PONY TO PLATE HORSEMEAT FRAUD

PONY TO PLATE HORSEMEAT FRAUD

by | Mar 2, 2023 | EU, Europe, Food fraud, Horse meat, ST Patrick's Day

EUROPE-WIDE HORSEMEAT FRAUD INVESTIGATION  

RFI JANUARY 11, 2023

Decker was described by the prosecution as the “central element” of a vast fraud, having slaughtered a thousand horses at a municipal slaughterhouse in the southern French city of Alès, whose identification passports or drug treatment booklets had been falsified.

FULL ARTICLE HERE
BACKGROUND HERE

THINK IT CAN’T HAPPEN IN CANADA? 
THINK AGAIN.

CFIA NOT SURPRISED ABOUT FOOD FRAUD IN CANADA

BAN HORSE SLAUGHTER IS DEDICATED TO:

1. Preventing horses and other equines from entering the slaughter pipeline.

2. Banning horse slaughter or the slaughter of any equine for any purpose within Canada - including the slaughter of horses and other equines imported from the USA.

3.  Banning the export of horses from the USA to Canada or Mexico for slaughter.

4.  Banning the export of horses from Canada to any other market for slaughter.

We are 100% volunteer & crowdfunded.

0% goes towards salaries. Yes, ZERO.

T-SHIRTS IN SUPPORT OF HORSE RESCUE FUND 

LIMITED TIME OFFER FREE SHIPPING CANADA & USA 

ACTOR KATE DRUMMOND WEARS THEM
DONATE

PUBLIC HEALTH RISKS OF HORSEMEAT

PUBLIC HEALTH RISKS OF HORSEMEAT

by | Feb 22, 2023 | American Veterinary Medical Association, AVMA, Ban Horse Slaughter, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Canadian Food Safety, CFIA, Contact your MP, EU, Europe, home page blog, Horse meat, Horse meat human consumption, Horse Meat Recall, Horse Meat Sausages, Horse Meat Veal, Horse Racing, Horse Slaughter, Horses slaughtered for meat, Inhumane Transport, Overview, ST Patrick's Day, T.B. Racing, Toxic Horse Meat

AMERICAN VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION 

Quotes are taken from a review published January 26, 2023, titled

A review of horses sent to slaughter for human consumption: impact of horsemeat consumption, residual banned drugs, and public health risks

…the exportation of American horses across both borders for the sole purpose of slaughter for human consumption must end.

Surely if more people in North America and the rest of the world realized that horses and other equines are slaughtered for human consumption in Canada and Mexico, the slaughter of all equines would be banned.

Horses slaughtered in Canada and Mexico include horses exported in leg-breaking trailers from the USA for as long as 3 days without food or water or vet care.

The horses slaughtered include a small percentage raised specifically for meat but the vast majority are pet horses, rodeo and racing “stock”.

In other words, horses that have at the very least been treated with wormers and, in many cases, other drugs that are not meant ever to enter the human food chain.

And before you think it doesn’t matter to you because you don’t eat horsemeat…

In 2015 a study at the University of Guelph, sponsored by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency found that horsemeat shows up on Canadian grocery store shelves marked as other than horsemeat.

In other words, if you are Canadian and eating meat you may be eating toxic horsemeat without knowing it.

Perhaps even more disturbing the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was quoted as saying, they were NOT surprised horsemeat is being sold in Canada marked as other than horsemeat. 

Food prices have risen dramatically since 2015, so it makes sense that food fraud may also be on the rise.  Purchasing a horse not raised for slaughter, a discarded pet or racehorse for example is far cheaper than buying beef cattle raised under strict protocols.

Keep reading to learn why millions of pounds of horsemeat produced in Canada is toxic.

Previous work showed that 18 Thoroughbred racehorses purchased by rescues that would have otherwise been sold for export for the sole purpose of slaughter to produce meat for human consumption were administered [highly toxic to humans] phenylbutazone.

“Horses are prone to developing musculoskeletal injuries due to their various roles including pleasure riding, hunter/jumper, racing, and other performance-type work.

The most common drug to treat musculoskeletal injuries in horses is phenylbutazone.

Based on the annual sales of phenylbutazone [commonly known as BUTE] in the United States, our group estimated that every adult horse receives at least 1 dose of phenylbutazone during its lifetime.

There are 500 pounds of dressed horsemeat per horse.

The number of American horses exported to Canada for slaughter in 2019 was 10,486; this translates into 5,243,000 pounds of dressed horsemeat.”

Given that the US Department of Agriculture does not have a system to remove horses administered banned substances from the slaughter pipeline, more than 5,000,000 pounds of dressed horsemeat sent to the EU and non-EU countries in 2019 were likely contaminated with banned substances.

