Why Belgians Shoot Horses in Texas For Dining in Europe
Grass-Fed Meat Is Superior,
But Slaughterhouses Draw
Growing Criticism in U.S.
TOURCOING, France -- Christian Dhalluin, a butcher in this rural French hamlet near the Belgian border, dropped some ground meat into a bowl and mixed it with a spicy mayonnaise sauce to make his specialty: American horse meat tartare.
"I love America," said Mr. Dhalluin. "The horse meat from the U.S. is the best in the world."
Some Americans would be distressed to hear that. A vocal antislaughter movement argues that horses have a special place in American culture and history and should not be killed for food. Activists have spurred an energetic but uphill effort in Congress to shut down the last three horse slaughterhouses in the U.S. All are Belgian-owned and supply butchers around the world.
A U.S. ban would mean that Mr. Dhalluin would no longer be able to buy the meat that vaulted him to a gold medal in a recent culinary contest for "best sausage in the category of garlic."
"Americans do not profit from slaughtering horses," Rep. John Sweeney, a New York Republican trying to close down the slaughterhouses, said in House debate in June. "Foreigners eat our horses, and foreign companies make money off the sale of meat."
The revelation three years ago that the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner, Ferdinand, ended up in a slaughterhouse in Japan, galvanized the U.S. antislaughter movement -- and caused two of the Belgian-owned plants to take on lawyers and lobbyists. "Toss in Mr. Ed and Black Beauty, and we have a real public-relations problem," says Olivier Kemseke, a Belgian horse-meat dealer whose family owns one of the Texas slaughterhouses under attack.
Federal law doesn't ban eating horse in the U.S., but the meat is now no longer sold for human consumption domestically. It was marketed during the meat shortages of World War II. A lack of demand later dried up the domestic market, though horse meat remained on the menu of the Harvard Faculty Club in Cambridge, Mass., until 1983. The chef took it off when he could no longer get fresh meat; the steaks were arriving frozen.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which inspects the horses headed for foreign tables, says 58,736 horses were slaughtered in the U.S. last year for human consumption, yielding 13.6 million pounds of meat for export to the European Union, Japan, Mexico and Switzerland. A decade ago, there were around a dozen U.S. facilities slaughtering horses for export. Today, with demand declining, that's down to just two in Texas and one in Illinois.
Mr. Kemseke, 33 years old, is the third generation of his family to be in the horse-meat business. He owns slaughterhouses in New Zealand and Romania but likes the American quarter horse best. Ample grazing land means more American horses eat natural grasses, enhancing their flavor, he says.
In the 1990s, Mr. Kemseke lived in Kaufman, Texas, where he managed the family's U.S. slaughterhouse. He loved the ranching town, pop. 6,700, near Dallas. "I had a little cowboy thing going," he says, slapping his pants and shirt. "Wrangler jeans, the belt, the boots, the Western shirt." He cruised around town in a 1971 brown Cadillac. "Everybody waved and called my name. I was living the American life."
Foes of horse slaughter portray the meat as an exotic delicacy for foreigners, evoking images of Paris brasseries serving up American horse meat alongside foie gras and champagne. But many consumers of horse meat are more like Nicole Chaupin, a French homemaker in a skirt and sneakers who ordered a small container of Mr. Dhalluin's freshly made horse tartare. "It's good. It's healthy," Mrs. Chaupin said of horse meat, which is slightly redder than beef, more tender and gamier in flavor.
Historically, consumption of horse meat in Europe was associated with poverty and desperation. The practice is believed to have begun when Napoleon's troops, fighting the Russians at the Battle of Eylau in Poland in 1807, ran low on supplies and ate their horses. Horse meat helped sustain Europeans during the deprivations of two World Wars.
Because horse meat is high in iron and low in fat, European doctors today often prescribe it to treat anemia.
The American Quarter Horse Association, the American Veterinary Medical Association and other groups support slaughter, arguing that there are not enough rescue facilities to care for unwanted horses. And in Washington, many farm-state lawmakers also want to keep the slaughterhouses open, in part because closing them might embolden animal-rights groups and vegetarians to demand a ban on the slaughter of beef cattle, pigs and sheep. "What is the distinction between a steer, a hog and a horse?" Iowa Rep. Steve King asked on the House floor in June. The zebra he ate in Africa last year was excellent, the Iowa Republican said.
Horses "are not like other animals," says John Hettinger, a thoroughbred breeder and auction-house owner in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. "I've seen a Clydesdale without a halter on performing intricate maneuvers in Madison Square Garden," he says. "Now, I'd like a cattleman to show me a cow that can do the same thing."
