New Toronto Eatery “Parcae” Offering Horsemeat And Other Cruel Specialties

Written By:  Heather Clemenceau

As an Anglophone from Quebec, it’s sometimes second nature to make fun of Quebecois chefs who not only make endorsements for eating horse in particular, but also promote other rather disgusting, gross, or cruelly derived animal products that may also be unsustainable examples of conspicuous overconsumption. Toronto restaurants are well known for flouting food safety regulations for the sake of flavour – raw horse and pork are readily available, even though Ontario’s Health Protection and Promotion Act, frowns on raw meat in general, and requires that pork in particular must be served well-done.

The Templar Hotel has a new resto – Parcae, serving horse, bone marrow, sea urchin, and other notably and unapologetically cruel foods. The restaurant follows the “nose to tail,” method of preparing their cuisine, which has been said to include “everything but the oink.” Naturally, places such as this appeal to nihilistic gastromaniacs who like to patronize restaurants based on Instagram pics. Somewhat interestingly, the restaurant has a connection to M. Wells in NYC, which became infamous for trying to add horse tartare to its menu in 2012 (but did not do so after a huge outcry that included demonstrations). The chef at M. Wells, Hugue Dufour, is a Quebecker who worked at Au Pied de Cochon, where current Parcae sous chef Joseph Awad also discovered his métier. Just as corporate sponsors love to see their logos on t-shirts, there are potentially great business opportunities for individuals or groups to attach their names to these individual entrees, so I’ve decided to match up some of the most notorious brand owners and celebrities (real or not) for the most appropriate endorsements. Bon Appétit!

What’s On The Menu:

Horse Carpaccio

Suggested Sponsor – Merck

Suggested Spokesperson – The Geico Caveman

Carpaccio is thinly-sliced horsemeat served raw. I wonder if Parcae charges extra for pharmacologically active horsemeat containing veterinary residues that are barely screened-for by the CFIA? What wines are complementary with trichinosis? Cruelty issues aside, we should all refuse to eat any meal where there’s the remotest possibility that we may end up with parasites winding through our viscera (this is why I never get invited out to restaurants anymore – I’ve become a food safety asshole). Foodies who embrace the new and the outré, might also embrace a dose of trich as well, since it’s an acknowledged fact that horses on occasion carry trichinella spiralis, the parasite that causes the disease, which occurs with some commonality in France, where horsemeat is often consumed raw. That’s why I’m suggesting this is a sponsorship Merck might be interested in, since they manufacture Mectizan,  the human version of Ivermectin wormers we are all using on our horses.  You might need some if you’ve eaten a horse with trich. And our postmodern spokesperson, the Geico Caveman, would no doubt have eaten some raw meat, at least before the invention of fire.  At least cavemen knew how to progress beyond the Paleozoic era…..

 Chicken Leg

Suggested Sponsor – The TV show “Fear Factor”

Suggested Spokesperson – “Kill It And Grill It” Author and avid predator, Ted Nugent

Points for creativity? Cuisine of the foot proves that the zombie apocalypse is real. Please pass the beans… Fear Factor once featured an episode of chicken foot and rat bobbing that resulted in at least a couple of people bowing out, if I recall correctly. The TV show would make a great sponsor, since they regularly featured animal abuse. Nugent, whose most enjoyable experiences in life seem to involve annoying all the right people, is our eloquent spokesperson here – he once slammed a chicken to death on his reality show “Wanted: Dead or Alive.”

Deep Fried Lamb Brains

Suggested Sponsor – Boston Scientific

Suggested Spokesperson – Heart Attack Grill

Sorry foodies – eating brains won’t make you smart! Consuming the brain and other nerve tissue of animals may be hazardous to health. Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other prion diseases aren’t killed by the cooking process either. And too many deep-fried foods and a heart attack can’t be far behind. Enter the Boston Scientific Corporation: It has sold over a billion dollars worth of coronary stents since just 2009. The CPR inducting, defibrillating, Vegas-based Heart Attack Grill makes no bones about the danger its offerings pose to customers – their tagline is “Once you arrive you will have put on a hospital gown….” Better hope that sexy nurse at the next table isn’t just dressed up for Halloween!

