TimeRanger wrote on November 26, 2009 03:19 PM: casinocon wrote on November 26, 2009 11:33 AM:
Horses ARE native to North America, although they we wiped out...

Cite please - from a verifiable source.

Delicious, Nutritious, Horse wrote on November 26, 2009 12:29 PM: Eating horsemeat in America is perfectly legal, according to Steven Cohen of the USDA’s food safety and inspection service. The Japanese and many Europeans eat all kinds of horse: horse sashimi in Japan; horse tartare or steak in Belgium; pastissada, or horsemeat stew, in Italy’s Veneto. Fears of mad cow disease in recent years prompted a spike in horsemeat prices in Germany and Italy.

The horse racing industry is the force behind the anti-slaughter legislation. “It’s a big issue,” says Ted McClelland, author of a book on the industry, Horseplayers: Life at the Track (Chicago Review Press, 2005). “It’s considered something that would give the industry a bad name. There is a feeling that the horse worked hard to entertain the public and should get a nice retirement—it shouldn’t be a piece of meat.” The industry has littered Congress and the media with polls finding that the vast majority of Americans oppose horse slaughtering. Their contention is that the affection Americans have for horses distinguishes those animals from meat animals like cows or pigs.

"Eating it goes against the cowboy mythology” says Rob Walsh, the restaurant critic for the Houston Press and a self-described “culinary thrill seeker.” Walsh is working on The Texas Cowboy Cookbook, and he suspects that cowboys and the role that horses played in the nation’s history might be behind the taboo. Inversely, he also thinks that’s why Europeans do eat horse: “The cowboy culture came from Spain in the 11th century. In Europe, the vast majority never rode horses.” That’s why, say, Slovenians are able to swallow foal carpaccio: horses didn’t show up in their third-grade history textbooks. Walsh may have an explanation, but he doesn’t really understand it himself. “It never ceases to amaze me that Texans love venison sausage but are appalled by horse sausage.”

firethorne wrote on November 26, 2009 12:22 PM: Hollywood wins again while we get the bill!

A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty "Hi-yo, Silver! wrote on November 26, 2009 12:07 PM: Quick, who eats horsemeat?

French, Italians, Swiss, Japanese and Quebecois in Canada are horse meat aficionados.

Horsemeat is lean, protein-rich, finely textured, bright red, firm. Tough meat cuts must be cooked long enough to tenderise connective tissue or marinated before cooking to ensure both flavour and tenderness.

Retail cuts of horse are similar to those of beef. The meat is leaner, slightly sweeter in taste, with a flavor somewhat between that of beef and venison. Good horse meat is very tender, but it can also be slightly tougher than comparable cuts of beef. The meat is higher in protein and lower in fat. The meat of animals beyond three years of age is a brilliant vermilion color and has better flavor. The meat of young horses is more tender but lighter in color.

The most popular cuts of horse meat come from the hindquarters: tenderloin, sirloin, fillet steak, rump steak and rib. Less tender cuts are ground.

Nutrition

Meat from horses is low in fat. A 100-gram (3 1/2 ounces) serving of cooked, roasted meat contains 175 calories; 28 grams protein; 6 grams fat; 5 milligrams iron; 55 milligrams sodium; and 68 milligrams cholesterol.

Uh, huh wrote on November 26, 2009 11:51 AM: "casinocon wrote on November 26, 2009 11:33 AM: The horses should be celebrated for being able to survive in the harsh Nevada landscape."

They can't survive. They overpopulate and starve.

casinocon wrote on November 26, 2009 11:33 AM: Horses ARE native to North America, although they we wiped out and then re-established in the West when the Spanish arrived. The horses aren't the problem, MAN'S greedy control of land is. Ranchers want the horses gone, so they can graze cattle. The horses should be celebrated for being able to survive in the harsh Nevada landscape, instead they are abused in the process to control them. Horses used to roam Red Rock and Cold Creek, but were rounded up so that man could infest these parts. The BLM caves to the pressures of greed, plain and simple, and the Mustangs suffer. Sad.

TimeRanger wrote on November 26, 2009 10:07 AM: Just ONCE, I would like to see the RJ call these animals by their proper name - FERAL horses, not "wild"

GladK wrote on November 26, 2009 09:26 AM: France & Japan? How about right here. I happened to saunter by the "Lion Habitat" inside the the MGM Grand casino yesterday, and the recorded spiel over the PA system mentions that the pride of lions there are fed horsemeat from a processor in Nebraska. Lovely as their Roy Rogers image is, it's time to get a little less sentimental about these animals. In fact, if you are genuinely & intelligently concerned about Nevada's wildlands, you know that feral horses are an introduced species not particularly well-handled by Nevada's delicate high-desert ecosystem. They frequently dominate & hoard habitat from the native animals of our wilderness areas, plus they have a tendency to trample down scarce water sources like seeping springs, making life more difficult for all to survive. Granted the BLM & government agencies have been tone-deaf in their blundering management, but horse lovers should not let their romantic images get in the way of science & thoughtful concern for the big picture, if they truly care about ALL wild things.

rmolnar wrote on November 26, 2009 07:42 AM: People in France and Japan like horsemeat.

The Man wrote on November 26, 2009 04:37 AM: Can we round up Congress instead? Put them into a cage for an undetermined amount of time. Plus the Senate including do nothing Reid