Horse — It's What's for Dinner

It actually is in much of the world, so why is it practically illegal to eat in the meat-loving U.S.? Joel Stein tries to find out, and discovers he quite likes the taste

Darrell Gulin / Corbis

Horses gallop in field in Seneca, Oregon.

I was moved by the volume of tributes to Barbaro upon his passing: front-page articles, thousands of cards from fans, a college scholarship in his name. Then I found out Barbaro was a horse.

Here's what they do with dead horses in the rest of the world: they eat them. But in our country the thought of eating horse is so taboo that the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act was just reintroduced in Congress--although there are even fewer horses eaten than flags burned. Despite our reputation, it turns out we are actually a nation that thinks like a 14-year-old girl.

The only...

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