Is hippophagy always cruel or does it depend on the circumstances in which it is carried out?

Horsa

Equine-loving rhyme-artist
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I used to think that hippophagy was always cruel no matter what but since I had to read about hippophagy as part of the research phase of my research & report-writing task on equine history set by my Manager while I've got to work at home because of this virus I've read a few things which have changed my mind & I now think the answer to the question I've set is "whether hippophagy is cruel or not depends on the circumstances in which it is carried out. The book I read goes into all the gory details which I'll pass on because it made me feel physically sick & upset at times. (I haven't had a chance to cross-reference what I've read yet but I will do when I get round to it before I put my report into chronological order & re-write it.)

1stly, I need to define the word hippophagy because it is not a word we use everyday. Hippophagy is the process by which horses are butchered & eaten.

2ndly, although we think that all horses that are butchered are bred to be eaten this is not always the case. Sometimes horses have full, normal lives & are well treated before they die so when they die their natural deaths they are sold for horsemeat & their hair is used for paintbrushes. All the horse is used in the same way that native Americans used all the buffalo when they died (except the heart which was buried in the belief that more buffalo would come in its place). Some work-horses were treated better because their owners knew that even if their horse got old they would still get something out of it when it ceased to be so they didn't work it to death. However, unfortunately some people do breed horses just to be butchered & treat the horses they have cruelly.

Apparently in America they have standards for the trading of horses to butcher & people have been murdered because of other people's beliefs on this subject as it's a very controversial topic there. I think it is right that it's a controversial topic there because if it's carried out for the wrong reasons it's very cruel.

What do you think?
 
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