A column on the website of the “Farmington Daily Times,” a website based in New Mexico, where a horse slaughter plant is poised to open, recently analyzed some of the arguments made by opponents to horse slaughter.
The writer, New Mexico syndicated columnist Sherry Robinson, said: “The most ironic argument against a slaughterhouse for unwanted horses is that the noble animal is a western icon, a star in the taming of the West. Somebody needs to read more history. To pioneers, the army and Indian tribes, horses were transportation. When a horse was used up, it was eaten. Meat’s meat.”
I can’t tell if she’s arguing in favor of eating horse meat because it was done in the past or she’s just poking holes in the claim to set the record straight.
But I would argue that making any comparison to the past is wrong, no matter which side of this debate one takes.
We don’t want to go back.
We are better than our past.
We should not look fondly on ancestors whose ethics were much less developed than our own.
Do we want to compare ourselves to those who burned witches? Or held mob lynchings? Or owned and sold slaves? Do you want me to be surprised that such people ran a horse into the ground and then ate it for dinner?
I realize such behavior existed at a time not so long ago, but please don’t compare Americans to that. We have grown up a little.
In today’s world, when food is too plentiful for our waistbands, when horses are our friends and equals, not our transportation, does it makes sense to kill them by knocking them out and slitting their throat on the killing floor of a slaughterhouse after a terrifying and dangerous trip? No.
It’s unethical and wrong.
That’s the only argument that matters.