Long overgrown hooves and a mane irretrievably matted with burrs were a testament to Trinket’s neglect. Rescuers and other animal advocates will always have to contend with people who neglect their animals despite the availability of slaughter as a “fix” for for the problem of unwanted horses. The availability of horse slaughter DOES NOT improve horses’ standard of living and will not stop passive neglect such as this.
I have been rescuing horses for 43 years. There always have been – and always will be – ponies like Trinket neglected in back yards. The owners would never, ever consider sending these ponies to auction (slaughter).
Pro-slaughter proponents tell you that re-opening slaughter houses in the US will prevent the “Trinkets” from suffering. That’s not how this works – it’s quite the opposite. Horses going to slaughter are typically not the back yard neglect cases unless a dealer posed as a “good home” and then sent them off to slaughter unbeknownst to the owner.
The horses sold for slaughter are often Thoroughbreds who weren’t fast enough, got injured or couldn’t be bred back, Quarter horses, or Paints without color, for example. They were intentionally bred by owners with the financial resources to euthanize their horses if they no longer wanted them (slaughter is NOT euthanasia). Can you imagine poor, little, elderly Trinket, who could barely stand, crammed for 24 hours in a cold truck with anxious horses driving to Canada and then waiting in a feed lot for the inevitable? It was kinder to quietly put her down with people she had come to know.
Trinket should never have been allowed to suffer. She had an owner who is horse savvy and has the financial resources to properly care for her. There was a girl desperate to provide her with a good home who repeatedly asked for her if the owner decided she didn’t want her. In addition to the discomfort the pony endured, there were neighbors watching her hobble around year after year, including children. What is the message here?
As a result of their market domination, Google has become more of an institution than a search engine. Therefore, Google’s search data is incredibly indicative of public opinion and interests. Google Trends is an application that’s particularly useful as a timely, robust, and sensitive surveillance system. While it is useful to advertisers looking to create keywords to market their products, we can also use it to create charts that show how often horse slaughter issues and phrases are searched for over time by all Google users interested in acquiring more information on this subject.
An analysis of the term “horse slaughter” in Google Trends shows us how popular the search term is currently as well as in the recent past. I’ve compared the stats from 2004 to 2014 year-to-date for the United States (blue), Canada (gold), and the United Kingdom (red). Initially I compared these countries to France, Japan, Switzerland, Mexico and China, expecting to see some tangible increase over time yet Google Trends yielded no measurable activity.
From the chart we can see that horse slaughter in the US was trending long before the United Kingdom or Canada, which began trending mid-2007 and 2008 respectively. The uptick in slaughter keyword trending activity in Canada began a few years after the launch of the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition in 2004, and seems to be linked to that group’s 2008 publication of Black Beauty Betrayed, an Early Investigation at Natural Valley Farms, and the issue of Illegal Dumping of Horse Blood at Natural Valley Farms.
Click on the graph for a link to the live data
Key points in the graph also register the heightened activity in the US and Canada due to:
House votes on horse slaughter in the US (2006)
Anti-horse slaughter bills advancing in Congress (2007)
There was a huge spike in late 2011 likely due to:
The US “ban” on domestic horse slaughter being lifted when Congress passed, when Obama signed into law a USDA spending bill that reinstated federal funding for inspection of horse meat intended for human consumption
Developing interest in Rick De Los Santos horse slaughter plant in New Mexico
Valley Meats first application for a grant of inspection with the USDA in December
The CHDC releasing footage and photos obtained by an anonymous source at Les Viandes de la Petite-Nation in St. Andre-Avellin Quebec (Pasture to Plate)
Also note the increased interest in horse slaughter search terms as a result of the horse meat adulteration scandal in the EU (January – March 2013)
Currently we see that horse slaughter as a keyword search appears to be tapering off in 2013 and 2014 YTD, perhaps due to the cessation of slaughter in the US, the subsiding interest in the horse meat adulteration in Great Britain, and the failure of the anti-slaughter bills in Canada. At the present time, interest in “horse slaughter” as a keyword appears to be in decline relative to the heightened activity from 2006 – early 2013.
This has been a most difficult blog post to write. I have watched it many times and cried many tears, especially after adding the Brian Eno soundtrack (from The Lovely Bones) The horses being transported in this video are likely already dead.
You are watching the dash cam of an anti-slaughter advocate, recording the “Roping J” rig with a load of horses heading eastbound on the 401 highway towards Richelieu slaughterhouse in Quebec on November 27, 2013. The video was taken on the 401 eastbound between London and Woodstock Ontario. Jeron/Jeroslav Gold is the owner of Roping J Ranch in Fairhaven, Michigan. He’s a large scale kill buyer who gets many of his horses from traders in Ohio, Minnesota, Louisiana, and Kentucky. Animals Angels reported on the collecting facility in Fairhaven, where the outdoor pen was full of horses and the Roping J truck was backed up to the loading ramp. Gold typically drives up to Canada through the Port Huron border crossing, which is about 1 1/2 hours west from where this rig was filmed.
The original audio track has been removed to preserve the anonymity of the supporter. It has been replaced by a transcript of the driver’s original comments. As the supporter’s car approaches Gold’s rig in the centre lane, you can see clearly that he has attached a horse’s tail above the latch. The trailer has been seen and photographed on previous occasions with this odious “middle finger salute” to animal lovers. It’s a real tail, and he quite often positions it to appear as though a horse is jammed into the hinge or latch. What’s new this time is that there appears to be an actual horse tail jammed in the door at the bottom right side above the door hinge. It is visible from multiple angles in the video. Also notice from the video that the driver of the rig appears to have noticed that his information is being taken, as he encroaches into the driving lane where our videographer is driving. The person who mocks horse lovers by flying a horse tail “flag” and who tries to squeeze the videographer in their own lane is the type of person that is going to be signing off on documents stating the horses are drug free, while putting adulterated meat into the food chain. This is the type of person that we allow control and input into the food chain, someone who is perhaps close to the furthest end of the spectrum of immorality.
Notice that the video was shot late in the afternoon – we can see this via the long shadows of the vehicles travelling eastbound – it is perhaps after 4 pm. From somewhere between London and Woodstock Ontario, it’s just under 9 hours until the driver reaches Massueville QC (excluding stops) and about 8 hours to St. Andre-Avellin, so the horses would arrive very late the same day or possibly the next day. The earliest he could possibly arrive would be 11 pm if he went to St. Andre-Avellin (Les viands de la petite nations slaughterhouse) and even later if he went to Massueville as expected (Richelieu slaughterhouse). What time did he expect to get there?
There wouldn’t be an inspector at the plant at this time – they only work regular hours. And they can no longer unload the trailers without inspectors present, so the horses will have had to spend the night on the trailer until the next morning.
Transcript:
:40 – US DOT 289445
:50 – Got the whole Roping J Ranch Michigan US DOT Number 289445 KYU 243688
Ontario 158517965
Quebec 5841037
1:21 – Michigan Trailer License B675540
2:20 – Truck begins to encroach into driving lane – driver aware that his information is being taken and is squeezing the driver in their own lane?
2:25 – Truck moves back into its own lane and weaves slightly after doing so
A very comprehensively written article by 13 Investigates followed slaughter bound horses journey from the Shipshewana auction in Indiana, near the Michigan border, where Gold purchased almost all the horses offered for sale. He was also quoted in A Toronto Life article about the horsemeat trade in Canada, arguing: “There is an end life for everything. I’d like to know what people want to do with all these horses that nobody wants. I’d like somebody to answer that. [Every day] I see…horses mistreated, skinny, didn’t have proper care and there’s nobody to take care of them. Who’s going to take care of them?”
“I killed every one of those f—ing horses, over 120 of them, if they only knew. I only have five left and the ones that you have. Every one of them is dead. I don’t even know their names and there wasn’t a goddamn thing they could do about it…” ~ Kelsey Lefever
Circle of Death – This is where some of Gold’s “product” ends up – at La Palette in Toronto, where horse advocates have held dozens of protests. Here is co-owner Shamez Amlani (on the left) arguing with protester.
This is not how you do end-of-life. Can’t you give horses “mistreated, skinny” horses a humane death without eating them? And I bet there are no skinny horses on Gold’s trailer. The USDA reports 92% of horses going to slaughter are in good condition and able to live healthy and productive lives. The existence of horse slaughter actually hinders rescue efforts, as rescuers are routinely outbid at auctions by people like Jeron Gold, seeking healthy animals that bring the best price per pound.
