Press Release – Bill (C-544) Information (HERE)
ATAMANENKO MOVES TO BAN HORSE MEAT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION
OTTAWA – New Democrat Agriculture Critic, Alex Atamanenko (BC southern Interior) tabled a Private Members Bill (C-544) yesterday that would effectively shut down the slaughtering of horses for human consumption in Canada.
“The fact is that drugs which are prohibited for use during the life of any animals destined for the uman food supply are routinely being administered to horses,” said Atamanenko. “It is irresponsible for Canada to allow the sale of meat from horses as a food item when they have never been raised in accordance with the food safety practices required for all other animals.”
Atamanenko points to the inexpensive, easily available and widely used anti-inflammatory drug, phenylbutazone (bute), as one example of what is quite likely to be prevalent in horsemeat. Bute is a known carcinogen and its use is illegal in any animal that enters the food supply.
“It is more likely than not that the vast majority of horses will have been administered bute, or ‘horse’s aspirin’ as it is commonly called,” said Atamanenko.
According to Atamanenko, at least fifty per cent of the horses being slaughtered in Canada are imported from the US where horse slaughter has been banned. The meat is then sold to markets in Europe. There are no regulations in the US to prevent horse owners from administering banned substances because horses are not regarded or treated as food-producing animals.
Under pressure from the European Union (EU), Canada is set to introduce a new ‘equine passport’ system to track the health history and medical treatments of horses arriving at slaughterhouses, including those from the States.
Atamanenko believes that it will be impossible for CFIA to verify data in these passports and expects to see a high incidence of inaccurate records.
“Many in the US believe it should be our job to verify information from US horses since Canada is the only one slaughtering them for human consumption,” concluded the Atamanenko. “It’s a stretch to think that information on hundreds of thousands of unwanted horses that were never raised to be food, will be complete or accurate.”
(“Tabled” is a GOOD thing in Canada) ~ R.T.
Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
This would be a good thing for horses, IF Canada bans horse slaughter for “human” consumption. What about for pet foods? Would this only pertain to American horses that are shipped to Canada? What about the “other 50%”? What about the horses shipped to Mexico? What REALLY needs to happen is, the European Union needs to STOP eating horses, AND, STOP demanding horsemeat, WHEREVER it comes from!! So, yes, this is a good start, but MUCH more needs to be done.
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It is a great start indeed. But please realize that many people don’t even know they are eating horse meat when it is packaged as something else.
Only a minority of people are eating horse meat in European countries, and yes it would be great if they were none. But the image of the European gorging on horse meat is due to propaganda to distract from the actual markets purchasing horse meat.
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Beware the “Corned Beef”!
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That’s right, Linda. And beware of hot dogs, ground meat, anything mixed with strong flavors, etc…
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The US doesn’t use horsemeat in pet food anymore, and I doubt if Canada does either. If it’s not safe for humans, I know I wouldn’t feed it to my pets either.
Mexico is a problem, but the EU has visited one of the Mexican plants that ships to the EU, and they found it TOTALLY unacceptable. They are going to come back later to inspect the changes they demanded. It’s possible they may stop importing horse meat from Mexico. That would help a LOT.
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Hallejuiah, amen!!!!!
Now, sir…you better come up with a plan to humanely euthanize equines like dogs and cats with some form of breeder/owner tracking system so they can’t keep breeding without life long termination responsibilities and stop dumping without paying for low cost, humane euthanasia….US Congress? You listening????
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A good thing if they can get it through. The statement about the passports is so very true. There will be organized efforts (Hi,Sue!) to circumvent it. We do need humane euthanasia options ASAP. I still think horse events, breeders, and sales should step up in some way. Imagine how much even a small percentage of the money that changes hands at Keenland could bring!
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Here is a link to the bill.
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=4633655&Language=e&Mode=1&File=27
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Thanks Chris…there is a link to the bill and additional information in the header of the article. Go check it out!!!
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Thanks R.T. I had missed that. 🙂
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Amen. It is high time that we all acknowledge that it is impractical, as well as inhumane to slaughter horses. Breeders and the like, have enjoyed for to long a free ride..where they can sell off their “low performers” as meat. Why should the people of Canada and the US pay to run a “passport system” which would patently false? Its a joke..and it will not prevent the doping of horses going to market.
So, the legislation is well thought out. I applaud the move to ban Canadian horse slaughter..and for Us all to move towards a day when breeders, are forbidden from skirting the cruelty laws.
-GB
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This is a great start, but much more needs to be done to end the consumption and so sluaghtering of innocent horses.
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Good Canadians!! keep it up good people!!
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USA, you can help too! Go to the Canadian Horse Defence Blog website…American Horse Advocates can help support Canadian Bill C-544 to ban horse slaughter by contacting MP Agriculture Critics, Hon. Wayne Easter (Liberal) and Hon. Alex Atamamenko (NDP) who introduced the Bill.
http://canadianhorsedefencecoalition.wordpress.com/
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