A contentious export: The anatomy of Canada's horsemeat industry
A contentious export: The anatomy of Canada's horsemeat industry
Thousands of horses, confined to crates and loaded into the cargo holds of airplanes, are shipped out of Canada each year, destined for international markets. As Ottawa mulls a proposed a ban on live exports for slaughter, horse activists and industry advocates are clashing over whether a ban is justified and the potential consquences.
As a vegetarian, these headlines confuse me. Aren't all the reasons to ban horsemeat equally valid for every animal? I don't care if people eat meat and I don't want it to be banned. I have made a personal choice to abstain.
If horsemeat was allowed, I still wouldn't eat it. So why is it banned? Why do people want it banned? I don't get it. If you don't want to eat it, then don't. If you think it should be banned then shouldn't you also think all meat should be banned?
The ban is on the exporting of live animals, because they're crammed into packing crates and shipped off for slaughter in quite inhumane conditions. It's not that they want to ban the meat itself.
Ya, this is where I stand too. I don't really like how we give special rights to animals based on whether we like them or not. We can be better than that.