Let’s eat horse

The next time you stop at the supermarket, hopefully you will be able to pick up a couple of pounds of horse meat.  

The opening of the first horse slaughterhouse in seven years in the United States is being stalled by a temporary restraining order, filed by the Humane Society of the United States.

A decision on whether the slaughterhouse can open should be made by next month.

The restraining order needs to be lifted.

I’m a supporter of turning horse meat into common household food. In fact, I will be the first one to ride them into the slaughterhouse.

Among the horse surplus, the good taste of horse meat and the ability to catch up with other nations, slaughtering and eating horses in the U.S. will solve many problems.

The wild horse population has reached an unquestionably large surplus. About 33,000 wild horses live in the western United States. The Bureau of Land Management acknowledges that this is too many. They annually round up wild horses and send them to private ranches to lower the number.

The number of wild horses will only continue to rise, further destroying our ecosystem.

Don’t worry about the taste either.

If you’ve taken any recent trips to Europe, you’ve probably already eaten horse meat. The supermarket Aldi recently admitted that some beef products they have sold there contain up to 100 percent horse meat.

Countries in Europe and Asia already legally sell horse meat. We can join the 21st century with the rest of the world and start eating horses. Cows, pigs, chickens and lambs are already eaten. What makes horses different?

I’m not trying to convince animal rights activists that horses should be eaten. I’m trying to convince the average American that horses should join the ranks of all the other animals that humans eat. They are no different.

Horses are not extraordinarily smarter than any other animal we eat. They are creatures of habit, relying on repetition rather than cognition. Killing a horse is no different than killing a pig.

Hopefully, horse meat can become a staple in our culture.

It is best for our environment, our country and ourselves.

The judge needs to let the slaughterhouse open in order to start a long overdue process in our culture of eating horse meat.

So let’s slaughter some horses. I don’t mean to beat a dead horse here, just eat it.

­— lewicole@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Cole Lewis on Twitter @ColeThenLewis.