Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Rteacher]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26860570/

Animal welfare groups, highlighting widespread abusive practices, have forced the last three horse slaughterhouses in the U.S. to close, but roughly the same number of horses are now being shipped abroad to be killed and butchered.

Reportedly, many thousands of horses are also exported for slaughter from Canada and Mexico.

The animal welfare groups argue that since horses in the U.S. are not raised for meat, the industry can not be regulated in a way that makes their treatment humane.

Opponents of an anti-slaughter bill currently in Congress claim that it's "based on nothing more than emotion" - to quote a National Cattlemen's Beef Association spokesman.

�The biggest concern we have here is you�re criminalizing an act that is right now not illegal,� he said �It�s criminalizing the agriculture industry�s ability to handle their property.�

Secondly, �They don�t have a solution for what we�re going to do with these horses. There aren�t care facilities, enough of them, to take care of these horses.�

Political supporters of the present bill range from liberal Ted Kennedy to conservative Ted Stevens.

Opponents allied with the meat industry include a veterinarians group which argues that abandonment of horses has increased since slaughterhouses were shut down.

Those arguments are quickly countered by the anti-slaughter forces. �If a horse has been abandoned now it has nothing to do with the fact that slaughter here has ended,� Heyde said, because the same number of U.S. horses are being shipped to slaughter out of the country as were being slaughtered previously at the U.S. plants.

Gail Vacca, who trains thoroughbred racehorses in DeKalb, Ill., and has been active in the anti-slaughter movement since 2002, called reports of an increase in abandoned horses �pure propaganda. � We�ve got a 54-page document debunking almost every single claim of abandoned horses. It�s ridiculous. � ...

... Vacca also believes that �the slaughter option � encourages and perpetuates irresponsible breeding and irresponsible horse ownership.� She said key opposition to the anti-slaughter bill is really coming from the meat industry, like the beef group and others which are �always opposed to any animal welfare initiative. � They do not want people to think of animals, whether it�s your pet dog, a cow or a horse, as a sensitive being. It�s their Achilles' heel and they know it. They know the more enlightened that people become to the meat industry, the more regulated they�ll be.�

The meat industry and its supporters further claim that backers of the bill have ulterior motives:

�When you look at their propaganda and you look at their mission statements, their goal is to end the meat industry. They want everybody to become vegetarians. At the end of the day, they want everybody to stop eating meat.�

Vacca chuckled at that contention.

�They try to reduce it to the slippery slope,� she said. �They try to equate this movement to PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and vegetarians. I�m a thoroughbred racehorse trainer. Believe me, PETA hates me. And I eat meat.�
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26860570/page/2/

[BS.Dos.]

Thanks for posting this up. This kind of debate is both of interest to me and, more importantly, very timely, inasmuch that I've an exam on Environmental ethics up in Seoul in a couple of weeks and there's a good chance that there will be a couple of questions on the rights and treatment of non-human animals, something which this article illustrates perfectly.

Essentially, this argument concerns the utilitarian view (the pro-slaughter group) on the one hand, and the deontological contractarianism view (those opposed) on the other. The former believing that to stop slaughtering horses results in a higher number of horses being abandoned, which subtly, if not somewhat desperately, carries the implication that the horses suffering is thereby increased. While the contractarians argue that so long as we allow horses to be slaughtered, then there will continue to be a steady supply of horse breeders etc eager to capitalise from the horses suffering.

Basically, and from an ethical perspective, it's all means and ends and aggregated outcomes; the greatest (utlitarian) good for the greatest number i.e. those profiting from the sale of horse meat etc, set against those who believe that neccessary evils (slaughtering horses) can never justify the ends.

[Fishead soup]

Horses are more useful in war. Bring back the cavalry.

[Bramble]

All slaughter is wrong and should be abolished, but I'd have a hard time supporting any legislation that sets certain animals apart just because humans like them and value their friendship (or their coerced labor in some cases). The last line of that news article is depressing.

I just hope some people will take a minute to think about its absurdity and realize that all animals deserve respect.

[Juregen]

Horse meat is the best meat a man can eat.

[SeoulFinn]

Next time you eat salami -- the food and not "it" -- check the ingredients. You might be surprised! *^^*

[greedy_bones]

[sojourner1]

I'd love to have a nice stallion, some beautiful country land, and a stable to put it in. This would be a joy to do. No eating the horse, that's what cows and deer are for.

[Rteacher]

I have no objection to people eating horse meat if survival is at stake or the horse dies naturally.

Based on my understanding of laws of karma revealed in Vedic scriptures, there is some adverse reaction (adjusted according to circumstances) for unnecessarily killing any living being - even a microorganism - but the reaction is relatively more severe when animals that are relatively more developed in consciousness - like dogs, cats, and horses - are slaughtered.

If one needs to kill for food, there is much less reaction to killing a fish than a chicken, and there is less reaction to killing a chicken than killing a sheep.

The most severe karmic reactions are brought about by the unnecessary killing of cows (which are believed to automatically transmigrate to a human birth in the mode of goodness.)

Ethics based on spirituality acknowledges that every living being has a soul that is a particle of the Supreme Soul; but, according to different types of bodies/species, the consciousness of each individual soul is filtered differently - and is sometimes practically covered.

Aside from Hindus and Buddhists, the Jains have an elaborate (basically materialistic) concept of karma, which this rambling Wikipedia article gives some idea of - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_in_Jainism

Anyway, banning the slaughter - and exporting for slaughter - of horses is better than allowing it.

I think that many people who have worked closely with them (as I have) appreciate that horses have considerable personality and are sensitive as well as strong.

It's probably good from a strategic point of view that some of the main activists involved in this cause are meat-eaters.

Hopefully, the deepest fears of the "beef people" will gradually come to pass as all slaughterhouses will be regulated (and educated) out of business.

[yingwenlaoshi]

I'm cooking horse right now. It's yummy.

[Rteacher]

You're freebasing heroin? ...

[yingwenlaoshi]

[Rteacher]

That was just a joke - or a lucky guess...
(freebasing = "cooking"; heroin = "horse")

Actually, when (as a spaced-out college drop-out) I had a job working - and living - in a stable for show horses, some teen-age drug dealers operating out of a nearby country house "laid some" PCP on me.

Initially reluctant to ingest something so potentially harmful, I foolishly decided to experience for myself what taking "horse tranquilizer" would be like - while living among horses who were on the same stuff...

(I vaguely recall that it was a rough trip, but I guess I survived...)

[mindmetoo]

I would love to try horse sashimi.

[Fishead soup]