Stateside

(B)eating a dead horse

The US House of Representatives Thursday finally stood up to the powerful horsemeat lobby, voting to outlaw the slaughter of horses for human consumption.

According to The Washington Post, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503) “would effectively close the three U.S.-based slaughterhouses that produce horsemeat for human consumption in Europe and Asia.”

While I have no strong feelings about slaughtering and consuming horses (except I would prefer to do neither), and I think Congress could be devoting its time to more urgent concerns, I do admire the signs held by the women at the right in this photo of a rally supporting the ban.

horsemeat.jpg

The slogan nicely combines the American pastimes of horse-loving and French-bashing. It conjures up amusing images of snooty Parisian horsemeat connoisseurs shouting “Sacre Bleu!” as they learn their favorite delicacy has been removed from the menu.