No one would guess that they had not even buried the unlucky blacksmith, whose brain was eventually picked over by crows, and to whose carcass the tiger would return time and time again, until he had learned something about the taste of man, about the freshness of human meat, which was different now, in snow, than it had been in the heat of summer.

NEWYORKER: The Tiger��s Wife

It's this interest in meat where it comes from how the animals are treated before they become meat, whether or not we, as human beings, should be eating meat at all, what meat suggests about our own mortality, about - the ethical questions we all or many of us struggle with.

NPR: Former Vegetarians Start Magazine About Meat

John MacGregor, Agriculture Minister 1987-89 was meanwhile attacked for covering up the fact that experts were advising their concern of BSE-infected meat entering the human food chain.

CNN: Britain's BSE: Where the blame is laid

"At the levels of bute that have been found, a person would have to eat 500 to 600 burgers a day that are 100% horse meat to get close to consuming a human's daily dose, " said Britain's Chief Medical Officer Sally Davies.

WSJ: U.K. Arrests Men in Horse-Meat Probe

Most human cases of anthrax occur as a result of exposure to infected animals or their meat or hides.

CNN: Anthrax

Some 29.9 million pounds of antibiotics were sold in 2011 for meat and poultry production, compared with the 7.7 million sold for human use, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, and that number has been on the rise.

CNN: What government tests found in your meat

Although few pathogens can survive in both an animal and a human host, there is laboratory evidence that resistance can be passed across the species barrier through meat products.

BBC: Animals and antibiotics: the risks