Created: 2012.01.24
It is interesting seeing the attitudes around the world as to what is food and what is 'eeewww'
Horse - while wildly popular in Europe (I understand France in specific), and Japan, it is not popular in the US or English Canada. 'Out West' in Alberta we have a strong cultural taboo against eating horse meat, we consider horses suitable for racing, riding and pets, but it is still available in a few stores in BC, Alberta and Toronto at least. The fact that far too many are bred to get a few good racing horses means there is a lot of excess otherwise unwanted horse that someone has to look after or eat, so we export East and West instead of eating it ourselves. (It is sort of, but not quite, like India where they export cows for slaughter but because of religious reasons they won't eat them locally - it was a friend in India, while I was in India, who pointed out this hypocrisy to me and said 'but I would never eat cow'.) As far as I know, it is very rare to raise horse 'for meat' due to the low feed conversion ratio, rather it gets in the food chain from the abundance of unwanted animals (some debate this 'fact' saying they are wanted, we just can't afford the feed for all of this, ah, not-unwanted animals. The Budweiser company is famous for paying for feed and housing for all their retired animals so that they never end up in the food chain.)
Rabbits - a popular tasting food, but I don't know if it is because it is a rodent, or if it is because of long term Hebrew culture influence(Rabbit is on the list of 'unclean' animals for Jews) but there is a stigma against it. Some say there are 3 problems between Rabbits and popularity on the table: People don't think about Rabbit as 'food', there are no meat processors that process rabbit (at least in my part of the country) and so there is no way to have commercial level production of Rabbit which would raise awareness.
Guinea pigs - as popular in some South American countries as Turkey is in Canada. I'm told there is a growing 'guinea pigs for meat' culture in the United States, but as far as I can see it hasn't reached Canada. Some people from Peru claim 'every household in Peru has a breeding pen of guinea pigs for the dinner table' - much like farmsteaders who have chickens in their back yard. Because of its historical use as a 'feast' food, much like turkey in Canada and the US, one famous painting of 'the last supper' shows Christ Jesus and the 1 disciples eating guinea pig. This is interesting given the Apostle Peter's comments recorded in Acts 10:14 which make it abundantly clear that he had never eaten - and he was refusing to eat - guinea pigs.
Bugs, worms, and the cooking style of many 'other cultures'.
All of the above, in various parts of Canada/US are considered (though generally very quietly, dog food) but not 'human' food. However, given that horse meat is a premium in Europe and Japan, in line (according to Wikipedia) to the price of veal, it is not economical to use it for general production of pet food. (I am not suggesting that 'commercial' pet food contains this - I don't know, and as above, horse meat is to expensive/valuable to be used for pet consumption in any large quantities. But I have heard of all 3 used as consumption by at least dogs and, in the case of guinea pig and rabbits - by pet falcons.
Pig - There are a couple religious groups such as Jewish people that consider pig to be an unclean animal regardless of what country they live in.
Bovine (Cow/Steer/Bull/Calf) - India of course has a religious stigma against this.
All meats - Of course many who are Vegetarian or Vegan would consider any meats (and eggs/milk for the Vegan) to be distasteful.