Grilled Branzino

Suggested Sponsor – Fergus Henderson – Author of “The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating”

Suggested Spokesperson – Anthony Bourdain

This particular offering looks like another a finalist for the “Cruellest Entrée” category. The chef who thought this one up was probably trying to represent it stylistically as ikizukuri, (another tradition that deserves no respect) where fish are seared in a pan and then eaten alive. First off let me say that even when I was a meat eater, I could never have overcome the mental barrier involved in eating something that was looking back at me on the plate. Fergus Henderson’s book suggests recipes with a Sweeney Todd’s list of ingredients including quarts of pigs blood, lamb hearts, lamb tongues and pigs tails, which are all parts which usually go to the pet food plants. Anthony Bourdain, renowned chef-author-famous-TV-bourbon-swilling-former-coke-addict, should stand up and personally endorse this entrée without hesitation. I once read an article where he described eating the still-beating heart from a snake. Bourdain looks like death warmed-over, quite frankly, so it’s a fitting match.

Braised Octopus with Bone Marrow

Suggested Sponsor – Bear Grylls

Suggested Spokesperson – Fred Flintstone

What a great big blessed matrimony of cruelty! Cephalopods are such intelligent creatures who use tools and have adaptive behaviours, but it shouldn’t take expressed human-like self-awareness to remove an animal from your menu. Since bones were certainly around during the Paleolithic period, and hence, are available for inclusion into the Paleo diet, I’ve chosen Fred Flintstone as the spokesperson.  Despite not having any dairy,  grains,  sugar,  legumes,  potatoes, processed oils,  or any other food grown after agriculture started,  Fred is still overweight and at least a 40 on the BMI scale. People who eat bone marrow frequently describe sucking the last bits of marrow out of the bones, so obviously, this isn’t a first-date kind of food (not that anybody should eat it otherwise. IMO).  It also brings out the food preparation OCD in me because I believe that one should be cautious about eating parts of cows that may carry BSE.  FSIS in the US considers these risky body parts to be the brain, tonsils, spinal cord, parts of the nervous system, and part of the small intestine.  In the past oxtails have been suspect, therefore so too is bone marrow.  There is some confusion about bone marrow because it has been reported to potentially carry the infection. Our suggested sponsor Bear Grylls is not only notable for eating virtually anything from spiders to grubs to worms, but to giving himself an enema with fetid water just to keep himself hydrated. No fear.

Clams Guanciale

Suggested Sponsor – Flickr’s Food Porn Group

Suggested Spokesperson – The Journal Obesity

A hyper-concentration of fat in one dish. Guanciale is pork “cheek” or “jowl,” which gives new meaning to the term “your food has a face.” Bivalves serve as incredibly useful water filtration systems, and we should leave them in the ocean. They are often deployed in lakes where there is heavy pollution and bacterial counts. nutrients, and algae. Depending on where they have been living and what they’ve been filtering, bivalves can cause various toxic reactions in humans eating them. The typical method for cooking claims is to boil or steam them alive – hardly humane since studies have shown that clams, crabs, prawns, lobsters, and other crustaceans remember pain and avoid it in future. It really is time for shellfish, mollusc, and crustacean empathy.

Urchin with Sturgeon Cartilage

Suggested Sponsor – Top Chef star and acid-reflux spokesperson Spike Mendelsohn

Suggested Spokesperson – Gordon Ramsay

Whoever decided that sturgeon cartilage was a thing? And I wonder what person looked at a sea urchin and decided to try to eat it? I watched videos of people picking urchins off of the coast at the beach, and cutting them open with scissors, and my heart just sank! Why it is necessary to add two more animals to the food chain?  We must collectively resist the foodie movement, which has played a role in normalizing horsemeat, foie gras, as well as popularizing other non-traditional animals or worse – the consumption of non-inspected meat or live animals, as popularized by wanna-be-known-for-sumthin’ chefs. Sea urchin and urchin roe have been in demand in Japan for many years, partially due to the belief that eating the sex glands makes one sexually potent. Like practically anything else the Japanese over-consume, there is now serious question whether the sea urchin population is being decimated as a result. “F” Word’s Gordon Ramsay is the selected spokesperson since he likes his uni (the Japanese term for urchin) with scrambled eggs.

