Italy may soon ban horsemeat as part of a law that defines equine animals, including horses, donkeys and donkeys, as pets, making it illegal to kill them.
The bill was drafted by politician Michela Vittoria Brambilla with Noi Moderati of Georgia Meloni’s ruling coalition and has the support of opposition parties.
If passed, it would carry a maximum sentence of three years in prison and fines of up to €100,000 (£87,000) for horse slaughter.
Horse meat has traditionally been part of Italian cuisine, particularly in Puglia, Campania, Sicily, Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna. Italy remains one of the largest importers and consumers of meat in Europe, although consumption has declined significantly over the past decade.
The bill also proposes mandatory microchipping and a national monitoring system, along with a €6m fund to help growers adapt their businesses.
“We are in the 21st century and still horses are exploited in many ways,” said Brambilla, who is also president of the animal rights group LEIDA. “Especially horses … in the Anglo-Saxon world, where the eating of horse-flesh was almost unthinkable, in our country the species is literally plundered to the bone. But friends must not be eaten.”
The proposal is “an extraordinary opportunity to bring about a cultural change already dear to the hearts of the majority of Italians,” Brambilla said.
But not everyone is convinced. Former agriculture minister and far-right League politician and fellow ruling coalition member Gian Marco Centinaio said banning the consumption of horsemeat would mean erasing part of the history of Italian cuisine, which was added to UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage in December. To the Meatballs of Catania”.
Dario Damiani from Forza Italia said the proposal did not take into account the “gastronomic traditions of many regions” and would be a blow to the “traditional economic chain” in those regions, putting businesses and jobs at risk.
The decline in horsemeat consumption among Italians has been driven by cultural change as well as growing ethical concerns and sympathy for animals. In a survey last year, 83% of Italians said they never ate horse meat; 17% said they ate it at least once a month.
