I couldn't give a crap if horses are eaten, I am assuming you are saying this because you know I am quite heavily involved in the horse industry but it makes no difference to me, its just a big tame cow, a beautiful, sensitive, emotional one but then so are my pigs and one of them gets the knife in a few days so not sure what the point is.

Good on ya for eating horse, I can't stand it and given what horses are dosed with in the UK and much of europe to keep them healthy with little or no withdrawal period I'd rather not, cheers.

No I wasn't aware of that, but it's irrelevant anyway.
I have had various involvement over the years but at the end of the day I try to treat all domesticated creatures with equal respect and I never had a whacking great HORSE sign on the box just to impress ppl.

With regard to your remark about horse medication, I would guess that a large percentage of horsemeat originates from the gypsy communities and I would think its a rare occasion when they dose their nags with expensive drugs or call on a vet to do likewise.

You would be wrong. The vast majority of New Forest ponies sold at market are bound for France and Belgium. These ponies, for welfare sake are all wormed.

As are most other forms of live meat whilst still on the hoof.
Afraid you'll have to go veggie if thats a major problem for you.

No you don't. There are plenty of short withdrawal drugs that are carefully monitored. I thought you have kept stock? You don't need to worm pigs any more of they are slaughtered before they reach a certain age but the withdrawal for all horse wormers is too long to make the meat untainted but most of Europe simply doesn't care.

http://www.equi-store.co.uk/acatalog..._Warnings.html

From 20 days and upwards with these.
Wether or not it's tainted is a matter of opinion and taste.
I doubt most ppl would ever notice anyway, especially with horsemeat.
In any event you're only referring to the treatment of new forest ponies which only represent a small percentage of Eu trade.

Back to topic guys, competitive meat eating is not an event yet.

So they are wormed at the sales and sold to bidders. Many of whom take them straight to France.

Now there's a thought. There's a restaurant up my way that serves up an absolutely ginormous steak with a few veg and offers it free to any customers who can clear their plates.

As far as I know,no one has had a free meal yet.

Yeh, sounds a great idea for an Olympic event.

Back on topic please.

Eating horses has nothing to do with the Olympics.

Who knows ?
I bet it was on some athletes menus in Beijing, along with.......God knows what ?

OK Fred received and understood.

Look, if synchronized swimming, beach volleyball and bmx bikes can be Olympic sports, I fail to be see why eating horses can't be.

Broaden your horizons, people.

It is in the States. They have "how much can you eat in this amount of time" contests all the time.

The Olympics is over, the thread will basically become a bitch fest about how the "Legacy" will be death, amputation and ebola infection and how the only way an economy can possibly cope is by not having an Olympics because, well look at Greece! (Not withstanding Sydney or Beijing of course!)

Ah well, horses for courses as they say.