Romanesco Guanciale

Suggested Sponsor – Total Gym

Suggested Spokesperson – Paula Deen

When I first looked at this I was challenged to understand what I was seeing. To me, it looks like a cat had barfed up a few pine cones or marijuana buds. Once again the chefs are using pig cheek.  Apparently pig cheek is very fatty as well, just like other cuts of bacon. This is another recipe that makes my arteries cry. Butter evangelist Paula Deen, famous for the super unhealthy Krispy Kreme burger, should endorse this one, because unhealthy eating has also made her arteries (and pancreas) cry. Total Gym sponsorship,  self-explanatory.

Food has replaced drugs in the aging food-fancier’s pantheon of pleasure. How about we just go back to a green salad with a tomato or two?  But if we did that what would happen to the celebrity chefs? Oh yeah, they might just go back to cooking decent food instead.  I’m ready for this cruel macho eating to finally go away – along with the restaurants and chefs responsible for it.

I doubt any foodies reading this will be tangentially distracted by the concept of any suffering they might inflict. Of course, it’s critical to the jejune gourmand that he/she be able to eat not only in an elitist fashion that may be cruel, but one that he also cannot truly afford. These foodies and their priests rationalize consuming foods that must be acquired and slaughtered in the most brutal fashion, almost to a sadistic degree.  Apparently greed and indifference to suffering are secondary values over the rightness of being able to gorge oneself. It truly leads one to beg the question, what is to be the next oral fixation?

If you’d like to send a polite,  fact-based communication to Parcae,  you may reach them:

On Twitter – @parcae348

On Facebook – Parcae

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disclosed Short Hills Park Hunting Documents Continue To Disprove MNR Rhetoric

Written by:  Heather Clemenceau, with files from the Short Hills Wildlife Alliance

The fractious first two days of the Short Hills hunt saw the life drained out of 18 deer on Saturday and 8 on Sunday. One deer was wounded on the first day and finally put out of its misery on the second day. The protesters maintained their composure despite the “rent-a-crowd” anti-protest protesters who have taken the low road by roughing up a demonstrator on November 14^th. Despite the letter sent to Niagara Regional Police Services board by the Animal Alliance of Canada, there were two more incidences of unsecured weaponry by the hunters. The misconduct continued when a hunter’s vehicle made contact and pushed an anti-hunt protester while the MNR and OPP looked on distractedly, a demonstrator’s car was scratched, and a discarded sign was deliberately stuck to the side of an anti-hunt protester’s car. I’m sure that the police video will ferret out the culprit(s) responsible, since the entire demonstration is video taped all day long by the OPP and Niagara Regional Police.

With over 100 hunters entering the park in only two days, this hunt now bears more than a passing resemblance to the despised Florida bear hunt that left many young animals without their mothers. And like the Florida hunt, there are no limits on the number, sex, or age of the deer who will be killed – Short Hills park hunters are told they need not be “biased” in selecting an animal to kill based on age, giving free rein to the human tendency to exterminate everything that lacks a human face.  The Short Hills Wildlife Alliance continues to make good use of Access-To-Information documents, – the latest information shows that a high percentage of deer killed in previous hunts (2013 and 2014) were lactating females or were immature and under 1 year of age.

The Protocol Agreement – A Non-Binding,  Feel-Good Piece of Creative Writing

Yes – it’s exists, but after reading it one wonders why they even bothered to draft it at all. The word “harvest” or a variation of it was used 144 times in the above Protocol of 3,077 words. Of course, the hunting industry doesn’t like the word “kill” because it exposes the lie that animals die peacefully after being shot or otherwise tortured. Merely using the word “kill” also infers that there is no management of the hunt, while the term “harvest” has pleasant connotations of the nostalgic gathering of a crop that is planted and cultivated by continuous hard labour.   Of course, the hunters do nothing resembling care of this “crop.” Neither are the hunters collecting rainwater for irrigation or ripening turnips, although the hunt does bring to mind the image of a combine harvester and a crop of living animals that are simply mowed down. It’s just another level of duplicity used to get the public on board with having arrows fly through the park. Shame on the so-called animal rights activists who embrace this linguistic trickery…