Gold’s driving is perhaps typical for kill buyers – in the video One Horse’s Last Steps, which has over 50,000 views, you can plainly see the driver run over a curb and swerve into the curb lane a number of time with a load of horses. And yet another tail can be seen caught in the door.
We will fight you until our dying breath is taken, just like Mary Nash did. Please support these currently active programs:
Canadian Horse Defence Coalition – Latest Postcard Campaign (click to follow link)
Animals’ Angels – Light the Sky – December 7th (click to follow link)
Last October slaughterphiles in the US and Canada watched in horror as all their latent fears came true. Despite holding on to the promise of horse slaughter as tight as a tick on a long-tailed mare, they watched and listened in disbelief as Claude Bouvry inexplicably ceased to accept American horses for slaughter for a weekend. No one had any notice and certainly no clear explanation, despite lots of theories about residues and EU audits. If they were following the plot, these slaughterphiles would really be losing control of their sphincter muscle right about now because that temporary panic was just practice. We’re now less than two weeks ago from the July 31st deadline, as originally identified in the GAO report. But. since many pros are notoriously unprepared and unaware of issues surrounding horse slaughter (they blithely ignore most evidence of cruelty), most of them refuse to believe that horse slaughter might someday go away.
Nobody in the horse industry had ever heard of July 31,2013 as some sort of drop-dead date. That is until it was included in the GAO report, which declared July 31st as the date that the EU would require lifetime medication records for all horses slaughtered outside of the EU. While there’s a big rush to launch traceability for horses in Canada, no one knows or will elaborate on what, if anything, this date means to horse slaughter in Canada.
A few months back I contacted Equine Canada asked them pointedly whether there was a big rush to get traceability implemented in Canada, and asked them specifically about that magic date. They told me they had no idea to what I was referring, and asked me to contact some soulless minion at the CFIA, who of course never responded.
A few weeks ago I wrote to Dr. Ian Alexander in the hopes that he might let me know if I had to run to out and get a Premise ID for my “farm,” or whether we might be able to look forward to a seriously diminished Canadian horse slaughter enterprise in less than 2 weeks.
Of course, I don’t have an answer yet, and maybe I never will. Or maybe I’ll get the standard form letter that assures me that the CFIA has everything under control. But in addition to the temporary slaughter shut-down in October, there’s more foreshadowing of what might come down the pipeline, if not in two weeks, but eventually. Like the hammer of an auctioneer at the end of an auction or a judge at the end of a trial, said hammer will also fall on us.
There are many hints that food adulteration is becoming increasingly intolerable to our trading partners:
Ractopamine, a growth promoter, is given to beef cattle during their last 4-6 weeks, to pigs in their last 4 weeks, and turkeys for their last 1-2 weeks. The Bureau of Veterinary Drugs, Health Protection Branch of the Health and Welfare Department of Ottawa here in Canada found that rats fed ractopamine experienced a cluster of birth defects such as cleft palate, open eyelids, shortened limbs, missing digits, enlarged heart, and protruding tongue.
In 2002, the FDA accused Eli Lilly. the manufacturer of Paylean, the brand name for ractopamine for pigs, of a cover-up on the dangers of the drug in animals. There was no mention in documents submitted during Paylean’s approval process of numerous phone calls from farmers reporting that their animals vomited after consuming feed containing Paylean or that they had become hyperactive or had died as a result of exposure to the drug.
Inexplicably, the FDA went on to approve ractopamine for cattle the following year even after sending a warning letter to Elanco (a subsidiary of Eli Lilly) on its deception and abuse of the approval process of Paylean for pigs.
Even though the FDA rolled over on ractopamine, other countries paid attention to the scandal with the growth enhancing drug banned in Russia, Europe, Taiwan and China where an estimated 1,700 people were “poisoned” from eating Paylean-fed pigs. You know that the industrial food system is fucked-up when the Russians know more about our food system than we do.
South Korea has banned and then un-banned US wheat. This comes after the announcement about the contamination of US commercially grown wheat with Monsanto’s genetically modified wheat. It was un-banned earlier this month after samples showed all were free of the unapproved genetically-modified wheat strain.
Meanwhile, Canada is renovating our parliamentary buildings to cleanse them of asbestos, which of course causes cancer. While doing so, the Canadian government is still pushing exports of asbestos to third-world countries. Canada has even gone so far as to argue a challenge at the World Trade Organization that a proposed French ban on asbestos imports would be an illegal trade practice. Despite recent warnings that asbestos was the cause of hundreds of thousands of cancer victims in Europe, Canadian asbestos producers continue to promote and sell it worldwide to developing nations. It’s the new tobacco – find a market for toxic goods and pawn it off on the poor brown people of the world. It’s really embarrassing to be a Canadian when you know that your government is implicated in shit like this, but what would you expect from a country that hasn’t revised its animal protection laws significantly for 200 years and still promotes the seal hunt and ignores the issues with horse slaughter?
So the point is that our trading partners are fickle groups, and at any point in time we can become the recipient of the fickle finger of fate. The world is becoming more aware of the health hazards of food contamination through animal rearing activities. Which is really ironic since most horses aren’t actually “reared” for food. There is no such thing as an animal that is duel purpose – meaning an animal that is a pet to most AND also one that is used as a food source. We have pet animals and food animals – not both.
Under regulations of the Health of Animals Act, Canada has a mandatory identification program for cattle, bison and sheep. Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) have expanded that program to include horses. According to AAFC, horses are functional livestock and are part of the national ID and traceability strategy for animal health and food safety reasons.
Equine Canada, the comprehensive national governing body for equestrianism, is responsible for developing a national equine-specific program (CanEQUID) to satisfy federal government requirements for identification and traceability for equines. This program would somehow have to be imposed upon US horses coming to Canada as well, since, after spending several years and millions on the National Animal Identification System , (NAIS) the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) apparently scrapped the effort and turned responsibility for livestock identification over to the 50 states and various tribal nations. But for horses sent to Canada for slaughter, Americans would also have to adopt the UELN, which may result in greater scrutiny for premises ID than that currently experienced for gun control.
Also simultaneously moving forward are the new CFIA meat hygiene directives that affect horsemeat – as of July 31st this year, Canadian slaughter facilities will require complete health records dating back six months. This would apparently phase-out the often fallaciously completed Equine Information Document (EID), which has failed to assure EU members that drugs are not entering the food chain. The deadline (July 2013) was created in an exchange between the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and SANGO, which is the EU’s version of the CFIA. The working group which includes the CFIA, Agri-Food Canada, Health Canada, the slaughterhouses, provincial horse groups and the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association. You can also read the reference to the July 31, 2013 date in the GAO report – (page 13) It states:
“Furthermore, effective July 31, 2013, the European Union will require lifetime medication records for all horses slaughtered in non-European Union countries before accepting imports of horsemeat from those countries. According to APHIS and horse industry sources, these requirements could result in shippers certifying that their horses are free of medication residues without having first-hand knowledge or documentation of the horses’ status for the previous 180 days.”
What action is supposed to be undertaken by the EU on July 31, 2013? It seems clear that the EU is referring to traceability here, which would seemingly eliminate the EID. Would you be able to explain what action Canada will be taking with regard to horsemeat shipments after this date?
Unique identification information, including a unique lifetime number
Horse ownership information
Home farm premises information
Premises date and location where horses co-mingle for industry activities
Horse health records related to a horse’s status for processing
Traceability events – health certificates issued, transport manifest documents issued, etc.
Is Canada’s traceability program going to work for U.S. horses? It doesn’t seem possible, since no one in Canada can attest to an individual horse’s status for slaughter.
If a traceability system is not in place by July 31st, what does Ag-Canada anticipate will happen to horsemeat shipments? Is it likely that this date will be extended?”
Please support Bill C-322 to end horse slaughter in Canada
Foodies, food groupies, or foodniks. Quelle horreur! When I hear these terms, it makes me cringe. I’ve come to be repulsed by it, because nowadays it’s associated with “gourmand” or “epicure,” and while these are not negative terms, most actual foodies are now clearly associated with foie gras, pigs feet, octopus, sweetbreads (or offal), and of course, horsemeat.
There’s nothing wrong with enjoying luxurious items or tasteful food. But people who tend to describe themselves as foodies are usually those same people who label themselves as members of a caste of society that is superior to the others. “I’m better than you because I’m more open-minded towards my food. I would never eat instant ramen like you.”
