Le cheval français en morceaux. Statut de l'animal, statut de sa viande

The question of the status of the horse in France and its meat is approached from two recent events, the deployment of a communication policy and the effort to build a livestock local butcher in the cradle land of the Breton race draft. At first surprising, these two initiatives are due to the difficult situation of French industry hippophagy doubly constrained by excessive closeness between horse and men and by regulating more and more strict on food security and animal welfare. Both events proved closely related, but in a contradictory fashion. Behind the screen of sustainable development and recovery of a heritage breed regional landscape and rural occupations, the reality is that of a deep global industry.