 

 

From the Protocol:

Friendship is the new commandment here, where nothing is binding on the hunters and there are no penalties for non-compliance.  The designated hunt days can change at any time, which hardly seems safe given the number of entry points for the park and the lack of notice. Indeed, there’s not much that the hunters have to comply with at all – there is no “bag limit” on the number of deer that are to be killed and no limit to the number of hunters allowed in the park. And according to the MNR, securing bows is voluntary when convenient and therefore almost an afterthought (It is actually a requirement of the Fish and Wildlife Act).

“In the interests of safety, when possible, all archery equipment should be unloaded and encased outside of the harvest hours or when outside the harvest zone.”

The protocol goes on to state that if permission to enter private property is denied by the property owner (in order to kill a wounded deer), it will be the responsibility of the property owner to dispose of the deer.  Why should a homeowner take responsibility and liability for a hunter to hunt on their property?  What is the plan in the event the homeowner isn’t home or doesn’t wish to allow access? Why should the homeowner bear the burden of euthanasia and deadstock removal if the deer is still alive and suffering? The suggestion that the homeowners must take ownership of wounded deer wouldn’t withstand any legal litmus test. The fact that the MNR have to include such language for the eventuality of wounded deer on private property (which has already occurred) is proof hunting in a park that boundaries an urban area is not appropriate.

“MNRF and Haudenosaunee monitoring and observation have concluded that the deer population at Short Hills is significantly larger than the Park’s ecosystem can support in a balanced way. The biological diversity of the Park is being impacted.”

Where is the substantiation for this claim? All deer examined in post-mortems appear to be of healthy weight and are apparently free of parasites and pathological conditions (at least none are mentioned in the access-to-information documents obtained by Short Hills Wildlife Alliance). What surveillance have the Haudenosaunee conducted of their own volition?

“Both the Haudenosaunee and MNRF will provide first aid supplies. Each MNRF vehicle will carry a first aid kit. A first aid station will be maintained at the Park’s work centre on 1st Street Louth.”

Bandaids and Chapstick – clearly useful for those soft-tissue injuries you’ll suffer when the MNR tries to run you down. Bizarrely though, the MNR Protocol identifies a major safety concern as the “presence off a large number of people at or near the Pelham Road entrance…” Outside of the hunt itself, the other principal risks come from rage-o-holic MNR agents and rogue counter-protesters who attempt physical intimidation or participate in causing vehicular damage. On the other hand,  the anti-hunt protesters have maintained their composure – who among the them is going to get into an altercation with hunters who have unsecured weapons anyway?

Access-To-Information Data Reveal Many Immature Deer Harvested Killed

The observational data collected in two previous hunts is extremely useful for refuting several claims by the MNR that there is overpopulation in the park, or that there is great concern over the spread of Lyme disease. While Lyme surveillance is important and ongoing, there seems to be little risk with the disease in this geographical area, an observation that is supported by the fact that current surveillance programs have not identified Short Hills as an area of heightened risk.  Nor did the post-mortems indicate the presence of ticks or internal parasites.

Post Mortem Stats:

• 52 deer examined before or after field dressing, by MNR staff
• 13 of these deer were fawns
• 12 deer weighed 90 lbs or less
• Oldest deer estimated by be 7.5 years of age
• Youngest deer estimated to be “0” age
• Smallest deer was 66 lbs (about the weight of the average golden retriever)
• 45% of does were in various stages of lactation
• Several deer were close to or over 200 lbs.
• No ticks were observed

Age and weight are very important data points because they provide an index of population size relative to the habitat carrying capacity. In the wild, deer usually live no more than 10 years. The average age of the deer in the MNR’s data is lowered considerably due to the killing of fawns that otherwise would have lived a few more years.  The age of the oldest deer is a good indication that there is a desirable apex predator/prey balance in the park. In most species of deer, lactation, which is the most energetically demanding component of maternal care, continues for about 80-100 days after birth, which occurs in May/June. It continues until the next rut. Lactation data provides evidence that the doe raised one or more fawns and is an indicator of good overall reproductive health in the herd (versus starvation).  The Protocol describes the deer as an important source of food for the hunters, but how hungry do you have to be that you can’t walk away from a 66 lb fawn? This fawn, along with some of the others, was most likely born in May or June of this year. This baby and her mother were probably both snuffed-out while standing together.

