Come July Horse Slaughter Should be Less Common in Canada

[Chaila]

Was feeling horrible about the Camelot horses and was looking into the history of the slaughter houses shutting down in the US and I found this:

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/meavia/man/ch17/annexee.shtml#cont

If this has been discussed here before, I apologize for the redundancy.

Basically it says that any horse without a complete veterinary record must be quarantined for six months before it can be used for human consumption. So, hopefully this will become so non cost-effective that the demand for horse meat will drop considerably.

There’s still Mexico… But this could make one pipeline much less useful.

I can hope, right?

[sisu27]

That’s a nice thought but highly unlikely. I know of a few places that are already set up to handle the quarantine (in Ontario).

[Chaila]

That’s too bad. I was hoping it would make it not cost effective. Or at least much less cost effective.

Would it give Canadian rescue organizations more time to get them out of there? Are they set up to do that?

[Ridge_Runner]

That looks like a “passport” similar to what the UK has.

What many of us believe will happen for non documented (US horses) are more feedlots for horses where care is quite minimal…to keep costs down. There are already feedlots in use. It will definitely raise the cost of horsemeat but as long as demand is strong, they will keep killing them.

[Just_Another_Poster]

THere will always be a demand for horse slaughter. There are too many horses in the world and not enough homes. Going to slaugter was preferable to what is happening to many horses now which is starving, being neglected. Rescues can not take care of them all, although I applaud them for all the ones that they do take care of. When slaughter was still in the US, it could be regulated and inspectors could be on site to make sure that it was done humanely. I have worked in a slaughter plant and there are so many rules and regulations that have to be followed to insure that the animal is treated humanely antemortem, during slaughter, and then the product is safe for human consumption.

Now that these horses are being shipped across the borders, they are facing a longer trailer ride and the slaughter procedure cannot be regulated.

But there is still an excess of horses and not enough homes to handle them. Humane euthanasia is a nice option but then what do you do with all the carcasses? There is simply too many.

Slaughter put a base line price on horses and made them valuable. When it was in the US, it could be regulated and inspected and the horses did not have to go as far on the trailers.

Sorry, off my soapbox now, but it kills me to see all these starving horses and not enough homes for them.

[MSP]

[QUOTE=Just Another Poster;4723588]
THere will always be a demand for horse slaughter. There are too many horses in the world and not enough homes. Going to slaugter was preferable to what is happening to many horses now which is starving, being neglected. Rescues can not take care of them all, although I applaud them for all the ones that they do take care of. When slaughter was still in the US, it could be regulated and inspectors could be on site to make sure that it was done humanely. I have worked in a slaughter plant and there are so many rules and regulations that have to be followed to insure that the animal is treated humanely antemortem, during slaughter, and then the product is safe for human consumption.

Now that these horses are being shipped across the borders, they are facing a longer trailer ride and the slaughter procedure cannot be regulated.

But there is still an excess of horses and not enough homes to handle them. Humane euthanasia is a nice option but then what do you do with all the carcasses? There is simply too many.

Slaughter put a base line price on horses and made them valuable. When it was in the US, it could be regulated and inspected and the horses did not have to go as far on the trailers.

Sorry, off my soapbox now, but it kills me to see all these starving horses and not enough homes for them.[/QUOTE]

There may “always” be a demand for horse meat but there is not a demand for horse slaughter! If there were then slaughter plants would be charging people not paying them to slaughter their horses.

The number of horses on the market to be sold and the number of horses being neglected or abused may be a product of our economy but it will never drive the demand for horse meat.

Slaughter of horses is a meat business, demand for meat is driven by consumers not horse populations.

[Lieslot]

That’s a nice thought but highly unlikely. I know of a few places that are already set up to handle the quarantine (in Ontario).

I was just wondering if they have to quarantine in big feed lots for 6 months, do they thereby mean individual quarantine for each horse? Group quarantine could still cause $-loss risk to the slaughther facilities, by disease outbreaks like strangles, rhino in large holding places like that.
Just a curiosity question.

