Sounds similar conceptually to the Fisher Protocol to reduce the chance of spurious nuclear bomb launch. If punters knew they had to eat the dead horses would they attend?

"Fisher, who was a pilot during the Second World War, makes what he describes as a “quite simple” suggestion to reduce the chances of launching a nuclear attack: “Put that needed code number in a little capsule and then implant that capsule right next to the heart of a volunteer.” Like the rotation of military personnel who today trade off carrying the “nuclear football”—the briefcase that contains the nuclear launch codes—the person with the implanted capsule would be near the President constantly. In Fisher’s scenario, a Navy officer named George does the job. “The volunteer would carry with him a big, heavy butcher knife,” Fisher writes. “If ever the President wanted to fire nuclear weapons, the only way he could do so would be for him first, with his own hands, to kill one human being. The President says, ‘George, I’m sorry, but tens of millions must die.’ ” That there would be blood on the White House carpet is essential. “He has to look at someone and realize what death is—what an innocent death is.” The Fisher Protocol, as it was termed, makes vivid the reality that nuclear war, so often spoken of in the bloodless language of tactics and strategy, is unimaginably horrific" https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/why-dont-we-take-nuclear-weapons-seriously#:~:text=Fisher%2C%20who%20was,is%20unimaginably%20horrific