CONTESTED MEAT

From working Equines to Pasture Pets to the Dinner

Plate

Paola di Paolo, MAIS Student at Athabasca University

paoladipaolo@bell.net
Animals and Us Conference, University of Windsor.
The socially constructed roles of the
horse in Canadian society:
■ Horse as performance – racing, showing, circus
■ Horse as worker – police security, farming, transportation
■ Horse as teacher – pony club, riding schools
■ Horse as therapy – psychological treatment for PTSD
■ Horse as pleasure/companion
■ Horses in pharmaceutical industry – Premarin Mare Urine (PMU)
■ Horses as food
Horses are the only animal in Canada such that a specific horse is at once a
performance/pleasure horse AND a potential food source.
Equine Statistics

From Government of Canada 2016 raising of equines/ranching for consumption/PMU

(https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/scr/app/cis/summary-sommaire/11292 )
■ Exports: $93.5 million
■ Imports: $90.8 million

From State of the Industry Study by Horse Journal:

■ “Herd Size in 2010 at 963,500 horses which are resident on 145,000 properties, down from the estimated
1,092,461 horses in 2005. This represents a reduction of approximately 128,960 head or 11.8 percent of the
national herd.”
■ “Average age of horse owners has moved from a range of 40 to 49 years of age in 2003, to 50 to 59 years of age
and older in 2010.”
When we live in close proximity to animals,
we understand their sentience (Nibert):
■ “When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air, the earth sings when he touches it, the
basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes,” (Shakespeare, Henry V).
■ Clive Wishart 1992, Last Will and Testament: to protect his horses from potential abuse, Wishart
declared they were to be shot upon his death. RCMP arrived to carry out his wishes, but required a
court order to do so. Court contrasted horses to pigs stating that pigs are food animals and horses
are not. The Court determined that in the spirit of Wishart’s will Barney, Bill, Jack, and King would
be adopted.
■ Canada slaughters horses for consumption, and exports live horses to Japan for slaughter.
Investigations have indicated that horses are difficult to stun in the kill box as they are several
different sizes, are flight animals, and thus react strongly to captive bolts near their heads. Horses
are often shot with a rifle in the box. Are they sufficiently stunned? Canadian Horse Defence
Coalition received undercover footage in 2011 depicting the difficulty the kill box operator has in
effectively stunning horses prior to slaughter and also depicting sentient horses being slaughtered.
History of Horsemeat in North America
■ Horses brought during colonization of 15th century as work and military animals.
■ Judeo-Christian tradition forbid the consumption of horsemeat as horses were
associated with “companionship, royalty, and war,” (Forrest, 2017)
■ Pope Gregory III forbids consumption of horsemeat as unclean (8th century)
■ Development of steam engine automobile in 18th, 19th, 20th centuries led to a
surplus of ‘unwanted’ work horses the meat of which could be disguised as beef.
Horse slaughter associated with fraud, cheaper meats (Nibert, Forrest).
■ European connection: In European countries such as France, Italy, Switzerland, et
al, horsemeat is consumed as a regular food. Canada’s French population in
Quebec supports a demand. There is a degree of acceptance in Canada of
horsemeat as a food source. At the same time many Canadians are shocked that
horses are slaughtered in Canada.
Horsemeat Statistics
Horse Slaughter Statistics in Canada: Access Denied as of Jan 1, 2017
Agriculture Canada does not release the amount of horsemeat consumed in Canada: “horsemeat consumption
statistics are not tracked and are therefore unavailable.”

Canadian Food Inspection Agency: CFIA refuses to release horse slaughter statistics as of Jan 1 2017 –
Bouvry maintains the market. Access to Information request is pending
Where do they come from?
The social identity we give horses changes everything.

■ The unwanted horse: the social construction as ‘unwanted’ becomes ontologically powerful
for the horse: Dr Bernard Rollin
■ The rehomed horse: Kim Wilson and Sargon
■ Purpose bred: Feedlots in Alberta
■ Imported from the United States for slaughter purposes. Close to 50% of horses slaughtered
in Canada are from the US
■ PMU Farms – Premarin Mare’s Urine.
■ Breeding: the cast offs from large and small scale breeding programs
■ Spent race/performance horses.
Feedlot in
Ontario

Confirmed with kill buyer these were

‘unwanted horses’. Kill buyer confirmed
that the owner insisted these horses be
slaughtered. “I only deal in slaughter
horses.”

Draft cross appears to be lame. Grey

horse appears to be older.
Rural auction,
Kawartha
Lakes, 2017
Mule was privately purchased but later
shipped to slaughter when the owner did
not know how to work with him. This mule
bore scars on his lower hind legs indicative
possibly of being hobbled or forced into a
trailer with the use of ropes or whips.
Feedlot
horses

