Horse meat set to be banned in Italy amid draft equine bill

Law defines animals including horses, donkeys and mules as pets and is backed by opposition parties

Italy could soon ban horse meat as part of a law that would define equine animals including horses, donkeys and mules as pets, making it illegal to kill them.

The bill has been drafted by Michela Vittoria Brambilla, a politician with Noi Moderati, a member of Giorgia Meloni’s ruling coalition, and is backed by opposition parties.

If approved, it would impose jail terms of up to three years and fines of up to €100,000 (£87,000) for the slaughter of equines.

Horse meat has traditionally been part of Italian cuisine, especially in Puglia, Campania, Sicily, Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna. Even though consumption has declined significantly over the past decade or so, Italy remains one of the largest importers and consumers of the meat in Europe.

The bill also proposes mandatory microchipping and a national monitoring system, alongside a €6m fund to help breeders adapt their businesses.

“We’re in the 21st century and yet equines continue to be exploited in a wide variety of ways,” said Brambilla, who is also president of Leidaa, an animal rights association. “Horses in particular … while in the Anglo-Saxon world, eating horse meat is almost inconceivable, in our country the species is literally exploited to the bone. But friends are not to be eaten.”

Brambilla said the proposal was “an extraordinary opportunity to bring about a cultural shift that is already dear to the hearts of the majority of Italians”.

But not everyone is convinced. Gian Marco Centinaio, a former agriculture minister and politician with the far-right League, and a fellow ruling coalition member, said banning the consumption of equine meat “would mean erasing a piece of the history of Italian cuisine”, which in December was inscribed on Unesco’s intangible cultural heritage list, “and also the identity of some regions … from the horse meat stews of Verona and Salento 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 horse meat consumption among Italians has been driven by a cultural shift as well as growing ethical concerns and empathy towards the animals. In a survey last year, 83% of Italians said they did not eat horse meat; while 17% said they ate it at least once a month.