The MNR has offered several insipid excuses for the Short Hills hunt – population control, deer in over-abundance, and most recently now Lyme disease, but have provided no evidence for any of it. In fact, the MNR’s own empirical data disproves their bogus rhetoric. Even if the deer are at or over their biological carrying capacity, a hunt will temporarily reduce their numbers but will leave more food per deer, causing more twins and triplets to be born next year.

If either the MNR or the hunters think there are too many deer and the deer are going to starve to death, they should stop increasing the number of deer. Hunting is necessary – for hunters – so they can increase the population of deer for subsequent hunts. And it’s obscene that over 100 hunters have entered the park in only two days and that 25% of the deer killed in previous hunts are probably animals that were only born a few months earlier. Maybe the MNR tally of the casualties should have included the babies of those does who were still lactating……

 

 

Letter To The Editor: Overseas Markets Drive Horse-Slaughter in B.C.

This commanding letter on horse slaughter in Canada was written by D. Fisher of Kelowna,  British Columbia. 

It’s simply magisterial in its eloquence! 

Please share…..

 

 

“Industry without ethics, capitalism without conscience – is tortured flesh the flavour of our times?

The Canadian horse slaughter industry is an abomination. Within its harrowing abyss exist the theft of liberty, unpardonable anguish and the dismemberment of a noble icon.

Advocates in favour of this industry present the following arguments for its existence:

1. Horses are meat – tasty meat for man. I want some.
2. Slaughterhouses humanely euthanize old, crippled and unwanted horses.
3. Slaughter controls over-population.
4. The industry provides employment.

Different perceptions and the high ground we call morality oppose these arguments:

1. Horses are not meat to do with as we please. Throughout history, beside the footprints of man are the hoof prints of the horse. A pony is a child’s dream, a horse an adult’s treasure. This industry, however, transforms treasures and dreams into nightmares of betrayal.
2. Slaughterhouses do not humanely euthanize. They orchestrate terror and suffering. Over 90 per cent of their victims are young and healthy. Slaughter is not the answer to solve the aged, infirm, unwanted horse debate. Rescue sanctuaries, veterans working with horses, responsible ownership, tourism co-ops and ethical veterinarian care are a few viable solutions.
3. The slaughter business actually perpetuates over-population and callous kill buyers and unscrupulous profit mongers love it.
4. The industry does provide jobs including degrading kill floor work and cash counting corporate accounting. However, we should use ingenuity to crate jobs that save rather than ones that kill.

Bottom line: An industry that is heartless and cruel, and industry without ethics, should be no industry at all.

Advocates for slaughter continue to define death at the slaughterhouse as humane euthanasia.

Propaganda. A load of fiction diction, bogus rhetoric and covertness are cornerstones of their industry.

The shipping of live draft horses to Japan so that their connoisseurs can enjoy freshly butchered horse sashimi is a national disgrace. Transportation to, and imprisonment in, slaughter house corrals is abusive, nefarious activity. And the final stages of the process – kill chutes, stun boxes, captive bolts to the head and dismemberment (of, at time, live horses) far overstep the boundaries of morality.

Our Canadian culture has never embraced the concept of horse meat for human consumption. We should not be part of the foreign-driven “meat-man’s trade” that ships befouled flesh overseas. Our horse is not a commodity to be exploited. This intelligent beast helped First Nations people survive, pulled our plows, laboured in mines, helped build our railroads. The horse stood beside – and died with – our soldiers on countless battlefields including the poppy-coated fields of Ypres and Flanders. Horses have entertained and joined us in recreational pursuits. They are a beloved companion. And, so often, they have provided hope and solace to troubled souls. The horse is the single most influential animal to affect mankind.