The more lives sacrificed for a dinner, the more impressive the eater. Aside from horsemeat, some of the cruelest meals consist of thirty duck hearts in curry, or ortolan, endangered songbirds fattened up, in pitch-dark cages, who by tradition, have their eyes put out before being force-fed for weeks and finally drowned in a snifter of brandy. The eating of these animals as well as non-food horses is amoral, callous, and profoundly self-absorbed. Such machismo coming out of an evening spent sitting in a goddamn chair….
Chef Tom Colicchio is one of People’s 2007 “Sexiest Men Alive?” Why does he deserve this title? Why do chefs in general receive such an unwarranted amount of attention?
The term foodie also implies that you’re dealing with a person who knows a lot about food in general. And if you’re a chef with a following of chef groupies, you’re going to look extra stupid when it becomes public knowledge that you really don’t know much about food after all. The attention lavished upon some chefs is unseemly. It sure doesn’t explain why People magazine dubbed Tom Colicchio one of 2007’s Sexiest Men Alive. (Sorry, but I just don’t see it.)
Chef Danny Mongeon, of the new horsemeat-serving resto “Hooch,” shall wear the badge of shame in this blog post. Mongeon became somewhat infamous (although his groupies claim he was already famous!) by declaring that he was introducing horse tartare at Hooch in an interview with the Ottawa Citizen.
“I did a lot of research on the farm where I’m sourcing from, La Petite Nation. I’ve been there. I’ve seen the horses. A lot of these people are telling me that we’re serving old race horses and all of this bad stuff, but I just ignored it because a lot of their sources were incorrect.” ~ Danny Mongeon
Here’s your meat still on the hoof at LPN, Chef Mongeon (Caution – Disturbing):
Operating under the assumption that LPN is a “farm” that apparently produces purpose-bred horses has just become problematic for Chef Mongeon. He just ran head first into the Canadian and American taboo against hippophagy. Secondly, Les Viandes de la Petite Nation is not a “farm,” it is a slaughterhouse which has been cited numerous times for cruelty and not following CFIA mandated slaughter methods. It is also the slaughterhouse that killed Frank Stronach’s racehorse, Backstreet Bully, despite the fact that his vet records were faxed to La Viandes de la Petite Nations showing he had illegal drugs in his system and that his previous owners and Stronach Racing were all willing to take him back. He ended up at LPN courtesy of a kill buyer falsifying his EID (Equine Information Document).
Mongeon prepares the awful offal. And I really hope that’s some kind of food stain rather than dirt on your fingernails, Chef.
Mongeon, despite being informed to the contrary, absolutely refuses to acknowledge that these horses are mostly cast-off pets, discarded standardbred or thoroughbred race horses, mares in foal, summer camp horses, trail horses, Amish/Mennonite work/cart horses that have been worked into the ground. When facts from independent sources such as the Toronto Star and Latitude News were posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page, he and his indie followers simply repeated the same derp over and over again. This discussion also moved to an Ottawa Foodie forum where horse advocates were harassed for promoting truthful dialogue. I wonder how many people would eat horsemeat if they were not lied to about its true origin and the veterinary residues it often contains?
This comment was one of many posted on an Ottawa Foodie forum. It received no condemnation whatsoever from the group, yet the horse welfare posters were harassed because we killed the horsemeat-eatin’ mood. Surely the dry-heave factor on that particular post should have prompted some objection, certainly over anything we had posted?
Yes, it’s true – the Zombie Apocalypse is real.
Mongeon will NOT tell his patrons the truth about the horsemeat he serves. He and his groupies only respect those customs, traditions, beliefs, cultures—old and new, domestic and foreign—that call on them to eat more, not less, and without regard for where it is sourced. Mongeon’s claims about the happy LPN “farm” are meaningless. All that’s required to perpetuate his stupid unenlightened remarks are dull-headed food freaks to circulate the dogma. It’s time to hold chefs accountable for the misinformation they perpetuate about their food sources.
This is the pretty unrecognizable cooked version of the pig’s foot shown to the left.
Part of what makes Mongeon’s claims about horses and LPN so obnoxious is that the Federal Health of Animals Act is not enforced, which would protect sick, pregnant and unfit horses, and prohibit overcrowding; the Recommended Code of Practice for Care and Handling of Farm Animals: Transportation of Horses, is not enforced. The CFIA does not enforce their own weak rules that slaughter bound horses must not be transported for longer than 36 hours straight and must be provided with feed, water and rest at required intervals. Double-decker trailers are still allowed in Canada. Horses are shipped in crowded trailers over long distances, and often arrive injured, sometimes fatally. Horses, unlike most livestock, do not travel well. So, suffice it to say, they don’t always respond well when being transported from kill auctions in the U.S. to federally licensed slaughterhouses in Quebec and Alberta.
Since 2007, inspectors have been banned from the kill floor for their own safety, since the adoption of firearms has been implemented to stun animals, so their role is basically an administrative one now. So how could inspectors intervene when humane incidents have occurred, as revealed by a CBC probe and in undercover video by the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition? I guess Danny Mongeon’s “research” just never uncovered any of these uncomfortable truths……
Apparently, there’s really no civilized value left that foodies or chefs cannot destroy.
THIS IS AN INTERACTIVE RANT. IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO READ THIS, PLEASE TAKE THE EXTRA THREE SECONDS AT THE END TO REGISTER YOUR RESPONSE TO THE QUESTION.
This video shows Canadian horses – which have been bred and fed for this purpose – being loaded from sterile feed lots onto trucks, brought to Calgary airport, put into enclosed boxes like they are toasters, and onto planes destined for Japan. This is the kind of shameful trade that seemingly inept Canadian legislators, useless bureaucrats at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and a few greedy, wealthy business people are getting away with while we are not looking. All this is being driven by the demand of rich, gluttonous Japanese people who want to eat our horses on a plate.
I submit that horses are not produce – they are living, feeling, sentient beings and this is WRONG on a few different levels.
No point in writing to the CFIA about it because you will get the same form letter back that I got, basically justifying the jobs of people who work there. They aren’t even doing their jobs to the fullest extent on a daily basis, (evidence in the video) so not likely they will be able to handle any kind of demand for extra or quality work.
No point in communicating with any of the organizations responsible for animal welfare either because they have convinced themselves that they are fine with this. The people who run this business are seemingly so much smarter then them that it looks like they can’t even figure out a way to deal with it – accept to call it normal and avoid the issue as much as possible.
It’s probably also no coincidence that horses are being shipped from Alberta, the province where horses can be raised more easily like livestock and the population is most likely to accept the practice, being the most acclimatized to a livestock paradigm. This business would stand out like a sore thumb in most provinces.
Transport Canada and Canadian Airport Authorities have the power to stop this as well. Good luck with that. They would be as bureaucratic as the CFIA and it would take five years just to strike up a task force to consider the question.
Who you gonna call? I don’t know – the Canadian system, as always, is a wasteland of inaction, mindlessness and reactive bad decision making. Those responsible are like that famous bull who just “goes where he’s pushed” and at the moment, those who are getting rich off of this brutal industry are pushing harder than other Canadians who claim to be “animal lovers” or “horse lovers”.
It would appear that these slimy characters are getting away with carrying on this business because, it appears that, although most Canadians love THEIR OWN animals or horses, they are not truly “horse lovers” in the larger sense of the word. Or perhaps they don’t have a minute or two to consider the plight of the horses in this video or they don’t care to speak out against it, sign a petition, write to a legislator, or anything else. There are many around the world openly opposing and fighting against this kind of activity – apparently not many in Canada, where we slaughter the American horses because their population doesn’t want it – and don’t mind telling their legislators that – over and over again. Ultimately though, the business interests just won’t take their mitts and bats and go home. They keep introducing new legislation to re-open slaughterhouses – which we valiantly beat down – it’s a vicious circle and never-ending game, but it CAN be won if enough people care to do something about it.
So, what I am interested in knowing – are there enough Canadians who care enough about this practice to take the first step and admit that they think it is wrong and publicly say that, or is the real problem simply that Canadian “horse lovers” really just don’t give a hoot – or maybe think that this is OK, and not something to get excited about? Is it possible that people just don’t know about it? Really – what is going on here?
If you have three seconds, please select one of the following options in the poll:
Thanks to those who respond – whether or not you play along, I will get my answer, because those who don’t are obviously either 1 or 4.
The most recent news surfacing today is that Nestlé, one of the largest food companies in the world, has now been entangled in the EU horsemeat scandal. Major supermarket chains Tesco and Aldi were found to be selling beef products that contained horse meat. Burger King sourced thousands of burgers from the same Irish beef supplier, Silvercrest, and Findus “beef” lasagna was found to contain 100% horse meat.
