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bill C-322, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, CFIA, dangerous, drugs, EID, Equine Information Document, fraud, horse meat, human consumption, OLEX, slaughter, Toronto Star
The Toronto Star has written again about the horse slaughter issues here in Canada. Granted, I appreciate their effort. Their reach to educate the public is much farther than mine with my lowly little blog. This is simply my personal concern and disgust with the system.
For some reason, the Star falls short or even seems to avoid calling out the true reason why Equine Information Documents (EID) fail. They also seem to only refer to the racehorses entering the system being a problem when all horses are highly suspect of being drugged. Pleasure horses are just as likely to be dosed with anti inflammatory drugs such as phenylbutazone or “bute” (a banned drug for human consumption). It’s common and cheap. Think along the same lines as when you take an advil or tylenol for various ailments, bumps, pains and inflammation.
The Canadian Horse Defense Coalition regularly posts the breed representation of the weekly auction at OLEX on their facebook page. This past week of 75 horses, approximately one third were potentially race horses. It’s not to say that race horses entering the slaughter system aren’t a problem, however they aren’t the only problem. Not by a long shot.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency requires EID’s for all horses entering the slaughter system:
“It is mandatory for all operators of Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) inspected facilities in Canada engaged in equine slaughter for edible purposes to have complete identity and medical records for all animals (domestic and imported) presented for slaughter. These records are referred to as equine information documents.
A completed individual animal information document is referred to as an Equine Information Document (EID) and contains a standardized description of the animal, as well as a comprehensive record of the equine’s medical treatment for at least the preceding six months.”
It’s as obvious as the nose on a horses face. The so-called “owners” of a horse who is physically delivering the animal to the slaughter facility or abattoir and filling out the EID paperwork, hasn’t owned the horse for “the preceding six months”. In fact most haven’t owned the horses for 6 days. Some for only hours at best.
“Kill Buyers” are contract purchasers for slaughter plants who go around purchasing horses for slaughter. It makes no sense to have individuals submit their individual horses to the plant. Multiple people, single or two horses per trailer, parking, trailering costs, individual haggling over price, the emotional turmoil of some while handing over their horses to their deaths…. The logistics are overwhelming, time consuming and costly.
Therefore, the plants employ “kill buyers” to deliver multiple horses per load, price already set, no emotional attachment, very aware of the process, speedy and effective. Efficient business practices allow for lucrative returns.
*Please note that it is not lost on me that this may very well be “by design” on the part of the slaughter industry. Encouraging a recent, short-term ownership scenario where the “owner” will be unlikely to be aware of the medical history means fewer declarations of drug administration. Fewer declarations means fewer rejections, lower statistics and a perceived “safe” source of food overall. The cycle continues seemingly unquestioned and unchallenged.*
The reality is that the individuals submitting the animals have no idea of what the animals may or may not have had administered to them in the last six months. The ink is barely dry on their ownership papers before the horse is entering the slaughter house gates. Many of the animals who have found themselves in the slaughter system have been through several owners in the weeks leading to slaughter. Sometimes there’s a paper trail, many times there’s not. Many are sold on nothing more than a handshake.
It is the very nature of horse ownership in North America that has required this disassociation between ownership and ‘dissolvement’. Owners in North America purchase horses for business or pleasure. When the business fails, when the pleasure ends, when the costs rise, when the kids grow up, when the horse ages or becomes injured, when life changes; horses need to move on. When a buyer cannot be found, what is an owner to do? Horses are not like cars, they cannot be put up on blocks in storage to wait until something better comes along. A horse enjoyed or a horse unwanted, both are equally costly. There are two choices: Euthanasia or Auction
Euthanasia: Call the vet, pay for the farm call and euthanasia. Either have themselves or someone on their behalf assist the vet. Watch the animal die. The emotional turmoil is a very heavy burden.
