Related to Ken-L-Ration
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‘There is a popular myth, possibly based on beliefs advanced by both French and German scientists in the early days of food research, that the meat of the horse contains some harmful element not found in other animals of the red meat type.

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The early scientific theories about horse-meat have been thoroughly disproved by scientific facts, but the myth remains. A well-known writer on things canine – S. Boehm – probably aroused a sort of “whispering campaign” that is going on against this very excellent meat food for dogs, has just raised the issue in a challenging article in one of the monthly dog magazines – Dogdom for May, 1933 = citing a recent article by Dr. H. Loessl in a well-known German dog publication. We quote briefly:

Dr. Loessl says: “The warning against horse-meat that, supposedly, contains harmful substances... is founded on an unfortunately often repeated fairy tale. Last year further experiments were made in the Agricultural College (Dr. Loessl, probably, refers to the Agricultural College of Berlin). Several groups of litters received as their meat supply, exclusively and plentifully, raw horse meat, from earliest puppyhood until complete maturity, and INVARIABLY THE GREATEST SUCCESS WAS RECORDED. In its effect, the raw horse meat exceeded all other kinds of meat equal in albumen, even if other kinds of meat were given in larger quanities...

“... scientific research work is always to be recommended and its findings are always of value, but it seems to me the plainest of common sense would settle the question anent [sic] and detrimental effects of horse meat. There is no biological reason whatever why the meat of the horse should be more harmful than any other kind of meat. So far as I know, the wild animals of the Zoological Gardens of the world are all fed on horse meat. If there was the slightest danger in this food, it’s a cinch that these expensive and often rare creatures would get it! Also, numerous of my acquaintances have fed horse meat to their dogs for years, and one of our best known and very widely used canned rations admittedly contains horse meat, and I have never heard that this product engendered any undesirable effects. Finally, horse meat is extensively sold as human food in foreign countries.”’ (446)

‘scientists find the horse as a meat animal, and the dog as a meat-eating animal, from the earliest times – long before the ancestors of the cow, sheep, hog, or any other domestic animal had taken a form which would enable us to connect them with the common human meat-animals of today. These records of nature, revealed by geology, seem to leave no doubt that dogs have been eating horse-meat for more than 50,000,000 years. And there are still a few dogs alive in the world today!’ (448)

‘The horse of the American western plains today is a descendent of... southern [European and Middle Eastern] horses...

It is from the horses of the Crusades that the modern heavy horses of northern Europe descend. Some years ago the three Chappel brothers, experienced livestock men, decided to try an audacious experiment. They joined these two types, for the specific purposes of producing a meat horse – different from eaither type and resembling the ancient meat-animal from which both are descended. The experiment was completely successful, and now the offspring of thick-meated Percheron and Belgian stallions and light-boned western mares are being bred and raised in herds of thousands solely for their meat. The resulting cross has typical “hybrid vitality.”

The Uses of Horse Flesh

What becomes of all this meat? It has many uses, but the chief of them is to supply food for dogs. Some of it is exported for human food. Liver extract and blood serums used in medicine are among other familiar products. Veterinarians say that the horse is the healthiest of all domestic animals, and probably that is one reason why its products are highly esteemed as therapeutic agents.’ (448)