 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245380,00.html  (my hyperlinks aren’t working for some reason).

Tells the story of horse slaughtering plants that are being shut down.  The plants ship the meat overseas.  Or, they did.  The American Vet. Assoc. said it was a kind way to deal with older horses, but the Humane Soc. disagreed and helped shut them down. 

The thing that really bugs me about this has nothing to do with horses.  It has to do with the law behind it.  Is it really any different to slaughter cows or dogs?  The humane society does a great job of killing stray animals.  There’s nothing illegal about it, assuming it’s done in a humane way.  So, why outlaw this?  Because it’s "un-American." 

What is that?  What is american vs un-american?  If we’re going to make law based on such a vague concept as un-american-ism, rather than, say, rights, freedoms, justice, or punishment, then hey… we need to make some serious changes. 

There’s nothing more American than a celebrity, right?  So, we should make it legal to drink and drive, cheat on your spouse, commit tax evasion, do drugs (lots of and many types of drugs), etc etc etc. 

I could come up with many different examples, but I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to fill in the blanks. 

2 Comments to Horse slaughters

  1. Candy B.,

    Yeah, strange/sad/funny they’ll outlaw horse slaughtering before they’ll outlaw slaughtering unborn babies.

  2. RandomFaerie,

    i think the “unamericanism” here is simply this:

    - we don’t eat horse meat. it’s ikky.
    - people who eat horse meat are weird because they’re not like us. they’re ikky.
    - we must stop supplying them with horse meat to eat because it’s ikky.

    now, i am totally grossed out by horse meat ice cream (yes, it exists in japan) but if we’re going to be cool with killing millions of cows, pigs, and chickens to be eaten every year then why not horses?

    ah, well, whatever. it’s not like we actually have to have a LEGAL basis for anything these days.