To be a nation of dignity we must not turn a blind eye to the actions of the undignified. Our action, or inaction, is a compass for our children and for morality. It is time to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves – time for citizens and our newly elected federal politicians to stare this oppressive industry square in the face and declaim: “Not in our country!” Time to listen with out heart to the desperate call unspoken of our friend – the horse.

It is the horse slaughter industry, not our ethics and our horses that should be in the graveyard.”

Pig Farmer Van Boekel Files Charges Against “Thirsty Pigs” Animal Activist (But Pleaded Guilty to Breaching Water Resources Act Himself)

Illustration courtesy of Katharina Rot

Written by:  Heather Clemenceau

Torontonians in particular are by now very familiar with the “Thirsty Pigs” court case whereby Van Boekel Farms pressed charges against Anita Krajnc. Dr. Krajnc, who is a principal activist behind the peaceful “Save“ vigils (Toronto Pig Save,Toronto Cow Save, Toronto Chicken Save), was charged under the Criminal Code with mischief under $5,000 for providing water to pigs in a truck en route to their slaughter at Fearman’s pig slaughterhouse in Burlington, Ontario.

On a hot day in June, a Van Boekel Hog Farms trailer full of pigs was stopped at an intersection.  Krajnc and other activists gave water to them in squirt bottles, an action that the court disclosure describes as: “spraying an unknown liquid into the trailer where the hogs were situated.” The concern is that, even though there seems to be no question that water was the liquid given to the pigs, the action is potentially “tampering with the food supply,” although not in the same way many farmers themselves tamper with the food supply by keeping animals in filthy confined pens during lives which are nasty, brutish, and short.

“In-transit loss” is a term used to describe pigs that die after leaving the farm but before being killed at the abattoir

Photo by Twyla Francois

Big Meat certainly does not want anyone exposing the fact that the pigs often arrive at the slaughterhouse panting and foaming at the mouth (pigs cannot sweat). One might say that the charging of Anita Krajnc has backfired since it generated phenomenal support at the courthouse,  in the media,  and via petitions that have now been signed by more than 100,000 people.  More people have been touched by the suffering of pigs and will consider a plant-based diet.  Additionally, it sent people (like me) on little internet fact-finding missions that revealed that Van Boekel’s own farm operations were hardly above reproach. Van Boekel Hogs Farms Inc. of Woodstock, Van Boekel Holdings Inc. and Eric Van Boekel were originally fined a total of $345,000 for a manure spill in the spring of 2007. Van Boekel must have felt as though he was bleeding-out himself when he was hit with an additional 25% victim surcharge that elevated the total to $431,250. He also faced a possible 30 days in jail. He was convicted of breaking three different acts – the Ontario Water Resources Act, the Environmental Protection Act and the Nutrient Management Act – and was sentenced in Woodstock. Van Boekel (who claimed he was the victim of a “witch hunt”) immediately appealed the decision and was granted a new trial, where he was found not guilty of charges under the Environmental Protection Act and Nutrient Management Act, but pled guilty to offences under the Ontario Water Resources Act.

There’s really no shortage of video evidence compiled by Toronto Pig Save showing that in summer the pigs are often desperately overheated – all farm animals can and do suffer from heat stress – signs are panting,  increased salivation, drooling or foaming, increased respiration or laboured breathing,  lethargy,  or even unconsciousness. Even when outside temperatures are not extreme, temperatures inside a trailer can rise dramatically if it is slowed by construction, stuck in traffic or otherwise forced to sit stationary, such as during unloading or at border crossings.

Consider also that:

• The Codes of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pigs (the absolute bare minimum standard) recommends travelling in off-hours and providing protection for pigs in the trailer, including watering and misting.
• The group Canadians For the Ethical Treatment of Farm Animals says: “To minimize risks of heat stress, farm animals should only be transported during the cooler hours of the day. Space per animal inside transport trucks should be increased by reducing stocking densities to ensure proper air flow between animals and, in the case of pigs, to allow them to lie down. Trucks should be tarped and well ventilated. Water should be provided regularly on long journeys.”
• Canadian transport regulations, the Health of Animals Act, Part XII, Sections 143, (1)(d) and (e) state that “No person shall transport or cause to be transported any animal in a railway car, motor vehicle, aircraft, vessel, crate or container if injury or undue suffering is likely to be caused to the animal by reason of undue exposure to the weather or inadequate ventilation.”
• An observational study has shown that, not surprisingly, the number of in-transit pig losses was greater at higher internal trailer temperatures, in some cases being as high as 12.5% of the total number of pigs transported.

