Bumper Sticker

Horses are feeling safe today, being Ash Wednesday & traditionally "fish" day. Some people will abstain from meat for the next 40 days.
While Germany has not - yet - been hit by the horsemeat scandal, we have had a number of spectacular meat scandals in recent years & a lot worse. I would rather eat (good) horsemeat than the condemned scraps which found their way in to our food chain. Horsemeat is available here but I have never seen it offered. In Munich there is a single horse butcher on the famous Viktualien Market.
We, as all horse owners in Europe are supposed to have an official "passport" for each horse. Herein medication given to an animal is entered by the vet and where one can also enter that one doesn't want one's horse to be used for meat (thus allowing vet to give medication which would not be allowed if the horse was to be slaughtered for meat).
When a few years ago we had to put down our oldest horse Nero, we had to withstand a lot of pressure selling from a horse abattoir. I think the price was about 1 Euro/kg. Naturally we didn't succumb not least because we wanted him to pass away on the field occupied with his favourite pastime - eating. After the vet had left, the state "carcass removal authority" collected the carcass which was then burnt.
It seems the laws are in place but greed will never be exterminated.