Photography credit to Canadian Horse

Defence Coalition.
Feedlot:
Alberta

Note unhealthy weight, brand on side

Photography credit to Dr Judith Sampson

French:
Feedlot:
Alberta
Note: Crowded conditions, horses are
flight animals, hierarchical
Photo credit to: Animals Angels
Western culture’s cosmology and rituals in framing the horse as a food animal
■ Cosmology: Is secular with humans at the top of pyramid, speciesism determines placement within cosmos of human’s
perceived needs, wants, desires. Capitalism and profit are the determinants as to where an animal is positioned.
Capitalism and dominance provide the rationale for maintaining the hierarchy
■ Rituals that uphold Western cosmology of capitalism
– Language –
■ The ‘unwanted horse’ Dr Bernard Rollin deconstructs the phrase ‘unwanted horse’ to reveal that when a
horse does not serve the purpose or need of the human, the horse becomes unwanted. ‘Unwanted’ then
takes on an absolute meaning for the horse and powerfully determines what happens to that horse.
■ Pro-slaughter use of the word ‘processing’ vs ‘slaughter
■ Slaughter as ‘euthanasia’: “It is equally important, when our horses reach the end of their lives, that we
handle their euthanasia with the same dignity. While many of us call our veterinarian to euthanize our
horses, the horse processing plants in Canada do offer a viable alternative.” (HWAC)
■ Use of mass terms (Quine in Adams) “when we turn an animal into ‘meat’ someone who has a very
particular situated life, a unique being is converted, that has no distinctness, no individuality, no
uniqueness” (Adams, 1995)
– Power and Dominance:
■ In the horse industry there is extreme pressure on horses to perform their function in a way that is not
dangerous for people. If and when the horse does not comply, they are often rejected, ‘sold down’, or
discarded
■ Food as a signifier (Roland Barthes). What we eat signifies our status. Sales of horsemeat increase during
protests and when scandals are revealed. There is something taboo about eating horsemeat: “horsemeat
certainly has an edge to it.. It has a dark side.”
– Hierarchical Paradigm
■ Related to Power and Dominance: humans construct the social role of the horse through our
consciousness by which we see the horse and other animals as lower beings without sentience and without
integral significance in terms of their own lives. The horse exists to fulfill the human’s need. Horse
carcasses and blood are either dumped (Natural Valley) or are rendered to maximize profit
Horsemeat as contested in the West
■ Our language in the horse industry reflects and frames horses as ‘things’ and ‘exploitable. This is
intensified by viewing animals through a capitalist lens: all animals must have a value connected
to them. We must get more from them than we spend on them.
■ At the same time we include horses in our circle of protections until the horse is ‘unwanted’
■ Once unwanted, the horse is removed from sight and is subjected to feedlots, trailer rides, and
slaughter
■ Our rituals which placate our conscience include rhetoric: ‘processing’ instead of’ ‘slaughter’;
‘horsemeat’ as a mass term; and edgey phrases of ‘naming’ the horse one is eating: Tweet re
Seabiscuit and Horsemeat Cookbook referring to each horse in each recipe by name “Dobbin” etc.
■ Our ‘cosmology’ is capitalism and the flows of money associated with the horse. The unwanted
horse is expensive to euthanize whereas sending him/her to slaughter brings revenue.
■ Not everyone accepts this cosmology and related rituals. The cosmology of capitalism and
exploitation with respect to animals is not universally accepted. Hence there is conflict.
Mongolia – Cosmology, Rituals, and
Taboos
■ Mongolian horse herders live with their horses and interact daily. The horses roam freely
throughout the seasons. Community members tend to their own horses’ veterinarian
and farrier needs.
■ Horses are raced, carry loads, signify prosperity, and are food
■ Older horses are slaughtered first. The slaughtering of horses occurs with rituals and
taboos: after slaughter a horse’s head and hooves are tied to a tree as it is taboo to
walk over them.
■ In the event of illness of a horse, the community healer plays the horse head fiddle. The
music realigns the horse with his/her place in cosmology and thus heals the horse.
■ Because of the cosmological framework, horse as food is not problematic within the
community.
■ See: Elizabeth Yazdzik.
 CATEGORIES: THE ‘US’ OF
HORSES AND US
People fall into the following categories:

Involved in the horse industry:

• actively support horse slaughter

• tacitly support horse slaughter

• against horse slaughter and speak up

• against horse slaughter but fear isolation

Not involved in the horse industry:

• learn about it and act by signing a petition, talking with

friends and family, sharing information

• learn about it but deny the practice of horse slaughter in

order to preserve their comfort level

• learn about it and enjoy the idea of consuming horse.

• do not want to learn about it.

Works Cited

Barthes, Roland. 2012. “Toward a Psychosociology of Contemporary Food Consumption.” in Food and Culture, edited by C. Counihan and P. van Esterik. New York: Routledge.
Nibert, David. 2002. Human Rights/Animal Rights: Entanglements of Oppression and Liberation. New York: Rowan and Littlefield Publishers Inc
Segur, Benoit. 2012. Living Cultures: The Soul Of The Mongolian Horseman. ZED. Retrieved (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrB7dX5B_a8).
Sorenson, John. 2010. Animal Rights. Black Point, Nova Scotia: Fenwood Publishing
Windle, Chris. 2013. The Horsemeat Cookbook: Braising Saddles and Other Recipes. London, England: Square Peg.
Yazdzik, Elisabeth. 2011. “The Mongolian Horse and Horsemen.” SIT Digitial Collections. Retrieved
(http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2074&context=isp_collection

Websites:
Anti-horse slaughter: Canadian Horse Defence Coalition: www.defendhorsescanada.org
Pro-horse slaughter: Horse Welfare Alliance of Canada: www.horsewelfare.ca