Liffey Meats in Ireland and Dalepak in Yorkshire have both been fingered as well. Silvercrest and Dalepak are both subsidiaries of ABP Food Group, one of the largest beef processors in Europe. Huge blocks of frozen meat in cold storage in Northern Ireland – Freeza Foods, which had been quarantined by officials suspicious of its labelling and state of packaging, were found to contain 80% horse.
There is now evidence that both Polish and Italian mafia gangs are running multimillion-dollar scams to substitute horsemeat for beef during food production. There are claims that vets and other officials working within slaughterhouses and food production plants are intimidated into signing off meat as beef when it is in fact cheaper alternatives such as pork or horse.
What this multi-level fraud has done is remove informed consent from the public – people believed they were paying for and consuming beef products. The public also had no idea that they were at risk for consuming minute quantities of veterinary drug phenylbutazone(“bute”) as a result of massive quantities of horsemeat of unknown origin entering the food chain.
Phenylbutazone or “bute” was at one time marketed for humans use under the trade name of butazolidin. It was a Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory (NSAID) used for arthritis and other inflammatory ailments that worked by inhibiting an
Butazolidin – trade name for the human version of the drug phenylbutazone
enzyme that synthesizes chemical mediators called prostaglandins. It was ultimately withdrawn by the FDA for causing a wide range of serious side-effects including blood dyscrasias which damage the bone marrow. It remains however, on the market for treatment for horses and is an effective anti-inflammatory. It is also prohibited in the food chain as residues of bute and its metabolite, oxyphenbutazone are not known to have safe limits.
Horse welfare advocates and the inadvertent consumers of horse meat have been repeatedly reassured by various government agencies and horse slaughter proponents that any residues of bute or its metabolite are harmless. We know that the pro-slaughters aren’t relying on science when they tell us this, but what about government agencies? On what do they base this reassurance?
“It is important to note that the levels of Bute in horsemeat, even if it is found, will be very low, and greatly below the doses following medical treatment in people that have been associated with occasional rare adverse reactions; therefore whilst this is unacceptable the actual risk to consumers is very small.”
“The main toxicity concern in humans is that some people developed (very rarely – 1 in 30,000 to 1 in 50,000 persons) an anaemia which was life threatening, when the drug was used clinically in humans. This occurred when the drug was used therapeutically in humans at a dose rate of some 2 to 6 mg/kg, similar to the current dose for the horse of 4.4 mg/kg.”
The question is whether the presence of bute in horsemeat can present a risk to human health even in small amounts. In the above noted tests, the highest amount of bute found in a horse carcass was 1.9 mg. If a human had been taking butazolidin in the 50s, they might have taken 200-400 mg a day in total, if we compare it to the current-day dosage of Tylenol or Advil. Obviously, we would have to consume a significant amount of contaminated horsemeat in order to reach the level of a therapeutic drug dosage.
What is not clear, despite reassurances, is the level that is necessary for the average person to consume in order to experience a toxic effect. The basis for determining toxicity levels to inform public policy decisions has been the dose-response relationship, which is central to defining “safe” and “hazardous” levels and dosages for drugs, potential pollutants, and other substances to which humans are exposed.
If a therapeutic does of butazolidin was once considered “safe” at 200-400 mg, then how do we know that some individuals are safe at 1.9 mg? If butazolidin was withdrawn from the market as being unsafe for some people at that dosage, we don’t know whether sensitive individuals may have experienced toxicity at lower levels as well. What about drug interactions? There is an acknowledged interaction between phenylbutazone and the anticoagulant drug warfarin, and patients taking warfarin can suffer severe gastrointestinal bleeding if they also take phenylbutazone. This complicates arguments about safety of bute in horsemeat. Bute also metabolizes to oxyphenbutazone, which has been shown to have similar toxicity. Have any of these horse carcasses been tested for oxyphenbutazone? Both bute and oxyphenbutazone bind to human serum albumin (HSA) as does warfarin and so they “compete” with each other. For more information on this interaction, please read this study by the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Western Australia.
Indian vultures poisoned by diclofenac after scavenging livestock treated with the drug
If it still seems as though a negligible trace of bute in meat might not be enough to cause harm, there is an analogous cautionary tale of another NSAID – diclofenac, which was also used in human medicine for decades, and was recently introduced for veterinary use in India. Obviously, the dynamics are not the same, but vultures appear to have been exposed to the drug while scavenging livestock carcasses, their main food source, and this has accounted for death by renal failure of many vultures examined in a three-year study by the scientific journal Nature. Further investigation showed that diclofenac was fatal to vultures at 10 percent of the recommended dose. Tissue residues in livestock treated at the labelled dose rate were sufficient to cause death in vultures. These findings confirmed that diclofenac is the primary cause of the Asian vulture decline.
“As few as one in 760 carcasses containing diclofenac at a dose lethal to vultures would be sufficient to cause the observed decline in vulture numbers (30% per year). Clearly, even small-scale usage of the drug can have catastrophic consequences.”
The traceability issues with this untraceable horse/donkey meat also bears some similarity to the problem of kangaroo meat diverted into the human food chain in Australia. Kangaroo meat is often obtained from animals that were shot with machine guns via helicopters and therefore not slaughtered humanely and not bled by conventional standards either. Possibly also introduced into the food chain dubiously as well.
The ability to treat horses with bute is very important for their welfare. The EU scandal has also revealed that the passporting system there is subject to fraud, despite strict rules regarding the regulation of medicines. The fault lies not with horse owners but with individuals or organizations who are motivated by greed and willing to manipulate the system, allow their controls to fail, or commit outright fraud.
Food safety laws are clear. Companies that produce, trade or sell food or food ingredients are legally obligated to implement a quality assurance system called Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), which maximizes food safety by minimizing chemical, physical and microbiological hazards. There is something wrong with a food system whereby the food animal must sit on a feedlot for six months in order that veterinary drugs “degrade,” and 100% of the “raw material” must pass a negative test before they can enter the food chain.
“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.”
Horse advocates have had a busy year working to prohibit the importation or exportation of horses for slaughter for human consumption. Horse protection groups released many damning reports of abuse and drug contamination, and took aggressive legal action to discourage slaughter.
Undercover footage helped support our position, and numerous investigations were publicized. Citizen advocates monitored illegal trucking activities and for the first time, retrieved horses directly from slaughterhouses. Pro-slaughters proved, via their own (in)actions, that slaughter does not prevent starvation.
We were also aided by the improved sensitivity of testing protocols in the EU, which continued to reveal drug contamination of horsemeat, a finding which is continually met with silence by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, although the subject of drug contamination is making its way into the food webs. We’ve told restaurants in both Canada and the US that we don’t want horses on the menu.
Horse killers, kill buyers and their enablers did not have a good year – several were charged with felonies. Slaughterhouse Sue and Dave Duquette were unable to open any of their proposed slaughterhouses, despite performing an endless kabuki dance around the true status of the plants. Duquette also forgot to send a cheque to renew his own domain name on the web and subsequently lost www.daveduquette.com to a pro-horse HSUS site.
We’ve grown more media savvy too, with PSAs and billboards getting the message out. We are mobilizing via different social media platforms to petition lawmakers. Numerous examples of “horse hoarding” received publicity as well, with advocates rallying to promote horse adoptions through the increased use of Facebook groups. We’ve also demanded that horse killers and those who fail to protect horses and humans be justly punished. However, despite our best efforts to keep Senate bill 1176 and House resolution 2966 active, they both died without ever being brought to a vote.
The challenges in 2013 will be even greater, as the EU moves to ban importation of North American horsemeat and the full force and effect of the ending of the slots program in Ontario are felt. HWAC, Equine Canada and the FEI are also launching “prototype” chipping programs, ostensibly to ensure compliance with 2013 EU regulations. As we fine-tune all our programs and advocacy efforts, we look forward to a most challenging year, but no doubt one filled with hope that we might be seeing the final death throes of the horse slaughter industry. Happy Holidays indeed!
In September, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced that Dr. Brian Evans, who was making some sort of lateral move (perhaps closer to the door?) was being replaced by Dr. Martine Dubuc Chief Food Safety Officer and Dr. Ian Alexander Chief Veterinary Officer. Of course, no announcement from the CFIA can ever be made without the requisite statements about Canada having a “strong food safety system founded on sound science and aligned with international standards.” Yawn.
