Sir, – What happens to the millions of burgers with horse DNA present? We are told they are perfectly safe for human consumption. It would surely be wrong if they were discarded when there are people going hungry in Ireland, and starving in Asia and Africa.
Who decides? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Your Front page coverage of the beef burger crisis (January 17th) makes it clear that at least 10 million beef burgers “may be” or “are likely to be” destroyed not on grounds of food safety but of consumer sensitivity. While there is still time, should we not avert such waste in a manner that would serve the needy? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – It is a right of every consumer to know what exactly he or she is eating, but I am at a loss to explain the furore in relation to eating horse meat.
Muslims do not eat pig, yet most Irish people do. Hindus do not eat cow, yet most Irish people do. In China, people eat cats and dogs, but this would horrify most Irish people.
If one ignores sentimentality and cultural prejudices, where is the logic in treating one sentient living animal with affection and kindness, while treating others as grist to the mill? People may say that it’s because dogs and cats are more intelligent, but the characterisation of Napoleon and the other pigs as the leaders of all the other animals in George Orwell’s Animal Farm was based on scientific evidence: pigs are generally more intelligent than dogs.
If anyone is interested in reading more about man’s ambivalent relationship with animals, I recommend reading Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Waiter to customer, “Would you like me to put anything on your burger”? Customer replies, “Ten euro each way”. – Yours, etc,
TOM GILSENAN,
Elm Mount, Beaumont,
Dublin 9.
A chara, – In 1959 a consignment of 48 horses exported from Ireland was lost at sea in stormy weather. Protection societies in Ireland and Great Britain suggested that this trade be stopped, and that the horses be processed in Ireland. According to Austin Clarke, cars carried the slogan: “Stop exporting horses. Start meat factories here”.
Clarke showed his disapproval of this campaign in two poems Knacker Rhymes and The Hippophagi. Knacker Rhymes has a section that foreshadows how the Irish will join the Hippophagi: “But why keep the raw hides/And none of the insides?/Let stomach be steady, then./As hand that endorses/The bigger cheques. Irishmen,/Taste your own horses”. – Yours, etc,
PEADAR MAC MAGHNAIS,
Bothar Bhinn Eadair,
Baile Átha Cliath 5.