Re: Horse stealing a felony in Prop. 6?

[lkinsky@silcom.com (Lynn Kinsky)]

>>incur
>>less penalties than if I *gave away* a horse for human consumption!!
>
>But think about it, selling one of our endurance horses for human
>consumption could be considered attempted murder!  Who could chew one of
>these guys?
>
>Angie

With all that lean muscle they'd probably be too tough anyway.  No -- I
wouldn't even think about eating one of my working horses:  even when I've
raised rabbits or pigs I don't give a name to anyone I know will wind up in
the freezer. (I do have a sentimental streak.)  But I had a young gelding
that turned out to be a Wobbler's, and as a responsible breeder I
occasionally need to cull horses that really shouldn't be part of the
breeding stock. I've even seen horses that are too crazy or too weak to
really bother with for riding.  Puppy-mill type of horses.  Not all horses
deserve to be kept around, and in many cases it's a cruelty to do so.

While I've never eaten horsemeat myself (although who knows? -- if they are
trying so hard to keep us from eating it maybe there is something "special"
about it <g>), that is basically a cultural and circumstantial situation.
In Iceland, for example, the horses have always been recognized as a dual
purpose animal: there's even a web site for a packing house in Reykyavik
that specializes in Icelandic horse and lamb meat).  In fact, if anyone in
California (where there isn't even a packing house that does horsemeat --
the nearest one is in Texas!) really wanted to eat horsemeat they could
just import some frozen Icelandic meat or even order some from Texas:  Prop
6 only deals with live horses!  It's very hard to figure out what the
purpose of the Proposition was, because none of the aims it might have been
trying to accomplish have been met!




-- Lynn K. (Santa Ynez, CA)
   http://www.silcom.com/~lkinsky
   Sage Hill NATRC Ride:  http://www.silcom.com/~lkinsky/SageHill