Of course, statements such as these seem contradictory when it’s realized that, even though it apparently takes two people to replace Dr. Evans, the CFIA is slashing jobs and budgets elsewhere. In April of this year, Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair`s website foretold of the impending doom, when he wrote that “Less food inspection could mean another tainted food crisis, more serious illnesses or worse.“ Over 100 food inspectors, hired after the listeriosis outbreak (which Ritz mocked) in 2008 will now be slashed, which puts us at the pre-listeriosis levels in terms of staffing. In total, the CFIA will be jettisoning 308 jobs.
Malcolm Allen, NDP Critic for Agriculture and Agri-Food, wrote that “These cuts put Canadians’ lives at risk. We could have another listeriosis crisis on our hands. People could get sick, or worse, they could lose their lives.” A new food safety report released by the Conference Board of Canada says rates of food-borne illnesses in Canada are higher than the United States. Canadians suffer more often from salmonella, e. coli, campylobacter and yersinia than Americans, according to the report prepared by the Centre for Food in Canada.
Dr. Brian Evans being interviewed by CBC
Horse welfare advocates have no experience with these two replacements for Dr. Evans, who seems to be perpetually unaware of serious horse cruelty infractions occurring within his purview. Even though he appeared to be forthright on the CBC video “No Country for Horses,“ he is confronted about cruelty issues and accusations that the inspectors working in Bouvry and Richelieu were ordered to ignore their own rules. If you`re watching the video – check out the horse at the 1:55 minute mark – this horse is ineligible for slaughtering because it is exhibiting “stereotyping behaviour,“ – compulsive shaking of its head.
Of course, now that we have two new people replacing Dr. Evans, you might think that the organization might be a bit more responsive in issuing food hazard alerts, yet it was revealed that the CFIA waited nearly two weeksto issue a public health alert after learning that beef from an Alberta plant was contaminated with a potentially deadly bacteria. Even then, it was not the CFIA that discovered the contamination, it was the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Agency that made the discovery. The plant with the contamination problem – XL Foods, has been suspended from operations for shipping 890,000 pounds of contaminated beef to the US. Looks to me like this has the potential to become the next listeriosis crisis, as foretold by Thomas Mulcair and Malcolm Allen.
Unfortunately, government inability to respond quickly to threats and challenges also doesn`t bode well for our horses. Most everyone in Ontario is familiar with the backstory here – seeking sources of funding to address a $15-billion deficit, the Ontario government decided to terminate a program that sent $345-million from slot-machine revenues to tracks and horsemen in 2011. The decision will result in the loss of up to 60,000 jobs, according to the draft of a government-commissioned report prepared by McKinsey & Company. By comparison, General Motors announced plans in June to shut down a consolidated line at its plant in Oshawa, Ont., a move expected to cost 2,000 jobs in June of 2013.
A week ago I sent a copy of a CHDC action-alert letter reflecting the concern for up to 13,000 racehorses being slaughtered with prohibited drugs in their system, to both Dr. Martine Dubuc and Dr. Ian Alexander, Dr Evans’ replacements. I figured that if you can’t interest them in the cruelty angle, at least try to get them to commit to following their own meat hygiene guidelines. I asked them to clarify how the CFIA intends to ensure that no racehorses enter the slaughter pipeline during this period of crisis when breeders, owners and trainers begin to offload their animals.
Instead, what I received back from Dr. Alexander was this:
Dr. Ian Alexander letter
As you can read, it completely misses the salient points – those being that racehorses, the ones who are now being declined by Bouvry and Richelieu for complicated drug issues that do not pass muster with the CFIA`s own meat hygiene manual for horses, may be entering the food chain, and what was the CFIA going to do about it? As form letters go, I`ve seen more articulate letters to Santa Claus. To knowingly send a horse to slaughter for human consumption when that animal has been administered non-permitted drugs is a federal offence. This concern cannot be over-emphasized, as illustrated in a U.S. study performed on 18 American racehorses who were sent for slaughter after receiving phenylbutazone, Dodman et al, 2010 Association of Phenylbutazone usage with horses bought for slaughter: A public health risk. Food and Chemical Toxicology 48:1270-1274.
Phenylbutazone, an anti-inflammatory drug, is a carcinogen and even tiny amounts can cause aplastic anemia, particularly in children. Clenbuterol, a bronchodilator that is used in the racing industry not only to enhance breathing but to build muscle, can cause symptoms of acute food poisoning (gross tremors of the extremities, tachycardia, nausea, headaches and dizziness). Not only that, but how do the CFIA plan to explain away the existence of dermorphin (frog juice) in horses sent for slaughter in Canada? And why does it seem as if the racing industry can detect drugs in horses more expediently than can the CFIA?
I swear I would last a maximum of one week in a government job – I couldn’t stand the obfuscation. “Processing” is something you do to a roll of Kodak film, not to horses! With talk like that, Dr. Alexander is about as credible as Bill DesBarres and his BFF’s Slaughterhouse Sue Wallis and Dave Duquette.
I’ve always had a interest in debunking false lore and hoaxes. Usually I’ve spent my time debunking pseudo science, near-death experiences, and alien abductions, but the same flaws in thinking/rationalizing that lead to those belief systems can be found elsewhere. And the pros don’t disappoint! They continue to be dogmatic in their approach and persist in their beliefs even after shown evidence to the contrary. Perception and reality are not the same animal.
1. We don’t have a right to tell other people/nations what to do/eat
When it comes to North American horsemeat, the EU is certainly going to tell us what to do
– their expectation is that North American horsemeat will fall in line with their protocols, not ours. And countries frequently DO tell other countries what to do when it comes to prohibited trade or financial transactions. Although I’ve heard this argument frequently on Facebook, I’ve also heard it on the street and seen it in newspapers in Toronto – many of which seem to be linked to the whole La Palette horsemeat “promotion” that seems to be happening in Toronto – many foodies claim they should be able to eat whatever they want. Frighteningly, they even claim that if animal is enroute to slaughter, there is, accordingly to them, no reason to treat it humanely.
Do we have an obligation to avoid negligence or breach of duty? Do we have a duty or obligation to protect people, even if they do not live in North America, from eating something they shouldn’t eat, or something they don’t know they are eating? We also have a legal liability in many cases, even if the person assumes harm – these are basic consumer protection laws. There is a branch of law referred to as “product liability.” In the US and Canada the claims most commonly associated with product liability are negligence, liability, and breach of warranty claims. Even if there is no negligence, i.e.- insufficient or faulty testing, public policy demands that responsibility be fixed wherever it will most effectively reduce the hazards. The CFIA and Agriculture Canada and their counterparts in the US, can anticipate some hazards in the form of drug or parasitic contamination, and guard against the recurrence of others, while the public cannot.
How many plaintiffs have sued tobacco companies for harm and won, despite the warnings? Over time, tobacco companies, scared of the issue of product liability, retreated to 2nd and 3rd world countries where they advertised heavily to the brown people who either didn’t understand the dangers or whose governments were not active in protecting them. Ironically, this is where some of the Pros suggested the next markets might lie……….and they sound quite a bit like Big Tobacco when they suggest it.
I’m not suggesting that horsemeat is the “new tobacco,” but despite what many pros claim about people having the “freedom” to eat whatever they want and assume the risk, that’s a myth, and we must put the remains of that myth in the shredder once and for all.
2. Rescues are looking for any opportunity to steal horses
There are good and bad rescues out there. Some rescues need their own rescues, and others
are run by thinly-veiled animal hoarders. However, I have honestly never heard of a rescue going onto a property and stealing someone’s horses without the benefit of the law behind them. Don’t the pro-slaughters realize that rescues operate in conjunction with sheriffs, who can also seize debtors goods? Most people believe that animals in need are generally seized too late rather than too early or without merit. Another oddity I’ve noticed is that if a rescue goes under and its animals are seized, it’s “just desserts” according to the pro-crowd, but if a horseowner starves his animals and they get seized, it becomes a “property rights” issue that must be defended against. How hypocritical.
When the property rights fanatics at United Horsemen heard about Nancy Skakel and her Shagya arabs, they looked up long enough from their feedbags to pull some quantum moronics. They strongly suggested, or outright claimed that the rescue(s) had stolen Skakel’s horses, when her neighbours should have made it their civic duty to help her by pulling down her derelict buildings, even though she was trying to run them off her property. Then they went on to try and ingratiate themselves in the White Salmon and Goldendale communities. Skakel had had run-ins with the law since at least 2005 as well as with her neighbours, who over time, simply got fed up with her. She couldn’t pay her bills but kept breeding more horses, while letting them run loose on roads for at least 5 years. She also admitted to letting her prized stallion lay in his stall for four days until he died with no veterinary care or humane intervention after he was kicked by a horse.
