The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-08-21
EATING HORSE BEEF.
Sometimes i'll Steaks and Sometimes
in SausageS.
English Interviewer Tells Stories OF
the Disposition of No
BILE Animals.

Let the autocar come quickly, so that
the base ingratitude to that noblest of
animals, the horse, may no more be
made manifest! says the Auckland, N
T., Star. The generous and fastidious
Englishman, who would never dream of
dining off his old and faithful steed
has no scruple, when the last service is
wrung from the WORKOUT brute, about
sending him abroad as grist for the
Belgian sausage factories.
A representative of the London Daily
Mail went to inquire into the truth of
the statement that 5000 old English
horses were imported into Belgium dur
ing last year for food purposes. He
first called at the Belgian Legation,
where he saw Baron Whettnau, the
Ambassador.
m. lie Baron" inquired the visitor,
plunging into the middle of things, do
you eat our WORKOUT horses?"
Sir was the reply, Il do not eat
your horses of any kind
4 beg your pardon, Baron, but mean
do the people in Belgium eat our old
horses?"
All, that is another matter. 1t is
true that they do eat them, and that a
large trade is done in exporting these
old animals from this country. With
regard to the question asked by NJ
Cartuyvels in the Chamber of Repre-
sentatives, am satisfied that mistake
has been made by the newspaper cor
respondent. No horse flesh is timed
certainly.
'None come back to this country; it
is cut up into joints at certain places
quantity of it is made up into smoked
sausages. 1 am informed that donkeys'
flesh is also largely used, and even
dogs. l do not know; 1 may myself
have eaten some-who can tell? All
yes; it is sad that the faithful horse
should suffer such an end; but if the
mode of slaughter is painless, what
would you? Is it not many times worse
in Spain, where they go to the bull ring
to be disemboweled, so that people may
be amused? Far, far better, my good
sir, think, that the noble horse should
still be uSeful-in the form of SauSages
after his rest time has arrived. No, l
have no personal knowledge of this
trade whatever. l should think the
trade was with Antwerp principally.
Very likely the meat is sent to other
towns from there. The skins and hOOfS
readily find a market in Antwerp, and
the bones are calcined to make manure.
What is there to complain of if the
meat is sold for what it is? The horse
is graminivOrous and he feeds on very
clean thing. Do you ever hear of a
horse eating carrion? 1 have known a
mig to eat a chiIds head off, yet you
do not object to pork! Is it not that,
as a rule, we eat all animals who do
not eat us. A sheep or a COW will not
eat man, therefore man eats them. Why
not eat horse also?'
The manager of the General Steam
Navigation Company in Great Tower
street was willing to give all informa-
ton in his power. He had, he said, no
personal knowledge of what the horses
were like, or what they were used for.
The trade was not in the hands of one
man, but many It was an old and we'll
recognized trade.
On an average perhaps twenty per-
sons shipped horses to Antwerp or Os-
tend. They were generally horse deal
ers. He was informed that these men
went about the country and picked up
broken down old crooks from farm
houses and other places. None of the
meat came back to this country. Be
yond question the trade, for some rea-
son or other, had fallen off greatly
Nothing like the number of horses that
used to be sent to Belgium now found
their way there. Latterly the Dutch
ports had taken great deal of the
trade.