“The FDA considers American horses as companion animals and as such all approved drugs can be administered. 

The “administration” of phenylbutazone or any other banned substance is not allowed in food-producing animals.

Both EU and non-EU governments have published a list of banned drugs and drugs with withdrawal periods.”

The magnitude of the issue is further complicated by the fact that Canadian residue testing represents less than 1% of the total carcasses tested.

You can read the full review from the American Veterinary Medical Association here.

Help support our efforts to ban the slaughter of horses for any purpose within Canada – including those imported from the USA. We are committed to supporting efforts to ban the export of horses from the USA for slaughter and… We’re also working to stop the inhumane live export of horses from Canada to markets like Japan for slaughter there.

T-SHIRTS IN SUPPORT OF HORSE RESCUE FUND 

LIMITED TIME OFFER FREE SHIPPING CANADA & USA 

ACTOR KATE DRUMMOND WEARS THEM
DONATE
HAPPY CANADA SLAUGHTERS HORSES DAY

HAPPY CANADA SLAUGHTERS HORSES DAY

by | Jun 30, 2022 | Ban Horse Slaughter, Canada Day, Horse meat, Horse meat human consumption, Horse Meat Sausages, Horse Slaughter, Horses slaughtered for meat

First published July 1st, 2020.  

Yes, even though for now the United States does not allow for the slaughter of horses in the United States, Canada does allow horses to be slaughtered for human consumption.

Horses raised in Canada as pets, and “working” horses like racehorses are not the only horses slaughtered in Canada, additionally, horses from the United States are shipped to both Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered.

You may be like many Canadians who had no idea.

Or you may be among the growing number who do know, and who are attempting to have the laws within Canada changed so that this barbaric practice is put to an end.

You may be thinking that the horses slaughtered are old and sick and decrepit and in some instances that is the case…

BUT even if some of the horses that are being slaughtered are no longer able to perform their “jobs”, is the torturous journey and horrible fate of being slaughtered at a “plant” a humane form of euthanasia?

Keep in mind that horses are being slaughtered that are not necessarily specifically raised for slaughter and that horse meat can easily be tainted with drugs, including wormers and pain killers that are commonly used on horses.  Drugs that are clearly marked as not for use on animals entering the human food chain.

Early this year there were TWO recalls of horse meat in Canada, horse meat that was unfit for human consumption because of a drug often administered to horses.

 

YOU MAY BE EATING HORSE MEAT AND NOT KNOW IT

 

Also keep in mind that according to a recent study by the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada, horse meat is ending up on the shelves of grocery stores, but not marked as such.  Learn more here…

 

SO WHAT CAN YOU DO TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE? 

 

If you, like a growing number of Canadians and American’s know that horse slaughter is barbaric and want to put an end to it, here are a couple quick steps you can take…

Speak out by contacting your elected officials:  https://banhorseslaughter.com/contact-your-mp-2/

Sign a petition or two: https://banhorseslaughter.com/current-e-petitions/

Follow, like, comment and share social media posts: Twitter, Instagram & Facebook.

There is a desperate need to make Canadians and Americans aware!

Contribute financially via organizations like HORSE RESCUE FUND .ORG.

THANK YOU for caring! Together we can make a difference.

T-SHIRTS IN SUPPORT OF HORSE RESCUE FUND 

LIMITED TIME OFFER FREE SHIPPING CANADA & USA 

ACTOR KATE DRUMMOND WEARS THEM
DONATE

BAN HORSE SLAUGHTER

FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION OR ANY PURPOSE
DONATESHOP TO SAVE HORSES
HORSE MEAT SOLD AS VEAL

HORSE MEAT SOLD AS VEAL

by | Jan 27, 2022 | EU, Europe, Horse meat, Horse meat human consumption, Horse Meat Recall, Horse Meat Sausages, Horse Meat Veal, Horse Slaughter, ST Patrick's Day

HORSE MEAT MASQUERADES AS VEAL

AUGUST 26, 2021:  Yet, again horse meat has shown up being presented as another type of meat. This time horse meat is being sold as veal in the EU.

Local media reported the findings had been made as part of Operation Opson X, which is coordinated by Europol and Interpol. DG Sante of the European Commission has supported national investigations looking at horse meat sales. Read more here

SURPRISED?   Well in recent years,  there have been similar cases throughout Europe, the USA and Canada. Numerous cases of horse meat, either being mixed in with other meats, or being presented as other than horse meat.