Yet Duquette is outraged that the “animal rights” folks have these horses, even though she was charged. This is one of the dumbest public displays of stupidity by Duquette and company ever, and that’s really saying something. I for one am thankful that they continue to out themselves in yet another display of dumb-fuckery. I have no idea if Duquette actually went in and repaired Nancy’s property, but if he really wants to make a difference, why not promote any of the low cost gelding clinics in Washington, promoted by the National Equine Resource Network? Oh, never mind.
3. Transportation is Heavily Regulated so horse injuries are minimal
The horses photographed by Animals Angels at Dennis Chavez’ feedlot obviously arrived there in terrible condition. Had Animals Angels not documented the horses flailing on the ground unattended and without humane euthanasia, how would the laws against such cruelty have been enforced? Who loaded those animals on the trailers and how long were they there before they collapsed in the dirt on Chavez’ feedlot?
The civilians tracking Three Angels and Terri’s Farms did so in order to document their chameleon operations and egregious avoidance of transportation laws. A mere two months after the FMCSA ordered the closure of Lebanon, TN based Three Angels Farms because of flagrant safety violations, the agency was issuing another notice to Terri’s Farm under charges that it was operating as a chameleon carrier. Terri’s Farm was shut down before any other serious accidents could occur (thanks to the efforts of private citizens and truckers), but chameleon carriers can go for much longer without being caught, often with serious consequences. If the FMCSA is so concerned with safety, shouldn’t they be doing more to prevent this?
The Animal Law Coalition contends that commercial transportation of Equines to Slaughter Act is unenforceable:
“GAO has also confirmed that USDA/APHIS has not – and cannot – enforce transport regulations for equines sent to slaughter. 9 CFR Sections 88.1-88.6. Changing a few words here and there in the regulations will not make transport of equines to slaughter humane. USDA/APHIS allows the kill buyers and haulers to fill out and provide the documentation – which is routinely missing, incomplete or inaccurate – relied on for enforcement. It is impossible to enforce regulations when the information to determine violations is supplied solely by the kill buyers and haulers, the very people USDA/APHIS is supposed to be regulating.
A 2010 Office of Inspector General report confirmed APHIS lacks the resources and controls to enforce regulations for humane transport of equines to slaughter. Not only is the information relied on for enforcement supplied by the kill buyers and haulers, APHIS continues to approve of new shipments to slaughter by kill buyers or haulers that have outstanding unpaid fines for violations of humane regulations. The current regulations do not give APHIS the authority to refuse approval.
OIG also found there is no adequate system for tracking the information, such as it is, that is supplied by the kill buyers and haulers about the horses. It is very difficult to track what happens to the horses, meaning enforcement is virtually non-existent. Also, APHIS often does not receive any information from kill buyers or haulers. OIG noted in 2011 that for the past year or more, APHIS had not received the required paperwork, owner/shipper certificates, from kill buyers or haulers for any horses sent from Texas to Mexico.
On top of that, APHIS only has two agents to try to enforce these regulations. Your agency is hamstrung by its own regulations and cannot assure humane transport of equines to slaughter. There is every reason to think your agency could not even begin to assure humane transport of horses within the U.S. to newly opened slaughter facilities. “
Lastly, this compilation of both deliberate and accidental injuries to horses in transport was made thirty-six months after making a Freedom of Information Request of the U.S.D.A. regarding violations of the “Commercial Transportation of Equines to Slaughter Act,” the documents were received. The 906-page FOIA includes almost 500 separate photographs of severe and alarming cruelty of horses due to the horse slaughter industry that happened on U.S. soil. (EXTREMELY GRAPHIC) http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/favideo/demo_video.flv (EXTREMELY GRAPHIC)
4. Slaughter operations are a desirable type of employment and anyone should be happy to work in any of them.
I guess your answer depends on what your definition of “desirable employment” is. I can think of at least 100 different types of work I’d rather do, some of them possibly not legal either, which would be preferential to working in a slaughterhouse. I’ve always wondered why we haven’t seen Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs fame) filming a segment in a slaughterhouse. I’ve seen film of him in a sewer, but perhaps there are some jobs that are just too dirty for Mike………
The slaughter industry’s effect on physical environment, human health and on the high rate of injuries to workers has been carefully documented by scholars. Slaughterhouses are also the source of human suffering as well. The process of killing a living creature day after day creates overwhelming emotional dissonance. This study – “Slaughterhouses and Increased Crime Rates: An Empirical Analysis of Spillover from ‘The Jungle” into the Surrounding Community, Organization and Environment,” by Amy Fitzgerald PhD, analyses population/jobs/crime data of 1994-2002 in 581 non-metropolitan counties to analyze the effect of slaughterhouses on the surrounding communities.
The findings of the study indicate that slaughterhouse employment is strongly correlated with an increase in arrest rates, arrests for violent crimes, rape, other sex offences, vandalism, arson, robbery, assault and disorderly conduct in comparison with other industries. The study documented increases of 130 per cent increase in violent crimes in Finney County, Kansas and a 63 per cent increase in Lexington, Nebraska. The Canadian town of Brooks, Alberta, witnessed a 70 per cent increase in reported crime. Particularly telling is the fact that the arrests in counties with 7,500 slaughterhouse employees are more than double than in those where there are no slaughterhouse employees. This strongly correlates the existence of a ‘Sinclair effect’ unique to the violent workplace of the slaughterhouse, a factor ignored previously in the sociology of violence. Here’s a bit more about Sinclair, “The Jungle,” and Dr. Fitzgerald’s study.
The effects are not explained away by claiming that the workers are immigrants and therefore “undesirable” elements, nor by claiming that the workers are lower class, hard drinking people, social disorganization, poor populations, etc because people working in low paid, dangerous, blue collar towns with high unemployment do not show the same patterns in crime. The study examined towns that focused on ironworks, metal stamping, and other industrial operations, with low pay, dangerous conditions, and routinized labour as comparables, and found no similar spike. The unique work of killing and dismembering animals in slaughterhouses has resulted in the types of crime which Upton Sinclair referred to as “the jungle” in the community. Dr. Fitzgerald and her colleagues state that “we believe that this is another of a growing list of social problems that need explicit attention.” To me, the answer seems obvious – such employment is likely to lead to the worker removing animals from moral consideration, as a coping mechanism for what they must do on a daily basis, which often leads to removing humans from moral consideration as well.
Of course, there’s also the explanation that slaughter operations attract psychopaths to begin with, and I think that’s true in some cases. I’m not a psychiatrist, and I don’t play one on TV, but the Rubashkin family, who ran Agriprocessors, a former kosher slaughterhouse, seems to have attracted more than their share of potential psychopaths. Agriprocessors was cited for issues involving animal treatment, food safety, environmental safety, child labour, and hiring of illegal workers. In November 2009, Sholom Rubashkin was convicted of 86 counts of financial fraud, including bank fraud, mail and wire fraud and money laundering. In 2010 he was sentenced to 27 years in prison. I don’t believe that the Rubashkins ever slaughtered horses, and although slaughter can never be a socially acceptable concept, there seem to be ever-present trends with slaughterhouses – moreso than with other industries which rely heavily on manual labour.
If anything, slaughterhouses have been thoroughly studied by a small number of scientists and sociologists. In the US, and to some degree in Canada, like other divisions of agriculture, slaughterhouse workers are typically people living in low-income communities. In recent decades, an influx of Latin American workers has been seen across the country, partially due to active recruiting by the corporations. Today, approximately 38% of slaughterhouse and “meat”-processing workers were born outside of the U.S.
Many employers knowingly hire undocumented workers in an effort to satisfy the extremely high turnover rate of the industry, which often exceeds 100% annually. In some cases, they provide incentives for current workers to recruit family and friends and even help new workers to create fake social security cards. Undocumented workers are constantly faced with the threat of deportation – either by their employer or by federal raids.
Pity the poor employee who works in at “at-will” state in the US – they can be fired at any time at management discretion. The threat of termination discourages workers from reporting safety concerns, injuries, or other serious issues. Long hours, repetitive stress and motion, and under-reported injuries. As a result, workers are conditioned to accept a hazardous and demeaning work environment if they want to remain employed. How do you like the idea of working in a slaughterhouse so far?
Any mass-production industry that has slim profit margins, which emphasizes high-speed, often with dangerous mechanized and manual labour, is never a good outcome for animals or people. An alternative to the slaughter factory, for people that must eat meat and wish to do so from a position of somewhat greater humanity or ecology – is the mobile slaughterhouse. We need to see more of them. Still wouldn’t want to work at one though………..