If the owners have property, they may be able to bury the horse on their own (pay for a back hoe or dig it on their own). For those who don’t have that option, a call is made to a company to come and take the body away. The total cost may be anywhere from $300 and up (most often much higher, generally around $700.00).
Auction: Ship the horse to auction. Get a few hundred dollars back, prices range. The horse may go to a home, may go to a dealer who will resell it or to a kill buyer for slaughter. While it would be nice to have an “only to a home” option, there is no such option available. Sending your horse to auction means it goes to the highest bidder, regardless of what their intentions are for the animal.
For someone caught in a financial shortfall, shipping to auction is a last resort. If they had the money for euthanasia, they spend it on keeping the horse longer, in hopes that their situation would turn around. A couple more months of doing anything in their power to sell the horse or even “free to a good home”. At the end, some money back is often the only light in a horrible situation.
For a business person who has found that the horse is no longer satisfying their needs, spending money for euthanasia versus getting money of auction is a non-starter. Why would they “throw good money after bad” when there is a further opportunity to make money? Even if it is at a loss, some money in hand is better than money out of pocket. As distasteful as it may sound to horse lovers, it makes business sense.
These decisions are what fuel the horse slaughter industry. Owners are able to say good bye on the farm. Simply load their horse up on a trailer and pretend that is the end of it. Their last memories of the horse are of happily grooming them, giving them a last carrot or apple and a pat as they load.
They don’t follow the horse through the feedlot. The terrifying conditions, potential injuries and poor treatment, the often dangerous transportation to the slaughter plants or the brutal and terrifying slaughter process. If they had to participate, I am sure the rates of horses sent to slaughter would plummet.
Keep in mind that before someone “gives up” on a horse, all other options have been exhausted. Horses that are lame are medicated. Horses that have behavioural issues are drugged. Horses that are in competition are treated. Horses that are not performing well are prescribed various last ditch cocktails. Horses with fertility issues are given hormones. When all of the medications fail, they go to auction and slaughter. A horse gone to auction is often at the highest risk of being drugged simply because people wanted to be sure they “tried everything” before shipping them.
Another consideration is that many horses are sold via various avenues. Barn managers, trainers, riders, auctions…. Most of which may or may not be aware of the horses previous medical history. They may have gone through multiple owners in a short period of time. Some become “auction rats” where they are shipped from auction to auction, sold to be sold again.
Due to this convenient buffer between the tranquil barn setting and the horrific scene at the slaughter house, people are given free reign. Free of guilt. Free of responsibility. Call it fraudulent. Call it ignorance. Either way – unless a horse has been under the same ownership for the last 6 months and goes directly from that owner to slaughter, there is no way anyone can possibly vouch for the medical history of the animal. The EID cannot possibly be filled out accurately in the vast majority of cases. Add that being completely honest on an EID will limit your potential customer base and there’s little to no policing, fraudulent entries are rampant.
EIDs fail because the system surrounding it is broken. You cannot ensure the safety of meat for consumption of an animal not raised for consumption. You cannot demand clarity and compliance for long term medical histories from a system that demands short term ownership before slaughter.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Horses are NOT raised as food animals in North America. Therefore they should never, ever be consumed. The drugs they are given, the supplements they are put on, the vaccinations they are given, the topical treatments applied to them, none are given with the assumption or consideration that the animal may be eaten. It doesn’t matter if they are Canadian or American horses. No horse meat coming out of North America is safe for consumption.
randomslate 
Well said!
The EID was never meant to be effective. It is simply the CFIA’s cynical, half-assed way to placate the EU (and boy they must really be useless, stupid and/or complict) in order to continue to be able to import North American horsemeat. Afterall, the CFIA has delegated the policing of the EID to the slaughterhouses…talk about the fox in the hen house.
Donikash is exactly right. The system is meant to look like a system, not to actually work. And as long as auctions provide owners with a convenient way out of a problem, it will continue unabated. The culture has to change and blogs like this one move us a little closer to that change.