Photos below by L. Jorgensen and Twyla Francois.  The pig with the leg trapped in the trailer was eventually helped by activists at a Fearman’s Pig slaughterhouse protest.  We wonder how long the pig travelled like this and why no one exercised greater care in loading and inspecting the trailer.  The dead pigs on the grass were photographed in Texas,  delivered to that state by a Manitoba hauler who evidently did not have the proper paperwork, and so claimed he could not unseal the trailer.  The pigs were left on board in the sweltering heat for days.

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We are gradually moving to a police state that demands criminal charges for inconsequential matters. It strikes me as odd that a court can convict someone of “spraying an unknown liquid” when it is known or should be known by now that the liquid was water and that this was a prosocial act to relieve thirst and heatstroke. I’m sure that this alleged concern by Van Boekel and Fearman’s did not deter them from slaughtering this trailer of pigs (or any other load to whom water was provided in the past).

 

Call to Action – Please sign the petitions

Care2.com (This petition has surpassed 100,000 signatures!)

The Petition Site (also over 100,000 signatures!)

Change.org

New Phenylbutazone Study Found To Have Toxic Potential For Scavenging Birds Of Prey

Written by:  Heather Clemenceau

A new peer-reviewed South African study that evaluates the toxicity of carprofen, flunixin and phenylbutazone in Cape vultures has found evidence of toxicity for al three non-steriodal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs). While there were no deaths as a result of the exposure, the study found that long half-life elimination times and the presence of toxic clinical signs were strong indicators of toxicity. The study was conducted to determine whether these three NSAIDS were similar in toxicity to diclofenac, another NSAID, which was also used in human medicine for decades, and was recently introduced for veterinary use in India.  Diclofenac was determined to be a primary causal factor in the decline of the Asian vulture when the vultures predated on the carcasses of animals treated with the drug.

Methodology:

Plasma samples were analysed and after the 48 hour monitoring period, the birds with euthanized for post-mortem evaluation. While no mortalities resulted from the treatment itself, clinical signs of lethargy and depression (drooping heads) were noted in the 1 CRP treated bird, 2 FXN treated birds, and 1 PBZ treated bird while no signs were reported for the control (untreated) birds. The exposure doses used for this study are also considered to be realistic as they were based on either a worst case scenario of the birds being exposed to high tissue concentration of the drug in recently dead cattle, horses or pigs which would represent their primary food source.

PBZ Molecule

While the study concluded that the three NSAIDs evaluated are not as toxic as diclofenac is to vultures, the three drugs were not considered to be safe. The elimination half-life of phenylbutazone was found to be 18.1 in the horse (PBZ has a half-life of 70h for people). Phenylbutazone is certainly not without toxicity or contraindications in horses either. While dose-dependent, both phenylbutazone and oxyphenbutazone cross the placenta and are excreted into milk, and the drug binds irreversibly to cyclooxygenase, thereby inducing Cyclooxygenase-1 and -2 gene expressions.

Study Conclusion:

“From the specific study design used, it was concluded that CRP, PBZ and FXN are not as toxic to vultures as diclofenac. We are unable to conclude on the general safety of these tested drugs, as they all show some indication towards toxicity.”

When it comes to human and environmental safety there should be clear evidence of the absence of risks; the mere absence of evidence is not enough.  This is the essence of the precautionary principle, which states that “when an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment,  precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause-and-effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.  Phenylbutazone is not permitted to be used in equine animals that may be used for food – there are NO exceptions. Mark Markarian, who is chief program and policy officer for the Humane Society of the United States and president of The Fund for Animals, said recently that:

“There is currently no system in the US to track medications and veterinary treatments given to horses to ensure that their meat is safe for human consumption. It’s a free-for-all when this tainted and contaminated meat is dumped on unsuspecting consumers through their dinner plates and supermarket shelves, either overseas or here at home.”