All a question of taste

The news that some supermarket beefburgers have been found to contain horsemeat has been met with disgust in some quarters.  The ethics and taboos of what we are prepared to put in our mouths has always fascinated me.  We don't eat dog, but it is a commonplace food in South-East Asia.  We don't eat cat, but the Chinese do.  And we don't eat horse, although many on the Continent - particularly France - do, and indeed we ourselves did not all that long ago.  There were several letters in the press in the run-up to Christmas expressing outrage that some shops were selling reindeer meat, although we eat venison readily enough, and it is essentially the same animal.  And as for eating each other...!