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Excellent piece stating all the reasons why we should support Bill C-322! Shame on the CFIA for playing such a big part in what is clearly a broken system – a system that, for so many reasons, can not be made right.
And systems like the NAIS are primarily for food chain animals, however, we ALL will have to pay the price to register every horse we have with the NAIS (or something similar) and as I am sure the “powers-that -be” that are involved in the multi-billion dollar horse slaughter industry are busily working on right now, when what needs to happen until horse slaughter is banned entirely is that anyone who deals in horse slaughter whetehr directly or indirectly, NEED to have their own rules, laws and regulations that monitor THEM and not US who are totally anti-horse slaughter.
Here are some rules and regulations I’ve come up with:
If horse slaughter continues, here is a list of requirements I put together that would close a lot of loopholes for people in the slaughter business so they would NOT be able to continue to operate unethically and illegally. Might be difficult to enforce, however, if we taxpayers demand that they be followed, perhaps with our majority numbers we could either shut down the horse slaughter industry here in the US (because quite frankly, as a business owner myself, I’m beyond tired of horse slaughter dealers ALWAYS operating outside the law in terms of business licensing, maintaining commercial insurance, getting finger printed and background checked like I have to do, etc–NO MORE FREE RIDES FOR THESE LOSERS!) or we can force them to spend money in order to operate legally and not have we taxpayers be forced to pay for their businesses.
These rules and regulations would also protect horse owners who would never in a million years ship a horse to their horrific death by slaughter from from being forced to abide by the same rules as proposed by the NAIS for food chain animals as those who deal directly or indirectly in horse slaughter and are horse slaughter dealers:
1. Anyone who deals in horse slaughter, be it a breeder, a kill buyer, an owner, a transporter, a slaughterhouse owner, a trainer, etc, will have to secure and pay for a Dealer’s License, complete with background checks, finger printing, fee’s, etc. Seriously, when I sold 3 cars and a horse trailer in a month, I was contacted by entities (the county I live in regarding a business license and the taxation board) that said I needed to get a Dealer’s license even though I really was a private party seller. Why shouldn’t people dealing and making a living with horse slaughter have to secure a Dealer’s license, complete with an IRS filing, and have all of their own rules, regulations and requirements separate from the rest of us horse people who don’t deal in slaughter? Also, many people involved in horse slaughter are convicted felons, are often on parole, have warrants out on them, have issues with their drivers licenses (suspended, revoked, need an SR-22 filing, etc), so many people will NOT get finger printed and/or have background checks performed because they are afraid they will end up in jail.
2. Anyone dealing in horse slaughter will be required to carry COMMERCIAL liability business insurance with at least 1 million dollar liability limits, AND will also be required to pay for and carry COMMERCIAL vehicle insurance with the higher limits. MOST of the people involved in slaughter use their regular stock trailers for towing horses around locally (before the horse is shipped to a slaughter facility and usually transported with 10 or more horses), however, if an at-fault accident occurs and their insurance carrier finds out the accident occurred while their vehicles were being used for business/commercial purposes, any claims will be denied/declined by the claims adjuster. I know this because my husband was an insurance broker for 30 years and just buying a horse at the kill sale which will be shipped to slaughter and driving them home in the smaller stock trailer is considered by the insurance company to be business/commercial use of the vehicle if it is investigated and found to be a business the individual is operating using statutory vehicle insurance instead of commercial insurance (rates are A LOT higher for commercial), then the claim will be denied.
3. because the stakes are a bit higher when it comes to horse slaughter and shipping possibly tainted horse meat and sickening and/or killing people, anyone dealing in horse slaughter will have to carry General Liability Insurance to cover possible claims, and also prosecution for dealing in tainted horse meat.
