Speak Out: Would You Eat Horse Meat?

Horse meat has been much in the news lately, as it's appearing up in Europe in all the wrong places.

Beef has been pulled from shelves in a number of countries after amounts of horse meat were detected in it.

While horse meat is consumed in dozens of countries around the world, for some nations, including the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland, eating horse is taboo.

Horse meat produced for human consumption has never had much of presence in the United States, but that could be changing.

In 2011, a ban on the slaughter of horse was allowed to expire as part of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2012, although the Obama administration is pressing for the ban to be reinstated.

NBC News reports that the United States Department of Agriculture is poised to approve a horse slaughtering plant in New Mexico.

Horse meat produced for human consumption cannot be processed without a USDA inspection, so the lack of a domestic slaughtering plant has served as a stopgap for the horse meat industry.

In a recent New York Times piece, Dave Duquette, a proponent for horse meat, says demand is growing in this country for horse meat.

He said the meat would be beneficial for human consumption, as it is high in protein and low in fat.

The Humane Society of the United States disagrees, saying that horse meat produced in the US is likely to contain residues of drugs given to horse – drugs that are unsafe for humans.

Horse meat has been described as lean and a tender with a flavor that falls between beef and venison.

What do you think? If horse meat was available in this country, would you eat it?

Tell us in the comments!