Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1890-01-31
HORSE ABATTOIRS.
THE USE OF HORSEFLESH FOE
FOOD IN PARIS.
Only Aged and Worn-out Animals are
Standardization the Horses are
kiiled-The Flesh Rather
Tough and Repulsive.

away anything, and when horses become
used up with work what remains of them
is killed and eaten. There were Is, 900
horses and 800 asses eaten in Paris last
year. There are four special abattoirs
for slaughtering them, and horsefiesh is
eaten in all forms. Strangers, however,
will have some difficulty in obtaining
horse steak for the asking, although it is
often palmed off on them under another
name. 1t is deftly concealed in beef Il la
mode, or is used in making soups and
stews. A visit to one of the horse abattoirs
in Paris is not calculated to make one
confirmed hippophagist, or horsefiesh
eater. The writer visited one of the largest
of these slaughter house early one morn
ing, and saw the sort of animals that are
thought fit for human food in Paris. This
abattoir is in the south of Paris in the
Boulevard de PHospital, not many yards
from the famous Manufacture des Gobelin
There were forty horses waiting to be
slaughtered. They were decrepit old in
valids, lame, spawned, diseased and flesh
less old hacks, suffering all the infirmities
which afiiict the equine race. When a
horse becomes useless for everything else
he is taken to these abattoirs and killed,
unless he dies on the way. Some of those
in the stables were so rickety that tb i
could not stand up. There we're several
asses among the stock. When alive the
ass is characterized by great endurance
and phenomenal toughness, and it pre-
serves those qualities when dead.
The butchers did not spare the horses
feelings, and that they still had feelings
was evident from the way the poor brutes
trembled when brought forth to await
their fate. Before horse was killed his
shoes were knocked off, his name and
tail clipped, and while these preiminaries
were being performed he was allowed to
stand and see Others being knocked down.
He appeared to understand what was
going on and what was awaiting him.
A blind was placed over the animals
eyes, and sharp pointed hammer driven
into its skull little above the eyes. A
horse is easier killed than an OK. After
the skin was removed what remained was
to all appearance a mass of bones. But
they were carted away all the same by
the butchers and sold to the poor people
and the cheap restaurants. 1t was dur
ing the siege of Paris that the French
people became habituated to the use of
horsefesh. Before the imprisoned Par
isians were reduced to eating dogs, cats
and rats, horsefiesh was the staple article
of food for many weeks. The consump-
ton of horsehesh, however, had been
authorized several years before the war.
The first horse abattoir was opened in
Paris in 1866, and restaurant, where
nothing but dishes made from horse flesh
was served, was established in the Latin
Quarter in 1866. The siege popularized
the food, and ever since then the auanti-
ty consumed has increased every year.
French soldiers kill and cat their
wounded horses. When Napoleon's army
was retreating from Moscow amid the
SHOWS of Russia the only food of the sol
diers was horsehesh. During the Cri-
mean war, when the commissariat of the
French and English troops was in bad
way, the French SOLD s lived sumptu-
ously ON horsefesh .hc English
were almost dyi' .fvation. The
French also fe orsehesh in the
Franco Germa
From as' point of view there
is no reason why horsefesh should not be
eaten by man. Its wholesomeness de-
pends on the condition of the horse, and
horses are not usually raised for the
shambles. Before the consumption of
horsefesh was authorized in France, a
number of scientific men held series of
conferences and banquets to demonstrate
that the horse was good for food.
Geoffroy Saint Hilaire declared that il
was absurd for the French people to lose
millions of pounds of good meat every
year, when thousands of poor people
were in want of food. M. de Quatre-
fages tried to prove that horseflesh was
superior to beef. The fibre was much
finer he said. These scientific gentle
men, in order to show that they were
not afraid of piece of horse themselves,
held hippophagist banquet, at which
the menu consisted OF horse soup, horse
sausage, boiled horse meat, roast and
ragout, and salad dressed with horse fat.