The 2013 horse meat scandal was a food industry scandal in parts of Europe in which foods advertised as containing beef were found to contain undeclared or improperly declared horse meat – as much as 100% of the meat content in some cases.

While the presence of undeclared meat was not a health issue, the scandal revealed a major breakdown in the traceability of the food supply chain, and the risk that harmful ingredients could have been included as well.

Sports horses, for example, could have entered the food supply chain, and with them the veterinary drug phenylbutazone (commonly known as BUTE) which is banned in food animals.

The scandal later spread to 13 other European countries… read more here.

USA TODAY REPORTED: 

HORSE MEAT FOUND IN IKEA MEATBALLS

 LONDON FEBRUARY 25, 2013  — It’s been about a month since a factory in Ireland let the pony out of the stable and admitted to finding traces of equine DNA in beef patties it made for export to the United Kingdom.

Since then, dinner tables across Europe have been finding out almost daily that at some point they probably were graced with an uninvited guest.

The latest discovery was made by the Swedish furniture giant IKEA. Inspectors in the Czech Republic said Monday they found traces of horse meat in frozen meatballs made in Sweden for the furniture maker.

IKEA spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson said meatballs from the same batch had gone out to Slovakia, Hungary, France, Britain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Ireland. Magnusson said meatballs from that batch were taken off the shelves in IKEA stores in all those countries… read more here.

DAILY MAIL:  

ARE YOU EATING HORSE?

RESEARCHERS FIND 20% OF SAMPLES OF GROUND BEEF

SOLD IN THE USA CONTAIN THE ILLEGAL FOOD STUFF 

AUGUST 26, 2015

  • Out of 48 samples of meat studied, 9 had additional animal included
  • Horse meat, which is illegal to sell in the US, was detected in 2 samples
  • This may have been down to cross-contamination at processing facility
  • Lower-cost meat may be intentionally mixed to make a bigger profit
  • Other meats discovered in research included beaver and guineafowl

READ MORE…

WHY AREN’T

CANADIAN FOOD INSPECTORS (CFIA)

SURPRISED THERE’S

HORSE MEAT IN YOUR SAUSAGES?

Maclean’s AUGUST 4, 2017:  Beware, summer BBQ-ers: there could be horse meat in your pork sausage. Or pork in your beef sausage. Or beef in your chicken sausage. Or chicken (and only chicken) in your turkey sausage.

Those are some of the examples cited in a new study from researchers at the University of Guelph, which found 20 per cent of sausages sampled from Canadian grocery stores contained meats that were not on the label.

The study was commissioned by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency [CFIA], which, according to the Canadian Press, was “not surprised” by the results.  READ MORE HERE…

Did you REALLY get that?

Did you get that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, (CFIA) the federal government agency that is responsible for the safety of food within Canada is NOT surprised that horse meat shows up on Canadian grocery store shelves marked as beef or other meats?

Are YOU really okay with that?

CANADIAN?  

YOU COULD BE EATING HORSE MEAT WITHOUT KNOWING

In addition to the reporting by Maclean’s, CTV, CBC, the Toronto Sun, the Globe and Mail and others reported on the same.  Read more here.

So why is eating horse meat

any different than eating

any other kind of meat?

That’s a great question.

One of the first concerns is that most of the horses slaughtered within Canada for human consumption, whether butchered and shipped to other markets – or consumed within Canadian borders –  have not been raised specifically for meat.

Horses slaughtered in Canada include horses from the USA and Canada –  including thoroughbred and standardbred horses who raced and those who never made it to the track.

 

USA TODAY:  Horses go from racetracks to slaughter houses

 

Horses slaughtered also include pet horses, even stolen horses, and rodeo “stock”.

Most horses from these categories will have been treated with wormers at least twice per year, wormers that  state on the packaging, they are never to be used on “livestock” entering the human food chain.

Racing “stock”, rodeo “stock” and pet horses will very often have been treated with a drug commonly known as BUTE, that is administered for a wide range of ailments in horses, everything from arthritis to hoof abscesses and so much more.

Ask any horse owner and they’ll be able to tell you all about how often they worm their horse and that they have most likely administered BUTE or other drugs not meant for use on “livestock” entering the human food chain.

POISON:  IT'S WHAT'S FOR DINNER WHEN HORSEMEAT IS ON THE MENU

A study published in May 2010 in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology found that substances routinely given to American horses cause dangerous adverse effects in humans.

One commonly used anti-inflammatory drug, phenylbutazone (bute), can be lethal if ingested by people.

The most serious effect of bute on humans is bone-marrow toxicity, leading to agranulocytosis (failure to produce white blood cells, causing chronic infections) and aplastic anemia (insufficient production of red and white blood cells and platelets).

