Sir, – The prejudice against eating horses goes deep, but it seems illogical. We allow pigs – playful, highly intelligent animals – to be farmed in our miserable, utterly unnatural factory systems. Then we eat them.
So why do we not eat free-range horses and donkeys? I understand they make delicious salamis. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The potential risk to people’s health has meant that adequate controls and product labelling for items that might contain nuts, or traces of nuts, have been implemented.
Surely the provision of the highest standards in beef, dairy, poultry, vegetables, seafood and processed foods to Irish consumers also deserves the implementation of equally effective controls? The potential risk to the Irish food industry requires such controls to be put in place and implemented fully without delay. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Fifty shades of neigh. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The Food Safety Authority has now found that 37 per cent of the beef burger products they analysed have tested positive for horse DNA.
Thus over the past few years when many entirely innocent people would sit down to their burger meals telling their family and friends that they were so hungry that they could eat a horse, they actually then did so.
Horses for courses anyone? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Irish meat eaters regularly consume beef and pork. In Europe horse meat is regularly served. As a vegetarian who enjoys eating veggie-burgers, I would suggest the simple solution here is to call the products meat burgers! – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Horse meat in Irish burgers? What are the odds on that? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Is it not time to put stallion steaks and filly burgers on the menu? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – While the thought of unexpectedly tucking into a horse burger shocked the nation, we ask that the public spare a thought for all the other animals slaughtered for their flesh (“No health risk from horse meat, Dáil hears”, Breaking News, January 16th).
Britons who say “neigh” to horsemeat do so because they find ponies lovable; but lambs, pigs, chickens and others are killed for food without many people so much as batting an eyelid or considering their ordeal. One might question why one species is petted and the others ground up without a thought? If this story has shocked people, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals suggests that they reject all meat of tortured animals. We stand ready to help. – Yours, etc,