Fucked up :blink:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/10/27/phedrus_de_blondel_show_horse_butchered_in_florida.html
QuotePrize-Winning Show Horse Killed and Carved Up for Meat in Florida
By Rachel E. Gross
Phedras de Blondel was an experienced, prize-winning show horse when equestrian Debbie Stephens brought him to the United States. Stephens had been planning to ride the 12-year-old chestnut gelding for the first time at a Grand Prix competition next month. But then, last weekend, barely a day after he had arrived on Stephens' farm in Palmetto, Florida, Phedras was led out of his stall and brutally butchered.
According to the New York Times, Stephens' assistant found the carcass of the prized horse in a remote field near the farm on Sunday morning. The body was missing the legs and most of the torso; only the head, neck, and rib cage remained. The horse was "carved up so professionally," the Times wrote, "that the authorities are investigating it as a case of animal cruelty carried out by an expert butcher for meat."
"It's one of the cruelest things that could happen to any horse," Stephens told the Associated Press.
A necropsy revealed that Phedras had been stabbed in the heart, and the carving was clearly "professional" and "deliberate," Stephens told the Times. The horse's death comes after a wave of similar killings of livestock for meat in the state, including several cows that were stolen and slaughtered in Central Florida. Less recently, at least 17 horses were killed in Miami-Dade County in 2009, according to the Washington Post.
Authorities are looking into whether this killing is a sign that the underground market for horse meat is growing, writes the Times. Horse meat is effectively illegal in Florida, according to the Post (it has to come from a licensed slaughterhouse, and there are no horse slaughterhouses in the U.S.). On the black market, the Post reports, the meat can cost anywhere from $10 to $20 a pound. According to reporting in the wake of the killing, Phedras weighed between 1,300 and 1,500 pounds.
Many states already ban horse meat, and a 2012 poll publicized by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals found that 80 percent of American voters are against the slaughter of horses for consumption. However, every year more than 100,000 American horses are shipped to Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered for sale in foreign markets, according to the Guardian and the Humane Society of the United States.
Horse meat is commonly consumed in China, Mexico, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Belgium, and Indonesia. Yet the idea of killing horses for meat has long upset Americans, as the Guardian wrote this year in an article about the costs and benefits of eating horse meat. Trying to explain why, Stephanie Boyles Griffin, senior director for the Humane Society's Wildlife Protection program, told the Guardian: "We see them differently because they are an animal on which the West was built and they are an iconic species. They represent the rugged individualism that is symbolic of the west. People want them to be free."
Why don't you eat horse meat?
The entire industry of show horses is a giant productivity suck and a black hole of cash.
That's nothing. You should have seen what they did to the Jockey.
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on October 27, 2015, 06:55:27 PM
The entire industry of show horses is a giant productivity suck and a black hole of cash.
They must make money somehow
Quote from: The Brain on October 27, 2015, 06:42:03 PM
Why don't you eat horse meat?
I have when overseas before, it's very low quality meat. Below most other four-legged herbivore mammals.
Is it normal for horses to weigh so much? That's like two adult male bears.
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on October 27, 2015, 06:55:27 PM
The entire industry of show horses is a giant productivity suck and a black hole of cash.
Sounds like the gambling industry.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on October 27, 2015, 07:44:43 PM
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on October 27, 2015, 06:55:27 PM
The entire industry of show horses is a giant productivity suck and a black hole of cash.
They must make money somehow
They drain it from daddy.
Or this (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/27/rita-crundwell-dixon-illi_n_1460180.html).
Everyone in that business is either rich and bankrolled or a crook.
I'd love to try horse meat someday. As far as unusual (from a US perspective) animals go, I've had guinea pig, dog, and alpaca. All taste pretty good - alpaca was similar to a pork chop, while dog tastes more like beef, but slightly different.
I've had some yesterday in my sandwich.
If they ban horse meat, only criminals will have horse meat.
I had a dish of slow cooked horse meat in Northern Italy. It was very good.
I may have some horse leberkäs later.
Quote from: grumbler on October 27, 2015, 06:47:38 PM
Quote from: The Brain on October 27, 2015, 06:42:03 PM
Why don't you eat horse meat?
It's icky.
you don't have horse meat in the US? Strange. It's being sold in groceries here, it's a lean meat, apparently really good. Never tasted the stuff myself though.
Quote from: mongers on October 28, 2015, 01:43:55 PM
am I getting confused
More of a perpetual state, at least from this vantage point. :P
Quote from: grumbler on October 28, 2015, 09:37:53 AM
Quote from: The Brain on October 27, 2015, 06:52:59 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on October 27, 2015, 06:52:07 PM
Quote from: The Brain on October 27, 2015, 06:42:03 PM
Why don't you eat horse meat?
Horses are charismatic.
They're stupid as all fuck, I'll give you that.
Well, we don't eat Ohio State fans, either.
I've eaten one...at least one that I know of...
Quote from: Berkut on October 28, 2015, 03:06:19 PM
Quote from: grumbler on October 28, 2015, 09:37:53 AM
Quote from: The Brain on October 27, 2015, 06:52:59 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on October 27, 2015, 06:52:07 PM
Quote from: The Brain on October 27, 2015, 06:42:03 PM
Why don't you eat horse meat?
Horses are charismatic.
They're stupid as all fuck, I'll give you that.
Well, we don't eat Ohio State fans, either.
I've eaten one...at least one that I know of...
You swore that you'd never mention our night together. :mad:
Quote from: DGuller on October 27, 2015, 08:56:20 PM
Is it normal for horses to weigh so much? That's like two adult male bears.
Pretty much, remember a horse is like a muscle beast. Some breeds weigh even more, a big draft horse like a Clydesdale can weigh over 2,000 pounds.
At the office canteen horse steak is one of the standard options. I've yet to try it.
In japan I did once accidentally eat horse sashimi. It was. ... not good
Quote from: Tyr on October 31, 2015, 03:20:10 AM
At the office canteen horse steak is one of the standard options. I've yet to try it.
In japan I did once accidentally eat horse sashimi. It was. ... not good
That describes pretty much all land meat sashimi I've tried. Only meat I can tolerate in sushi/sashimi is chicken tempura.
Quote from: viper37 on October 28, 2015, 01:29:28 PM
Quote from: grumbler on October 27, 2015, 06:47:38 PM
Quote from: The Brain on October 27, 2015, 06:42:03 PM
Why don't you eat horse meat?
It's icky.
you don't have horse meat in the US? Strange. It's being sold in groceries here, it's a lean meat, apparently really good. Never tasted the stuff myself though.
There are even horse meat butcher shops in France, for instance one in my old neighborhood in Paris. It's gamey compared to beef, according to those who tried, sometimes mistakingly. ;)
Used to be popular among the working class when they could not afford beef, back in the day.
PS:
boucherie chevaline is the name, if Viper and other francophones or francophiles are interested. :P
That being said the shitty thing here is this horse was extremely valuable and was killed and butchered up by someone who probably sold the meat for a total amount equal to maybe 1/1000th of what the horse cost.
Quote from: OttoVonBismarck on October 31, 2015, 09:35:22 AM
That being said the shitty thing here is this horse was extremely valuable and was killed and butchered up by someone who probably sold the meat for a total amount equal to maybe 1/1000th of what the horse cost.
Something is very suspicious about this whole story. How could anyone know that the horse had been brought to that stable the day before?
As you say, the insurance collection on the horse will be substantial.
Err..Killing the horse probably saved the owner a significant amount of money when you factor in the cost of ownership over its lifetime and all the money she would have lost showing it. Of course that might be sunk costs since she'll probably just show a different one.