Similar blood conditions such as leucopenia, hemolytic anemia, pancytopenia, and thrombocytopenia may also occur in people who consume bute.

The National Toxicology Program has determined that bute is a carcinogen.

For these reasons, the FDA bans this substance for human consumption.

And BUTE is not the only drug commonly used on horses that is not intended to ever end up in the human food chain.

2 RECALLS OF TOXIC HORSE MEAT IN CANADA

But surely there’s paper work to be presented before a horse is slaughtered in Canada – right?

Surely there are protocols in place so that horses treated with toxic drugs such as wormers and BUTE don’t end up in the human food chain.

Well, you are right there is paperwork but it’s on the honour system.

Yes, in Canada those presenting horses to be slaughtered simply fill out an EID (Equine Identification Document) stating they are the rightful owner of the horse, and that the horse has not been administered drugs not meant to enter the human food chain.

Do you want to trust your health to a system that is based on the honour system, especially when there have been cases where stolen pet horses have been slaughtered?

And as you learned above, as long as horses are slaughtered in Canada – you may be eating horse meat, including toxic horse meat without knowing it.

CONTACT YOUR MP

T-SHIRTS IN SUPPORT OF HORSE RESCUE FUND 

LIMITED TIME OFFER FREE SHIPPING CANADA & USA 

ACTOR KATE DRUMMOND WEARS THEM
DONATE

BAN HORSE SLAUGHTER

FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION OR ANY PURPOSE
DONATESHOP TO SAVE HORSES
M.P. Sponsored e-Petition

M.P. Sponsored e-Petition

by | Apr 11, 2021 | Air Cargo, Atlas Air, Canadian Horse Defence Coalition, CHDC, CHDC Lawsuit, Cindy, e-Petition, Government Sponsored Petition, Horse meat, Horse meat human consumption, Horse Slaughter, Horses slaughtered for meat, Inhumane Transport, Japan, South Korea

HORSES SHIPPED TO JAPAN TO BE SLAUGHTERED

Horses from Canada are crammed in crates and shipped to Japan to be slaughtered for human consumption.

Canadian and international shipping regulations are being blatantly ignored by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Join us in demanding that this barbaric treatment of horses be stopped.

Keep in mind, that not all e-petitions are created equal.

This one has more clout than most.

Sponsored by MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith this petition will be presented to Members of Parliament in the House of Commons.

The more signatures, the more apt your elected officials are to pay attention.  Please sign and share far and wide.

PETITION CLOSED - RESULTS!
SIGN CURRENT PETITIONS HERE

T-SHIRTS IN SUPPORT OF HORSE RESCUE FUND 

LIMITED TIME OFFER FREE SHIPPING CANADA & USA 

ACTOR KATE DRUMMOND WEARS THEM
DONATE

BAN HORSE SLAUGHTER

FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION OR ANY PURPOSE
DONATESHOP TO SAVE HORSES

Horse Slaughter in Australia

Horse Slaughter in Australia

by | Mar 25, 2021 | Australia, EU, Europe, Horse meat, Horse meat human consumption, Horses slaughtered for meat

UNDER COVER VIDEO AT AUSTRALIAN SLAUGHTERHOUSE

2 minute video marie bennett ban horse slaughter

Undercover investigations in Australia show the horrendous animal welfare conditions in the EU-approved Meramist slaughterhouse. 

This video is graphic, but it’s only 2 minutes and important to share to help raise awareness.

As Canadian icon, Jann Arden recently tweeted,

“If we always turn away from difficult things – especially when it comes to animal cruely – they will never change.  The abusers are COUNTING on your apathy.”

 

I really don’t know what else to say except that those I have shared this video with privately have wept, and at the same time been more motivated than ever to continue working towards ending horse slaughter, not only in Canada – but beyond.

The in-depth overview of the slaughter industry in Australia – above – is hard at times to watch. As Canadians and Americans watch it we can well imagine that many of the same scenarios are happening at our Canadian slaughterhouses and in Mexico.

If you’d like to learn more about horse slaughter in Canada see the blog posts below and the menu at the top of the page.

Interested in what’s happening in Australia when it comes to horse slaughter?

May we recommend:

MEET OUR HORSE MEAT

T-SHIRTS IN SUPPORT OF HORSE RESCUE FUND 

LIMITED TIME OFFER FREE SHIPPING CANADA & USA 

ACTOR KATE DRUMMOND WEARS THEM
DONATE

BAN HORSE SLAUGHTER

FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION OR ANY PURPOSE
DONATESHOP TO SAVE HORSES

Pin It on Pinterest