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Comment by satvikpendem | Hacker News Reader

Octopuses are much more intelligent than many give them credit for, but sadly I also love takoyaki (but then again, eating horse and whale is also culturally acceptable in Japan, one of the few countries that allow it; I've tried both as well, they're pretty good).

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Horse meat is really good. Not sure why we still forbid it in the United States considering how we eat plenty of cows and horseback riding is more or less a hobby now.

It’s taboo like eating dog. I don’t even know that’s it illegal

Not in all states (it is illegal in some), but there's no mechanism for USDA inspection of the horse, which means you can't sell it.

If you slaughtered and ate your own horse, it would probably be legal (and, at personal scale, probably would not be noticed even if it were not). But ask a lawyer.

I'm intrigued by your statement "horseback riding is more or less a hobby now". Are you implying that a ban on horse meat in the USA was originally intended to ensure an adequate supply of riding horses during the time when they were still widely used? All of the breeds that Wikipedia lists as bred for consumption are related to draught horses rather than riding horses, although for that matter the list doesn't include any American breeds at all.

I think it's a fair assumption that the taboo against eating horse-meat is related to using horses for transport. Historically, armies wouldn't eat their horses unless they were in an extremely dire situation, etc.

horse meat is allowed in plenty of countries, in northeast italy you can find a lot of horse (and donkey) meat dishes. It is a delicacy though, and more expensive than "regular" meat.

Also pretty common in Sicily.

We do see a lot of horses standing around on the acres lately but this is pets. They get medicin as all other pets and are not safe to eat for humans. The horse meat we eat is especially bred to be eaten.

Not sure about today but when I was a kid horse meat was in every grocery store in France.

This article quotes a post-doc researcher:

"In terms of sentience, they are at a very close level or closer than we think toward us."

That's different than intelligence though, right? Or are they two sides of the same coin? Can you have a very intelligent but low sentience or stupid but high sentience animal?

I think you can even eat raw horse meat in France.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/inside-frances-fading-love-a...

I believe it's typically eaten raw in Japan too.

Most European countries do have horse meat.

There have been corruption scandals where a portion of beef being sold in the EU was partially horse meat (nearly always minced or packaged foods) would be difficult to do with a steak or at least much more difficult. So people may be inadvertently eating small amounts of horse without knowing.

Except Tesco lasagna.

I've had horse in France and Belgium, it's not bad, though not as good as reindeer which I had in Finland (of course).

Reindeer is also available in other places, a bit further south :)

nothing personal against you, but it's funny that as a species we see "interesting fact about an animal" and we're like "hey, I eat that!"

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