Alert! US Abattoir Being Readied to Open

Horse Harbor, a horse sanctuary in Washington State, has just published this in The Stablewoman Gazette.  UPDATE:  I removed the link as it’s clear that this was a false alarm.  Still, let’s all remain vigilant.

Since this is a “re-posting”, I’m not sure whether it was imminent at the time or was someone jumping the gun based on rumour.  Either way, Bouvry certainly isn’t one to let the grass grow under his feet.

No More Quebec-Bashing

Go here:  Ontario hippophagy  page 15

This is from a gourmet food magazine published in 2005*.  There are so many errors in it about horsemeat that I have to report it here.   Like all good gourmets (that’s “gourmet”, not “gourmand”), they suggest the proper wine to go-with.   Tragically, a Quebec abattoir provides for this clearly upscale market in Ontario:  once again, Quebec is the lapdog of others who furtively buy their product while openly maligning the supplier province.  One of the points I made to a fellow horse advocate this week was that you can’t come in Quebec’s back door, take videos of our abattoirs, and then stand aside remotely with your arms folded and watch our reaction.  It’s akin to your neighbour telling you that you have a dead rat in your backyard and then, offering no help at all, watching you try to deal with it.  I think they got the point:  there’s more French in their material than I’ve ever seen before (though no links but they’ll come around). I try not to engage in internecine or intramural squabbling whenever I can, but I am always made aware (especially when dealing outside Quebec) that I am not “white”, and “ethnics with money” are not welcome at the meetings; they’re only welcome at the accountant’s office.  For my part, I try to stay focused on the horses, whatever is going on.

We need help here.  Distancing yourself from what happens in Quebec just because we speak a different language is not a valid (or useful) option to pursue in the saving of our horses.  Anyway, I think this hedonistic nonsense below speaks for itself.

They Eat Horses, Don’t They?

Quit your squirming. The French don’t seem to mind

Alert! Horse Apartheid

A dear friend just sent this to me:  Amendments (as of Nov 9/11) made to the Meat Inspection Act of 1990 include repealing Section 33 which heretofore segregated the rendering of horsemeat from the rendering of other animal meat.  If this is true, then the reason horsemeat had originally been kept separate will return:  it will accidentally or by human error become mixed in with other meat products sold to consumers.  Go here

Horse Tartar & Toxoplasmosis

I know…it was hard to write so I imagine y’all had a gut reaction to even reading the gruesome image embedded in that title.  According to a CDC (Centers for Disease Control) report, (Vol. 17, No. 7, July 2011) raw horsemeat causes death from something called toxoplasmosis due to the T. gondii parasite.  ’Why would anyone eat raw meat, period?’ I hear you asking.  Apparently, in France, it is common practice to eat raw horsemeat, considered to be good for one’s health (that’s what I was told, too, when, as a child, I was made to swallow cod liver oil).  There is no accounting for era-specific and culture-specific traditions, it seems.

The report analyzes three cases of disease (in one case, foetal death) traced to horsemeat imported from Canada and Brazil (in one case, the origin of the horsemeat ingested could not be determined).  

About Stallions & Women

An ancient Arab saying puts it this way:  “I’d rather face an angry lion than an angry stallion.”  Tornado III was our stallion.  He was taller even than Doc, our 17.5 HH palomino, and, um, broader.  We could ride Toe but, once astride, you had to stay on through his first 15 minutes of bucking and rearing; after that short display, he was a good ride, never gave trouble after that first little bit of show (and, given his size, it was an impressive show).  Lots of chuckling and head-shaking went on (on our parts, not his).  So much for what we knew then, now some forty years ago. Deb Harper has helped me understand, by example and by action, what Toe was trying to tell us all those many years ago:  ”I will tell YOU when I am READY to be ridden…and you will not be comfortable on my back until I give the say-so.”  Respect…that’s what we lacked, simple respect.  

A Continuum of Deceit & Cruelty

The CHDC has released a grim report on the gruesome realities at La Petite Nation’s slaughterhouse in St-Andre-Avellin.  The undercover investigation was conducted in July 2011.  La version française est aussi disponible.  Warning:  the video segments are graphic.

“Beauty in the lap of terror” (The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radcliffe, 1794)