Matt Collins
03-25-2010, 05:25 PM
http://www.nashvillescene.com/2010-03-25/news/tennessee-legislators-have-a-novel-answer-to-equine-abuse-horse-slaughter/
For Rep Niceley, slaughter is the solution because it creates “an end product for a horse, so they won’t get so cheap. Right now you can get a horse for $10 or $20 at a sale,” he says. A horse can be “a valuable product” for the meat and hide, which will give owners “a reason to keep them healthy.”
Niceley says the opposition to horse slaughter isn’t rational but emotional — the result of misplaced sentiment by those he calls, with sneering sexism, “Desperate Horsewives. Girls all want a horse when they’re little; they don’t want to eat Trigger. But we eat livestock, that’s what we do.”
Niceley admits that Americans aren’t exactly clamoring to their butchers for equine flesh. “But there’s a good export market” in Europe and the Far East “that would bring new wealth into the state from overseas,” he notes. “They eat a lot of horse meat in China.” Of course, what Nicely doesn’t mention is that some Chinese eat dog meat, as well. Maybe he’s also hit on a master strategy for the state’s pet shelters.
For Rep Niceley, slaughter is the solution because it creates “an end product for a horse, so they won’t get so cheap. Right now you can get a horse for $10 or $20 at a sale,” he says. A horse can be “a valuable product” for the meat and hide, which will give owners “a reason to keep them healthy.”
Niceley says the opposition to horse slaughter isn’t rational but emotional — the result of misplaced sentiment by those he calls, with sneering sexism, “Desperate Horsewives. Girls all want a horse when they’re little; they don’t want to eat Trigger. But we eat livestock, that’s what we do.”
Niceley admits that Americans aren’t exactly clamoring to their butchers for equine flesh. “But there’s a good export market” in Europe and the Far East “that would bring new wealth into the state from overseas,” he notes. “They eat a lot of horse meat in China.” Of course, what Nicely doesn’t mention is that some Chinese eat dog meat, as well. Maybe he’s also hit on a master strategy for the state’s pet shelters.