One of Paris’s last horse meat butchers discusses the disappearance of his trade
I&#x27;m fascinated by how irrational people are about food.  In California, it&#x27;s a <i>felony</i> to slaughter a horse.  And that isn&#x27;t some old law that no one&#x27;s bothered to repeal, it came about through a ballot initiative in 1998. A few other US states have bans, and the federal government allocates zero dollars to the mandatory screening of any horse meat factories, so it&#x27;s effectively banned nationwide.  I don&#x27;t see how it&#x27;s anyone else&#x27;s business what I do with an animal that belongs to me.  Especially eating it, which is in the natural order of things.<p>As mentioned in the interview, there was a massive scandal in Europe about horse meat being substituted for beef in some products.  No one would have batted an eye if it was turkey being substituted for chicken, or lamb for beef.  Regulators would obviously have punished those responsible, but the public wouldn&#x27;t have cared if there was no safety issue. But horses, and everyone loses their minds. How bizarre.  It&#x27;s the same thing with cats and dogs.  People have no problem with killing pigs, and they sure love their bacon, but a lot of those same people would throw you in jail for eating cats or dogs.  I don&#x27;t understand it. Yes, I get that cats and dogs are pets. Are people really willing to ruin a human being&#x27;s life, just to support the fantasy that little Fluffy is a person?