5. Every carcass is tested for the presence of drugs
We know that this isn’t true because the CFIA have told us so. This is the perception by the general public and certainly that of La Palette restaurant in Toronto and possibly other chefs as well, despite repeatedly being informed to the contrary. “….the CFIA’s rate of phenylbutazone testing on horse carcasses is an abysmal 0.152%(143 samples taken on 93,812 horses in 2009). If this is the frequency recommended by United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization, then I am shocked. I don’t think I’d trust the CFIA to run the “Guess My Weight” game at the local fairgrounds.
According to the CFIA’s own website “In addition to randomly sampling horse meat for chemical residues, the CFIA conducts targetted testing based on clinical observation of animals, before stunning and slaughter.The CFIA employs veterinarians and supervised, trained inspectors in each horse slaughter plant to identify any animal that, based on its appearance or history, may have been treated with phenylbutazone. The meat from these animals may be held until testing is performed and no residues are found. Animals are also examined post-slaughter for signs of conditions such as arthritis, which can indicate they may have been treated with phenylbutazone.“ I wonder what visual inspection protocols they have for clenbuterol, dermorphin, and Lasix?
IMO, the above is not a testing program. I’ve performed organizational compliance audits that had profoundly higher sample populations, in companies that did not produce foodstuffs. Canada needs to pay as close a scrutiny to horsemeat testing as the US does with athletes – something is terribly wrong when more runners and cyclists are scrutinized and suspended for positive drug results than is our food. Now that the CFIA is downloading inspection of food to manufacturers and distributors, how would this affect horsemeat, especially in the climate whereby the EU is demanding more accountability and traceability, not LESS?
Shamez Amlani, owner of La Palette restaurant in Toronto, told the Toronto Star he is “confident there will no longer be a glut of horses in Canada that could compromise the safety of the horse meat.” Note to Shamez – if the product you’re serving in your restaurant has to sit on a feedlot for six months in order that the drugs given to it degrade, then that should give you pause. Also, a recent Forbes article disagrees with Amlani’s logic, explaining, “Bouvry Exports and Richelieu Meats, two Canadian slaughterhouses, recently stopped accepting U.S. Thoroughbreds—the only breed whose drug records can be traced.”
However, if the 2013 EU regulations put a severe crimp in Canada’s horsemeat exports, La Palette and other Canadian establishments will be left serving the “pharmacological” variety of horsemeat that simply isn’t good enough for EU consumers.
6. Horsemeat is organic
This is really a recurring theme amongst chefs who should know better but don’t! According to the CFIA, there are stringent requirements (if you can imagine the word “stringent being used in the same sentence as “CFIA”) for suppliers to satisfy before they can call their products “organic.” This isn’t just a Canadian thing either, we have to have standards that harmonize Canadian provisions for the production, certification, identification and labelling of organic products with international ones such as the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Since the vast majority of horses are raised by private individuals who don’t ascribe to any of these requirements, it should be self-explanatory that horsemeat doesn’t meet the definition of “organic.”
Also, if horsemeat and its byproducts are so “organic,” why was Natural Valley Farms, a horse slaughterhouse in Saskatchewan, charged with discharging blood into rivers? Slaughterhouse Sue Wallis, who occasionally fronts as a Representative of Wyoming, is constantly chirping about the usefulness of all things horse slaughter-related, including the blood, which, according to her, is a valuable commodity. I guess NVF didn’t get the message…….
7. Environmental damage by horse slaughterhouses is vastly overstated
From a US perspective, one of the best “go-to” persons is obviously former Kaufman Mayor Paula Bacon, who is more than willing to provide documentation from the Public Works Director, former Kaufman City Manager, Presbyterian Hospital, the daycare center, and the Police Chief to support her claims about Dallas Crown, which had a very long history of violations to their waste permit. The city was even fined by the TCEQ for the plant’s failure to comply with backflow regulations that meant horse blood and waste backed up into sinks, toilets and tubs. When the plant finally closed, the city was left with nearly $100,000 in unpaid fines.
Dallas Crown consistently denied the City access to their property for wastewater testing despite requirement by city ordinance, city permit agreement, and court order. City staff reported that a $6 million upgrade to the wastewater treatment plant would be required even though the plant was planned and financed to last through 2015. There were numerous examples of offal and hides being transported through main thoroughfares in containers without covers, as well as problems with bones and and other body parts in neighbouring yards, resulting in the attraction of “dogs and other animals.”
In response to 29 citations for wastewater violations, each accompanied by a potential fine of $2,000, Dallas Crown requested 29 separate jury trials, potentially causing yet another economic strain to the City’s budget. The cost to litigate against Dallas Crown consisted of the entire legal budget for the fiscal year. During this period, Dallas Crown paid property taxes that were less than half of what the City spent on legal fees directly related to Dallas Crown violations.
The Beltex horse slaughter plant also violated Ft. Worth’s wastewater regulations several times, clogged sewer lines, and both spilled and pumped blood into a nearby creek, which seems unbelievable given Slaughterhouse Sue’s claims about the value of equine blood. The horse slaughter plant in DeKalb , IL had a similar pattern. It was charged and fined by the DeKalb Sanitary District almost every month. Like Dallas Crown, Cavel refused to pay their fines for years.
The US slaughter plants were clearly a nightmare in many respects, but Canada hasn’t escaped scrutiny either. Even Henry Skjerven, a board member of Natural Valley Farms Inc., recounts its ultimate decline and fall in the Western Producer in April, 2009. You can read the complete accounting here.
“Most notable was our failure with the CFIA. Natural Valley used precious resources, time, money and people in challenging CFIA staff and regulations. The final result? CFIA removed the company’s operating licence in early 2009. Natural Valley Farms died the day the decision makers chose to kill horses. It took months to implement and hundreds of thousands of dollars of cattle producer’s investment to make that change. But horse slaughter never brought a single minute of profitability to the company.” Even though NVF management were kicked to the curb, the government didn’t want to see the cessation of the business. They offered the plant to the Carry the Kettle First Nations with government assistance – this report was prepared for the Carry the Kettle First Nations. This CHDC report was instrumental in the Band’s rejection of this business offer.
8. The BLM does not sell horses to slaughter
One thing I can’t figure out is this – if you have millions of acres of vacant land and there’s 100 miles between towns, why on earth can’t they put all those wild horses out there? What really happens to wild horses and burros after they “disappear” into the paper chain of a government agency? And what happens to them after they have been sold once or twice to different buyers who are no longer restricted in whom they may sell the horses to?
In the US, wild horses and burros are supposedly protected from the slaughter pipeline by the 1971 act of Congress “Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act.” The act states that “wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death.”
The most incriminating evidence against the BLM consists of a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno, current and former employees of the Federal Bureau of Land Management have accused bureau officials of falsifying financial records, taking part in schemes to sell wild horses to slaughterhouses and obstructing Federal investigations. Much of the letter sheds new light on published reports that bureau employees took part in schemes to sell federally protected wild horses to slaughterhouses, then tried to obstruct Federal investigations of their involvement. At least 36,000 formerly wild horses, adopted through BLM programs, are unaccounted for. Also, under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act (WFRHB) the BLM can implement the “Final Solution” for the horses:
“[a]ny excess animal or the remains of an excess animal shall be sold if–
(A) the excess animal is more than 10 years of age; or
(B) the excess animal has been offered unsuccessfully for adoption at least 3 times.”
Currently, a wild horse or burro must be offered for adoption at 3 specific satellite or adoption events before qualifying for sale under subsection (B). Wild horses and burros sold in this way are called 3 strikes horses. Animals sold under this provision lose the protections of the WFRHBA. The BLM cannot claim a lack of knowledge in what would happen to the horses.
The BLM has sold pro-slaughter horse trader Tom Davis at least 1,700 wild horses and burros since 2009, agency records show — 70 percent of the animals purchased through its sale program. Like all buyers, Davis signs contracts promising that animals bought from the program will not be slaughtered and insists he finds them good homes. By his own account, he has ducked Colorado law to move animals across state lines and will not say where they end up. He continues to buy wild horses for slaughter from Indian reservations, which are not protected by the same laws. And since 2010, he has been seeking investors for a slaughterhouse of his own.
“Hell, some of the finest meat you will ever eat is a fat yearling colt,” he said. “What is wrong with taking all those BLM horses they got all fat and shiny and setting up a kill plant?”
