Friday 31 May 2013

Things That Bemuse Me #7 - The Horsemeat Scandal

This is a post that is very overdue and has been sitting in my 'draft' box for about 4 months. As now the hype about this topic has gone it is probably about time to get around to posting it. I'll begin with a huge disclaimer, however, and admit that I am a vegetarian from birth (and by privilege) because I simply do not like the taste of meat.

Horses
© KitAy
 The horse meat scandal is something that inevitably had caused chaos within the UK and Western Europe, but the media admittedly kicked up the most fuss with the endless news articles, TV documentaries, talk shows and jokes.

 Speaking to a friend of mine who originates from Uzbekistan, she was finding the whole thing rather amusing as she remembers a time when for her to eat horse it was considered a privilege. Many of the interviews shown on TV would be animal rights protesters saying that horses should not be eaten for moral reasons and that it is completely wrong to murder a horse for human food and then not tell people.

 Of course, it is wrong not to tell people, but the main problem was the lack of regulation of potentially harmful drugs to humans that could be found in the meat - which is a fair enough reason to be outraged, and certain journalists did a fantastic job of highlighting this fact. Unfortunately, the majority of people shown on TV and 'shocked' were not, in fact, shocked by this potential threat to human health. They were 'shocked' because they are convinced that eating horse is a complete mortal sin. From this, I can either conclude one of three things:

  • Everybody outside of Yorkshire but in the UK is a horse loving animal rights fanatic. (Possible) 
  • People in the UK do not know that they are born. (Likely) 
  • The Media has decided to paint the general public as delinquent or crazy. (Again, possible) 

 The reason why I disclude Yorkshire is that after speaking to many strong independent Yorkshire people on this topic, I found that the only problem they had with it was that they did not know they were eating horse. In fact, the majority of people I spoke to would have happily eaten horse had it been on the label. The question still bemusing me now that this topic has died down is quite simply this; Do British people overreact because we live sheltered, cushioned lives by comparison to other parts of the world or are we all lunatics? My guess is the latter.

To get these posts to your mailbox, please enter your email address: