My brother John owned a horse for many years, Salem's Choice. She was stabled on a riding farm about an hour north of Toronto. Linda and I were living in Northern Ontario at the time, but I would occasionally go riding with him when we came south.
I would usually get Lazy Buckets, a gentle old mare, to ride. John would go galloping off along the trail while I would bounce along on Lazy Buckets, hanging on for dear life.
Still I enjoyed it and looked forward to our rides. John eventually met Rita, who was interested in more sophisticated things than horseback riding, and eventually sold Salem' Choice.
That was my main brush with horses, beyond a little group trail riding with friends in my teens. Still I hold an affection for horses and fond memories.
So it came as a shock to read the recent reports in the Canadian media of how we treat our horses at the end of their lives, their inhumane slaughter for human consumption. A practice banned in the United States but big business here in Canada.
According to a Toronto Star report--Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby, representing an animal rights group, is calling for an all-out ban on the slaughter of horses for human consumption in Canada – a practice that has increased here since it was stopped in the United States.
Ruby called the slaughter of horses in Canada "shockingly inhumane" and said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency does not properly police such slaughter for human consumption and it should be banned.
At a news conference at Ruby's offices, representatives of the Canadian Horse Defense Coalition showed a graphic video which it says shows horses being slaughtered at Natural Valley Farms in Neudorf, Sask.
The organization says the video demonstrates violations of Canada's food inspection act including: the transportation of animals on double-decker trailers; horses transported with their horseshoes on and not separated for their own protection; the transportation of horses across the U.S./Canadian border and unloaded at night without supervision.
The group also said the video showed evidence of the transportation of injured, blind and emaciated horses (including a horse with a tumour on its face and another with eye cancer) as well as the transportation of a very pregnant mare and the discovery of a full-term foal in a rendering pit that had been eviscerated by animals.
The group also alleges that the horses are not being provided food or water as they wait overnight in pens, are too densely packed and are being improperly stunned before they are killed.
This year alone, at seven federally licensed facilities, an estimated 102,000 horses will be slaughtered in Canada for human consumption in Europe and Asia, the organization says.
It wants a total ban on the slaughter of horses for human consumption and, in the meantime, for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to shut down the Neudorf plant to end a "senseless, inhumane slaughter" of horses.
A CFIA official, who didn't want to be identified, said the agency plans a thorough investigation of the plant and will be asking for an "independent external animal welfare expert" to accompany agency officials during their investigation.
A spokesperson for Natural Valley Farms said the company was not commenting yesterday.
For those Canadians on the 'stream who are interested there is an on-line petition to end the practice of slaughtering horses for human consumption in Canada
HERE
It really bothers me when I see people who just have to have a dog for a pet yet keep it tied to a tree outside on a short rope in the backyard for the rest of it's life in snow and rain and the hot sunshine. How would that person feel tied to a tree with no interaction or exercise and only have a four foot circle to eat and poop in?
Makes me madder than a wet hornet how people not only treat animals but each other as well.
Bear Hugs,
PolarB ;)
That Canada permits this is disgraceful.
I hope that respect and dignity will win.
But then I can't say I'm surprised...As much as there is still some beauty and love in this world..there is the same of ugliness and hate....So Sad...
I'll pray for the ban to stop this ...
If there was only something we could do..
HAve a nice day!!!!
Gloria
Thanks for the comment.
There is an on-line petition to end the practice altogether.
GLoria
May be we can put a stop to this.
Gloria
To give the States credit, you've already banned the practice while we're only just learning its taking place! We have a long way to go to catch up.
ron
I just can't understand how anyone can condone such treatment of living things.
I'm sorry... I can't find exact facts at the moment but there are over 400 PMU horse farms across North America. Obviously, in order to get this type of urine, the mare has to be impregnated. It has been reported in the past that especially the last 6 months of pregnancy they are kept in tiny stalls (horses are grazing animals with the need for space) with special urine collection containers attached to them which may often cause sores and lesions. Given a special food and little water to make the urine more potent (a non-working horse alone needs at least 10-12 gallons a day), several organizations now are trying to put a stop to these farms, especially since the components of the urine can be man made with the same effectiveness.
And often, for financial purposes, the foals are slaughtered (tender baby horse meat is favored in certain places in the world like Japan) and the mares are put back on the line to become pregnant as soon as possible. It's beyond my comprehension that people do this. Horses are so peaceful and gentle once they figure out you aren't going to hurt them. I could go on and on, but really... I know I don't have to.
Do hope that the ban will pass and soon!!!!
Thanks for the awareness, Anexplorer!
Cheers! ~MacKenzie
Manitoba's played host to a massive Pregnant Mare Urine industry in the 1990s, when hundreds of farms supplied drug maker Wyeth Organics with the PMU necessary to manufacture a hormone therapy for menopausal women called Premarin. The industry has all but collapsed in the past three years since Wyeth developed a new lower-dose form of Premarin. But one of the byproducts of the PMU industry is thousands of unwanted foals.
Some were sold as pets. Others found a career in show-jumping. At least one became a stakes race winner at Assiniboia Downs. But most are still making their way through a pipeline whose final outlet is often the Manitoba horse auction. There, meat buyers compete with representatives of horse rescue agencies -- from as far away as Vermont, over the years -- in a ring where horses sell for pennies a pound.
The auctions still occur; another is reportedly scheduled for Winnipeg Livestock Sales just off the north Perimeter Highway later this fall. And it is not just PMU horses who end up at auction. There are working horses that have outlived their purpose on farms; former show jumpers that can no longer jump; trail riders that can no longer be ridden. And finally, there are former race horses like Special Decision.
Neither Canada nor the United States track the number of former race horses slaughtered in each country every year. But the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals estimates that 10 per cent of them once proudly paraded before crowds at thoroughbred and quarter-horse tracks across the continent. Other agencies peg the number at closer to five per cent.
In Canada, that would suggest somewhere between 2,500 to 5,000 former race horses are slaughtered annually and converted into lean, high-protein cuts of meat.