Currently in the UK there is a great scandal about horsemeat being identified in processed beef products. So when I came across this in the archives yesterday I just had to blog about it.
“The
situation we are in today has brought horse flesh into some prominence as food
and seems to have introduced a new terror to horse owners. Previously it was dangerous
to steal a horse which it was generally possible to trace but now the value of
the carcass is increased six or seven times it is easier to conceal. Honest
slaughterers would not kill a young fit horse but it seems there are those less
scrupulous who do not worry about questions if a good offer is made of them”
Bradford Daily Telegraph 17th Sept 1917
They were not so
concerned about the fact they may be eating horse meat but the fact that horses
might be stolen from the fields to be killed for meat. This is at a time when
petrol prices were at their highest and the government had just asked for a
further 10% of Bradford’s horses for use in the military. People could not risk
having their horses stolen for meat if they were to carry on farming or
trading.