4. For the breeders who regularly “breed and dump” horses at the kill sales and/or ship directly to slaughter, they will be required to microchip and/or freeze or hot brand their horses to be able to identify them when they go to slaughter. When one of their horses goes through, the horse will be held, the breeder will be contacted and will be required to provide an entire record from birth of the horses vaccination records, drug records, dewormer and supplements records, other “additives” records, etc. Every person that has owned that horse between the breeder and when they end up at the slaughterhouse will also be required to provide documentation/records on the horse as well. If these records are not provided, the horse cannot be slaughtered and must be humanely euthanized and disposed of at the sellers’ expense.
5. Also for the breeders, they will have a quota of the number of horses they can produce every year (like what they have in many European countries, where they breed higher quality horses because they are breeding for quality instead of quantity) and if they go over their quota, they will be taxed/fined for every horse over the quota.
6. Anyone dealing in slaughter horses will have their own required Bill of Sale stating that the horse is either free of drugs, vaccines, dewormers, additives, etc, or they are not, and they will be required to sign with copies going to their State, the Buyer, one for them, and a copy goes to the Federal government. This will enable a horses ownership, drug, and additive record to be more precisely traced. And although I do know people are always yapping about “less government”, I’ve also noticed that these same people always want less government when it doesn’t benefit them, but more government when it does. This slaughter Bill of Sale will also differentiate the people who deal in horse slaughter from other horse people who do not, and will keep the anti-horse slaughter people from being subjected to rules, laws and regulations like the NAIS that not only cost us money, but also infringe on our private non-business/non-slaughter ownership of horses when we are not putting any horses into the food chain with drugs and other additives in their systems. Those of us who are in fact anti-horse slaughter should never be targeted just because other horse people choose to deal in horse slaughter.
7. The seller of the horse going to slaughter will also pay an inspection fee at the slaughterhouse so that we taxpayers don’t have to;
8. Anyone sending a horse to slaughter will be required to pay for a blood test to test for drugs and other “additives” in the horses system, and the horse will be held until the results of the blood test come back. If the horse is found to have drugs or other additives in their system and paperwork has been signed saying they were clean, not only will the seller have to pay for humane euthanasia and disposal of the horses body AT the facility they are at, than the person performing the fraudulent actions will be: *First time offense-fined, *Second offense-fined and suspended from selling horses to slaughter for 1 year, *Third offense-prosecuted as a repeat offender in fraudulent activities, possibly jailed, and their licensing is permanently revoked as a Dealer.
Author: Laura Bell
Thank you for such a comprehensive, considered piece. You have provided a lot of valuable information. I have written my MP asking him to support Bill C-322.
Well written; useful information. We own 2 OTTBs saved from New Holland killer buyers 10 years ago. Now is the time to end horse slaughter! Humane euthanasia is the only answer.
So sad to hear all the concern for human health when these poor animals are subjected to stressful transportation on route to the abattoir, only to face even more suffering …such a nasty business, consumption of horsemeat. Makes me glad I don’t eat meat at all!
We don’t like horses being conscious when they are vivisected and slaughtering horses is torture http://www.EquineRight.com
Thank you Laura for a well though out comment.
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To clarify your last point… blood tests are not the correct test for many horse drugs. They need to test organs etc which can only be done post-mortem.
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The consumers are not consuming the blood; they are consuming the tissues etc where the dangerous metabolites collect.
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There is no science behind Europe’s false BUTE reassurance .. you need to eat 500 horse burgers a day blah blah… none.
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In fact, the wildly different (from person to person) Bute doses that caused illness and death of humans was one reason FDA pulled Bute from the human drug supply.
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So if you can only find these drugs post mortem, how many horse carcasses are the Belgian slaughter corporations rejecting because of drugs? How about race track cocktails, are they testing for that?
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Of course not. One look at the layers of crime activity at every level of horse slaughter .. up to and including the massive labeling corruption in Europe.. and you have your answer:
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Horse slaughter is horse abuse, and it abuses the human food supply, too.
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Thanks to every one for rescuing horses, educating and working towards a slaughter-free north America.
You are my inhalation, I possess few web logs and extremely sporadically run out from publish :). “Tis probably the most tender part of love, each other to forgive.” by John Sheffield.
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