Italy wants to ban horse meat

Francesca Martini, a minster with the Italian health ministry and a member of the ruling Right-wing coalition, has put forward the bill, arguing that the “dignity of horses should be respected”.

The motion is already on the desk of the Italian parliament's culture commission and has won considerably cross party support with opposition centre-Left MPs also backing it.

Among those leading the call for a ban is Italy's agriculture minister Luca Zaia who says horses should not be eaten and instead “considered just like cats and dogs”.

Mr Zaia said:”I have always been against the slaughter and consumption of horse meat. Horses are fine animals and should be treated as such, they should not be eaten.”

His support has angered people who live in his home region of Veneto, which covers Venice and Verona, where horse meat is a culinary delicacy and features in several dishes.

Horse meat has been a delicacy in Italy since the Roman times although during the Middle Ages Pope Gregory III did describe its consumption as “abominable” but his calls for it to be shunned were ignored by hungry peasants.

In 1928 a law was introduced by Benito Mussolini's Fascist government that only specialist horse butchers could sell equine meat and they could not stock other cuts.

In order to meet the high demand for horse meat in Italy more than 200,000 horses are imported from Poland, Brasil, France and Eastern Europe every year.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation 213,000 horses are slaughtered in Italy every year but now politicians from all parties are considering banning its slaughter and sale.