Mr. Hettinger, 72, has spent $160,000 on Washington lobbyists in an effort to ban the slaughter of horses, federal records show. The thoroughbred auction house he controls, Fasig-Tipton Inc., once sold Man o' War, whose racing career from 1919 to 1920 is considered one of the greatest in American history. "I've made my living off horses," says Mr. Hettinger, "and this is my way of giving back." The Texas plants have spent about the same amount in an effort to preserve it, according to Mr. Kemseke. The Texas slaughterhouses' lobbyist, Jim Bradshaw, has made more than $27,000 in campaign donations to pro-slaughter lawmakers, federal records show.
While the debate goes on, an American Airlines flight takes off every day from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, headed for Paris's Charles DeGaulle airport with a load of horse carcasses in its cargo belly. After passing French inspection, the U.S. horse meat from Mr. Kemseke's plant is driven in refrigerated trucks to rural Rekkem, Belgium, where it is repackaged and shipped to butchers. Some especially choosy butchers, like Mr. Dhalluin, come to the plant's freezers to pick their own cuts.
Mr. Kemseke uses local horses, too. In a run-down neighborhood in central Brussels called Anderlecht, famous for its abattoirs, Mr. Kemseke watched recently as 200 frightened Belgian horses were unloaded from trailers, kicking and snorting, and tied to iron rails. Wearing a butcher's robe, he walked among the animals, lifting tails and slapping flanks, making notes on a pad about which to purchase for slaughter.
Horses are slaughtered in the same manner as cattle: with a metal bolt shot into their heads. The antislaughter activists call this method particularly inhumane. "If our friends in Belgium want to eat horse meat, I'm not trying to dictate that they do or not do it," says Skip Trimble of the Texas Humane Legislation Network. "But we in America, who view the horse differently, should not supply them with our horses."
So far, economic arguments have prevailed over the emotional appeals of the antislaughter forces. Mr. Bradshaw, the slaughterhouse lobbyist, tells lawmakers the Texas plants spend $6 million a year shipping horse meat with American Airlines and other U.S. carriers.
Even the oversized American flag at the American Legion post that greets drivers entering Kaufman is paid for by Mr. Kemseke's horse-slaughter business. "So they want to close us down?" Mr. Kemseke says. "Then I don't know where Kaufman's gonna get their next flag."