Some BLM employees say privately that wild horse program officials may not want to look too closely at Davis. The agency has more wild horses than it knows what to do with, they say, and Davis has become a relief valve for a federal program plagued by conflict and cost over-runs.
In the following video, watch Trent Loos and Bill DesBarres incriminate themselves discuss the semantics with respect to American wild horses coming to Canada for slaughter. Mustangs end up in Shelby Montana (feedlot) where they go to Canada, and according to DesBarrres (who says leprechauns are mythological?), they are no longer BLM horses because they’ve received a new “nationality” once crossing into Canada. I see what you did there Bill! So the minute a wild horse crosses from the US into Canada, it surrenders it’s “nationality” and the problem of disappearing wild horses is solved! Watch the clusterfuck of confusion at the Horse Slaughter Summit once they realize that they’re engaged in a battle of semantics………
Government organizations can no longer plead ignorance when selling horses under their control to kill buyers. Earlier this year Big Bend State Park agreed to sell 11 of their park horses to a known slaughter buyer from Presidio, Texas for a total .25 cents a pound. Nevada Department of Agriculture has offered estray horses for sale, before they are taken to auction, where they are likely to be sold for slaughter. 23 horses that were to be sold for slaughter by the Nevada Department of Agriculture were subsequently rescued. And the Salt River Horses are classified as “feral” – they are not protected by the government – they can be rounded up and shipped off to slaughter houses for human consumption overseas. Some of the most highly trained, “bomb-proof” horses may also have been sent on a one-way ticket to slaughter – 60+ Texas Prison horses – sold at a public auction, their most likely destination, a Mexican slaughterhouse notorious for unspeakable cruelty. The state of Nevada is the legal owner of all wild horses in the state except those on public lands. Nevada will now be making their horses available at a September livestock auction where they will be sold by the pound.
9. BSE (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy) was invented by animal activists to distract the government from noticing that extraterrestrials are invading the US!
Did you get all that? Never in a million years did I think cruising around the United Horsemen’s Facebook page would yield this gem of a declaration! This poster, who doesn’t know much about animals, certainly nothing about horses, but insists that it’s every man’s right to own an exotic big cat, must be a member of the Truther Movement. He really knows how to bring the crazy – that fringe should be on a surrey! Technically, this isn’t even a “myth” because not even the other United Horsemen’s posters will let this shit go unchallenged!
Actually, quite a few UH posters jumped all over this post, trying to correct the poster, who believes that prion diseases were “invented” by animal activists, or that they don’t really exist, or that Hansel and Gretel was a story about a REAL encounter with a witch……….or something like that. Too bad the poster can barely take a break from the hysterical responses to read what was written in response to his claims.
Actually, this claim about BSE isn’t that much different that what you might read from your average garden-variety conspiracy theorist who believes that, because it’s posted on the intarwebs, it must be true – it’s all a clandestine government plan created by the Freemasons and the Bilderbergs, who were responsible for assassinating Lincoln, poisoning us with chemtrails, and destroying the World Trade Center. Our brains have been poisoned by vaccinations for diseases that don’t really exist and fluoride in your water for teeth which were actually implanted before birth by the military-backed Electronic Banking Industry, (in cahoots with HAARP and David Icke) in order to slowly release mind-control substances, produce schizophrenia, steal your dreams, and imprison everyone in Russian thought-control labs where we will be anally probed by Sumerian-speaking alien reptile kings, who are in league with Big Pharma to invent new diseases such as ADHD, HSV, and HPV. Yeah, I know the type, I argued debated with them like forever on the internet. And you can’t learn ‘em either, because they don’t use critical thinking skills and cannot recognize or discern facts from fiction! All you can do is sit back with a bemused expression, and “watch that fringe and see how it flutters……”
The idea that prion diseases in cattle were caused by insecticide was originally floated by a self-educated farmer by the name of Mark Purdey who is quoted by our conspiracy theorist. Purdey himself never claimed that animal rights activists had anything to do with BSE, nor extraterrestrials, which is just a crazy embellishment on the part of our writer. Purdey was an intelligent eccentric who claimed that organophosphates contribute to BSE, or in humans, known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or vCJD or nvCJD. I think Purdey had honest intentions, but like so many “fringe” ideas, conspiracy theorists glom onto them and distort them for their own misguided motivations.
A British inquiry into BSE concluded that it was epizoonotic and was caused by cattle, normally herbivores, being fed the remains of other cattle in the form of meat and bone meal, which caused the infectious agent to spread. One theory is that it may have originated with sheep with scrapie that were processed in the same slaughterhouse. Prions will not disappear even if the beef containing them is cooked.
10. I am the Shedrow blogger
As most readers here know, the Horse Farts Anonymous Facebook page was forced to go undercover because, turnabout wasn’t fairplay to them when the Shedrow Confessions blogger exposed them using the very site they originally created to mock the anti-slaughter advocates. You know what they say about payback. But don’t worry Pros, I’m not gonna threaten y’all with lawsuits or anything like that……
This is one enduring myth! As Shedrow herself describes, the pros’ “logic” in arriving at the conclusion that we’re one and the same person is based on Shedrow making an initial posting (I think she called it a poke) on the Naughty Mendy blog with a Canadian IP proxy. Of course, I am one of the few Canadians the pros ever heard of who also had a blog (even though I’ve never posted on any of the pro blawgs), so they proceeded to block me and every other anti-slaughter Canuck they could find on Facebook – just in case their hypothesis was actually wrong. Just more naivete about Canada – thinking that we all use the same IP! We’re got more total area than the US too – go here pros to learn more about Canada – a country where there is more than one anti-slaughter blogger!
Anyway, all this was done on the suggestion of Mendy Tobiano’s “techies.” I’m not sure how even the stupidest techie could arrive at that conclusion, unless of course, they’re also the type of neanderthal that’s still using a stick to scratch a record of their horse kills on the limestone walls of their cave. Of course, the mass blocking of my Facebook profile by all six pro-slaughters did absolutely squat because I never write to them or communicate with them except if they show up on my blog, on a third-party site, or in a site where pros and antis are posting together with the acknowledgement that both parties will behave with respect towards the other. And I block non-friends from sending any communications to me on Facebook, so it’s not like any of them can write to me either – no drama mama here.
Although, by not allowing them to write to me I sometimes feel that I am missing out on a lot of primo blog material!
Whoever Shedrow is, he or she is able to continue to read their comments unaffected – because the pros don’t know who to block!
On the rare occasion I post comments from pros who are not actually part of the pro-slaughter movement – Slaughterhouse Sue, Dave Duquette, Bill DesBarres, politicians, public figures, etc. I block out their names. But since I’m being named here, I’m not going to give them any such courtesy – you’ll understand why I’m sure. Quid pro quo. Some of these comments are pretty strange, I’m beginning to suspect somebody slipped Naughty Tobiano an acid tab just before she wrote the comment below.
Lastly, I’ll leave you all with this, courtesy of the Humane Society of Canada:
Certain breeders, private horse owners, auction marts and transporters
Manufacturers, distributors and merchants for horse trailers
Fuel companies (we believe that more fuel would be consumed through the widespread and frequent hauling activities of private horse keepers, as opposed to gas consumption by large transport trucks that move many head of horses in one trip to a feedlot, auction, or slaughterhouse)
Hay and straw farmers, grain growers and merchants
Thousands of farriers
Thousands of large animal veterinarians (diagnostics, treatments, hospitalizations, surgeries, transport fees) and the people they employ
Medical supply companies, distributors, and merchants (X-ray machines, centrifuges, etc.)
Laboratories (blood, tissue, and wound samples, etc.)
Horse supply companies (manufacturers, distributors, and merchants for blankets, tack, fly spray, ointments, fly masks, linament for rubdowns, bandages, wraps, grooming supplies, buckets, feeders, hay nets, etc.)
Manufacturers, distributors, and merchants for fencing and shelter materials
Boarding stables
Horse trainers
Manufacturers, distributors, and merchants for equestrian show jumps & training equipment manufacturers
Bed and Bale (B&B) businesses
Trail riding camps
Trail riding outfitters
The sport horse/eventing industry (upkeep, training, events and entry fees, special bits and bridles, plaiting of manes and tails, advertising, media, food venues)
Creators, publishers and merchants involved in horse books, calendars, magazines, posters, toy horses
In addition, huge show jumping events such as those held at Spruce Meadows hold widespread public appeal and attract international competitors. The facility employs over 70 full-time people, and its record attendance on a Sunday in 2002 was over 57,000. More than $5 million in prize money has been awarded toward this horse event by businesses and donors.
heatherclemenceau 