Canadian Animal Welfare #2 - Canada's horse meat industry
After seeing a post about Mexico being the first country in North America to pass a federal bill, banning Animal Testing for Cosmetics, I was excited but then shocked to find out that Canada was not one of the countries that had already done this! 😞
The more digging I did into Canada’s laws & practises regarding animal welfare, the more I found out that my beautiful country has lots to work on.
I decided to create an on-going Canadian Animal Welfare blog series to help highlight some present day issues that still need to improve in Canada.
I want these blogs to be informative, positive conversation starters, with bit-sized data and a means for you to take action if you choose to do so.🙏🏻
DID YOU KNOW THAT CANADA IS ONE OF THE WORLD’S BIGGEST SUPPLIERS OF HORSE FOR MEAT?
Canada - and in particular Alberta - is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of horses for meat. More than 25,000 are slaughtered annually. The meat is frozen and exported, mainly to Japan, France and the U.S.
The question of which animals are considered food and which are considered companions is a deeply complex cultural and emotional issue.
But what is most controversial is how the industry feeds the desire for fresh raw horse meat in Asia. Thousands of LIVE horses are loaded onto airplanes annually and flown thousands of kilometres away, where they are fattened up for slaughter.
There is a growing global movement to end the transport of all live animals, not just horses. The British Parliament has announced plans to end the export of live animals for slaughter, describing the practice as inhumane.
A glimpse inside Canada's 'sinister' horse meat industry
EXPORT OF LIVE HORSE MEAT FACTS
Long flights with no food and water
Three to four horses per crate with no room to lay-down and no headroom
Canadian veterinarian Judith Samson-French explains why travel is especially difficult for horses: “Horses are not trained or conditioned for transportation. Horses are flight animals and we're treating them like cattle. It doesn't work. So from the humane point of view... and the biology of the horse, it does not make it conducive for transportation. Animals should be slaughtered where they're raised. They should not be slaughtered an ocean away and put through the misery of transport.”
International standards set by the World Organization for Animal Health stipulate that large horses be segregated during transport and that the top of their head not touch the top of the crate. They do not have a mandate for compliance or enforcement and while Canada is a member of the organization, this country does not follow those standards. Instead, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) maintains it is humane for horses to be crated in groups during the flights if they are “compatible” and that their heads can touch the top of the crate if they are “agitated.”
WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP?
Tell the Minister of Agriculture, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, that it’s time to enforce the Transport of Animals Regulations.
ADD YOUR VOICE HERE 👉🏻 https://humanecanada.ca/enforce-the-transport-of-animals-regulations/