24 July 2010

So Hungry I Could Eat a Horse...Only in Western Australia


The butcher who has been given the go-ahead to sell horse meat for human consumption says there has been a small black market in it in Australia for years.

Perth butcher Vince Garreffa began selling horse meat at his store on Tuesday and is vowing to continue, despite receiving death threats from animal liberationists.

Mr Garreffa says Australia has the sixth largest export market for horse meat in the world, slaughtering from 50,000 to 70,000 horses a year for human consumption in countries in Europe and Asia.

"We've now got to a stage because of the furore, people are just sneaking in, quietly whispering that they'd like some horse meat and we sell it to them quietly.

So we've become the horse whisperers."Western Australia is the only state,so far, to legally allow the slaughter of Horses to be sold for human consumption in Australia.

16 comments:

  1. I'm sure it makes a change from goana or kangaroo!

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  2. Hahaha .. I wouldnt know!!

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  3. What! You never see Crocodile Dundee?

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  4. LOL..figures...:)

    There's a restaurant down the road that does the whole gambit...crocodile, emu, kangaroo, hippo...

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  5. ..and roast cockatoo on a skewer.

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  6. ohh well that certainly would have ruffled a few feathers, for sure ..

    Sounds kind of Gross really.. but only because its not usual to eat Cockatoos.

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  7. Hi, and welcome.. nice to see you here.

    Where is down the road, if you dont mind me asking ( counry wise, obviously not street address lol).

    Never heard of roast Hippo.

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  8. I have indeed seen the movies, but its not common place to eat those critters in my kitchen lol

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  9. :D...okay, u got me. I was kidding about the hippo...prolly b a bit tough anyhow!

    ...Western Oz

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  10. well.. If you had the gang around for a Hippo BBQ no one would leave hungry !! hahaha

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  11. Canada has been selling horse meat for as far as I can remember. Back when I was a starving student.... I've had horse meat! (Runs and ducks). It was cheap back then. Now, its become a praised meat... hence charging extra for it. I cant afford it anymore. But truth be told... I never really liked it much. Cant say it tastes like gaming meats... its just.... bloody tasting. Harsh.

    No need to crucify me... its been digested and pooped out over 30 years ago!

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  12. Spain sells horse meat all the time, I've no qualms about eating it.

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  13. horses were extinct in North America for 10,000 years because it had such a good flavor

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  14. Oooooh...that is so gross. Glad I don't live in WA. I will never forget the time they hunted Brumbies in NSW by helicopter. That made me so sick.

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  15. 16 March, 2010
    The Australian Alps latest feral horse survey, released yesterday, reveals there are more than 7,000 brumbies in the alpine national parks.

    It represents an annual increase of more than 21 per cent since the surveys began in 2001.


    5 March, 2010

    Queensland's Carnarvon Gorge National Park was closed for several days from Monday for a cull of feral animals, including horses.

    THOUSANDS of brumbies will be killed as humanely as possible in western Queensland by a new government squad trained to shoot the horses in the heart and head.
    Queensland's most fragile ecosystems are under siege from animal pests including horses, camels, pigs, dingoes, deer, rabbits, foxes, cats and even feral cattle.

    An attempt to muster the horses and sell the meat to pet food companies failed.
    "The last major Carnarvon cull cost Queensland taxpayers in excess of $A200,000 for helicopters, snipers and 20,000 rounds of bullets."


    It is a tough thing to see footage of the culling. I watched an interview on 60 Minutes where Horse Handlers were trying to round up large numbers of the horses and hurd them away from certain areas of the National Park. I am not actually against culling if it is done humanly but there will always be unwanted suffering in any cull and thats what upsets me.

    Do you recall when the Koalas in Victoria were starving..literally falling out of the trees, dieing of starvation?? Alot of the community were appauled that the Koalas would be culled.. a number were moved to Kangaroo Island but it was impossible to relocate and treat the numbers involved. Very Sad, but Culing was necessary there too I believe.

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  16. But sooner or later there will be none left to cull. It's like here. They say there are so many deer etc put out statistics to support it yet every year so many are hunted. The problem really is people taking over their habitat. LOL. I'm all for the animals and living with them.

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