Apparently, It’s Romanian Horsemeat!
According to this report on the BBC, the horsemeat at the heart of your burgers and lasagne is of Romanian origin.
What the article doesn’t say is that the reason why horses are being killed in Romania because they are now no longer allowed on the road. This was said by an expert on the BBC News.
So these horses and our consciences are the victims of a Road Safety campaign in Romania.
At least the horses are dead before they are transported all the way across Europe. This couldn’t always be said for some of the meat we export, as it is exported live, so that the recipients can say it is locally killed.
It just shows how stupid everybody involved is, as to take a given number of animals to somewhere in Europe, takes three animal trucks or one refrigerated one. I’ve also taken a competition horse all the way from Suffolk to Scotland, and this needs stops on the way and a good rest in a field or large stable with lots of straw at the end, to make sure the animal is in the correct state to compete.
A farmer friend, who rears top quality meat for Waitrose and others, told me that, the law should be that all meat should be shown as EU-killed in the shop, so that the French, Greeks and Italians, couldn’t say it was locally-killed.
But then when did the EU do something sensible, where animal welfare is concerned.
The Anonymous Widower 
Yes, I too was aware of the horse slaughtering explosion in Romania caused by the banning of horses and carts on their roads being, it seems, at the heart of the horsemeat slaughter scandal. Such a pity that a move intended to promote road safety should have such consequences!
I have been a vegetarian since before my university days and am now retired, so I see this as a concerned outsider. Although there are a number of good reasons to give up eating meat in addition to the plea for humane treatment of animals (falling mostly on deaf ears among our inhumane species, alas), they are ignored or dismissed by most people, so I won’t labour the point.
Your experience with transporting a competition horse from Suffolk to Scotland is instructive. All exports of live animals should be banned throughout the EU, as it causes great and unnecessary suffering. Then again, as you say, “the EU”, “sensible” and “animal welfare” are combinations of words which are seldom found grouped together.
Comment by Janice Mermikli | February 11, 2013 |
All the farmers I know, want live exports banned, as they don’t want excess cruelty inflicted. One very big beef farmer I know, always did deals with UK supermarkets as the travel would be minimised. But even that had got worse, as local abbatoirs were closed due to the excess costs imposed by Europe.
In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever met a good farmer, who didn’t treat their animals at least as well as they did their children. Most of the horror stories you see in the papers, are down to bad husbandry and people keeping animals, who should stick to looking after cars, motorbikes and other non-animate objects.
Comment by AnonW | February 11, 2013 |