马肉之争
克里斯汀?达鲁因(Christian Dhalluin)是靠近比利时边境一个法国小村庄的屠夫，他把一些马肉放进碗里，加上辛辣的蛋黄酱，准备做他的特色菜：美式马肉饼。
“我喜欢美国，”达鲁因说，“美国的马肉是全世界最好的。”
但是，倘若一些美国人听到这样的赞美，他们会感到悲哀的。这些人正推动一场声势浩大的反屠马运动，他们认为，马在美国文化和历史中占据著特殊的地位，不应被屠宰作为肉食。反屠马人士正积极但艰难地游说国会关闭美国最后三家屠马场，这三家都是比利时人开的，向全球供应马肉。
“美国人不能从屠宰场中获得利益，”纽约一位共和党议员约翰?斯文内(John Sweeney)在2005年6月份的众议院辩论会上说，“是外国人在吃我们的马，是外国公司在从马肉销售中赚钱。”
三年前，一匹1986年肯塔基州大赛马会的冠军马费迪南(Ferdinand)在日本一家屠宰场被结束生命。这个消息给美国反屠马运动火上浇油，让两家比利时屠宰场不得不聘请律师和游说团为自己争取生存空间。“我们面临了一个公关问题，”德克萨斯州一家屠马场的经理奥利弗?凯姆塞克(Olivier Kemsek)说道。
美国联邦法律并不禁止吃马肉，但美国国内已不再销售马肉供人食用了。第二次世界大战时期肉类短缺，美国曾有马肉销售，但战后对马肉需求的衰退使国内市场几乎停顿，只有麻塞诸塞州剑桥市的哈佛教授俱乐部(Harvard Faculty Club)里还有马肉出现在功能表上；直到1983年，厨师再也得不到新鲜马肉，而只有冰冻马肉，于是就把这道菜取消了。
负责检查马肉出口的美国农业部(U.S. Department of Agriculture)表示，2004年美国共屠宰了58,736匹马供人食用，向欧盟、日本、墨西哥和瑞士出口了1,360万磅马肉制品。10年前，美国约有12家屠马场从事马肉出口，现在随著需求的下降，只剩下德克萨斯州和伊利诺斯州的两家。
33岁的凯姆塞克已是这个从事马肉生意家族的第三代了，他在新西兰和罗马尼亚都有屠马场，但最喜欢的还是美国的夸特马。美国马能吃到充足的牧草，使其肉质鲜美，凯姆塞克说道。
90年代，凯姆塞克一直生活在德克萨斯州的考弗曼，打理家族在美国的屠马场。他喜欢这个靠近达拉斯市仅有6,700人的牧区小镇。“每个人都向我挥手致意，叫我的名字，我过著美国牛仔的生活。”
反对屠马的人一直把马肉描绘成外国富人口中的美味，令人联想起达观显贵在巴黎餐厅就著香槟酒和水晶杯享用马肉的情景。但其实马肉制品更多地还是作为尼古拉?肖宾(Nicole Chaupin)这样的平民百姓的日常食品，他要了一份达鲁因刚做好的美式马肉饼。“味道不错，而且健康，” 肖宾这样评价道，马肉比牛肉更红嫩一些，也更有味道。
从历史来看，吃马肉在欧洲意味著贫穷和绝望。这一传统起源于1807年拿破仑的军队在波兰与俄国人的艾罗战役(Battle of Eylau)，当时部队弹尽粮绝，只能宰马果腹。马肉也帮欧洲人度过了两次世界大战的艰难岁月。
由于马肉含有丰富的铁，且脂肪含量低，现在欧洲的医生常把吃马肉作为治疗贫血的方法。
美国夸特马协会(American Quarter Horse Association)、美国兽医协会(American Veterinary Medical Association)等组织支援屠宰马匹，认为没有足够的救援机构来关心被遗弃的马匹。在华盛顿，许多美国农业州的议员也希望屠马场继续存在，部分原因在于关闭屠马场可能会让动物保护组织和素食主义者下一步要求关闭牛、猪和羊的屠宰场。
马“和其他动物不同，”纯种马饲养者以及纽约萨拉托加村温泉疗养地(Saratoga Springs)一家拍卖行的老板约翰?海丁格(John Hettinger)说，“我见过英国克莱德马(Clydesdale)不受驱策就能表演很多复杂的动作，我倒是想看看奶牛能不能做到这一点。”
联邦记录显示，72岁的的海丁格已经花了16万美元让华盛顿的说客游说国会关闭屠马场。他经营的纯种马拍卖行曾卖出过一匹叫“战将”(Man o' War)的马，它在1919年到1920年的赛季中被认为是美国历史上最出色的马之一。“我从马发家，”海丁格说，“这是我回报的方式。”据凯姆塞克称，德克萨斯州的屠马场也花了差不多金额的钱来游说自己能生存下来。联邦记录显示，这家屠马场的说客吉姆?布莱德休(Jim Bradshaw)已经向支持屠马场的议员捐赠了2.7万美元。
就在争论如火如荼地展开之际，美利坚航空公司(American Airlines)的航班每天从达拉斯/伏特沃斯国际机场(Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport)起飞，满载著屠宰后的马匹飞往巴黎的戴高乐机场(Charles DeGaulle airport)。通过法国安检后，从凯姆塞克的屠宰场出口的美国马肉被低温货车运往比利时农村，在那里进行包装后运给各地的屠夫。一些特别挑剔的屠夫，如达鲁因，会自己到厂里的冰库选肉。
凯姆塞克也屠宰比利时的本地马，在比利时一个屠宰场密集的地区Anderlecht，凯姆塞克看著200匹惊慌的马匹从拖车卸下。身穿屠夫的工作服，他在马匹中行走，不时拍拍马身，或掀起马尾查看，在纸上记下自己要买来屠宰的马匹的编号。
马匹的屠宰方式与牛相同：在它们头上钉入一个金属螺钉。反屠马者说这种方式尤其不人道。“如果我们的比利时朋友想吃马肉，我不会去管他们，”德克萨斯州人道立法组织(Texas Humane Legislation Network)的斯吉普?特林伯(Skip Trimble)说，“但我们美国人对马的态度不同，不该把我们的马供他们屠宰。”
目前，经济利益战胜了反屠马运动的感情抗争。德克萨斯州屠宰场的说客布莱德休告诉议员，屠宰场每年要在马肉运输上支付美利坚航空公司和其他美国航空公司600万美元。
甚至进入考弗曼镇时路标上的大号美国国旗都是凯姆塞克的屠宰场出钱买的。“他们想让我们关门？”凯姆塞克说，“那想想考弗曼镇的下一面国旗从哪里来？”