Personally I am not anti-slaughter, too many horses and no way to dispose of them, too easily results in neglected horses and that’s no less cruel.
I just don’t like the long transport to the slaughter places and the means of transport.
I just wished every state had its own small-ish slaughterfacility, so that transport to slaughter would be short and the circumstances there quick & humane. But I can dream, this will never happen of course.

[JSwan]

lieslot -

I do not know how feedlots are managed in Canada, but the ones in the US will most likely be managed like the ones for other species. (species specific)

With other species such as cattle, the animals do come in from all over the US with unkn histories, so efforts are made to control disease, health,safety etc.

Some people have strong beliefs about how humane or safe those are - and frankly I’m sick of the argument and am not interested in discussing it anymore.

But I suspect you will just see similar operations as those for other species.

To me, it is merely one less worry about food safety, as anti-slaughter activists use the “bute ridden meat” argument to ban slaughter.

Well - this removes that argument but creates another. So it’s a wash, I guess.

[Lieslot]

@JSwan

With other species such as cattle, the animals do come in from all over the US with unknown histories, so efforts are made to control disease, health,safety etc.

Thx JSwan, you’re probably right, it’ll be handled in a similar way, hadn’t thought of that.

[Chaila]

[QUOTE=Lieslot;4723705]
Thx JSwan, you’re probably right, it’ll be handled in a similar way, hadn’t thought of that.[/QUOTE]

And that’s kind of expensive, right? And it’s not subsidized like the Beef industry in the US.

[JSwan]

Meh.

All y’all are doing is just creating another industry - an industry that will advocate for itself, lobby, and protect its interests.

It’s a Hydra. You cut off one head and two grow in its place.

The efforts to close plants in the US was ill conceived and agenda driven.

Now look what has happened. The welfare of horses has gone into the toilet. Out of our control, out of our jurisdiction, and into the global marketplace.

One incident of mad cow or foot and mouth is going to drive global demand for horsemeat through the roof. And now the infrastructure is in place to accommodate it.

Whether we like it or not horsemeant is a protein source for a very hungry world. Through closure of the plants AR groups created entire new industries - industries that will do what they need to do to satisfy demand for this protein source.

In the end - this is an economic matter.

In this day and age - it’s global. You have about as much chance at stopping it as you do stopping the import of cheap Nikes from China.

[FatPalomino]

We did talk about this-
They are already QT’ing horses for 6 months that are going to Canada. There is a huge feedlot in Montana, and Animal Angels went up there and did a big report on it. Their report is public info and it’s not good.

Increasing the amount of our horses that wind up in Mexico? Great job, HSUS, way to help the horses! Now you can see why the AVMA has been saying “no ban without a plan”.

[Shine]

Question: How does the quarantine work in the large feedlots? Are there “rotation pens” ? The larger feedlots must have horses delivered several times a week from everywhere - so there must be some sort of system to kept track of where a group of horses are in their quarantine until they reach the six months and are ready to ship?

[MSP]

[QUOTE=FatPalomino;4724647]
We did talk about this-
They are already QT’ing horses for 6 months that are going to Canada. There is a huge feedlot in Montana, and Animal Angels went up there and did a big report on it. Their report is public info and it’s not good.

Increasing the amount of our horses that wind up in Mexico? Great job, HSUS, way to help the horses! Now you can see why the AVMA has been saying “no ban without a plan”.[/QUOTE]

This was driven by HSUS? Because to me it looks more like a way of marketing clean meat to the EU. You know finally proof and a tracking system to show the meat is not tainted with drugs.

So perhaps the blame for horses sitting in feedlots for 6 months should be on the shoulders of those that are profiting on this requirement; the processors!

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=MSP;4725812]
This was driven by HSUS? Because to me it looks more like a way of marketing clean meat to the EU. You know finally proof and a tracking system to show the meat is not tainted with drugs.

So perhaps the blame for horses sitting in feedlots for 6 months should be on the shoulders of those that are profiting on this requirement; the processors![/QUOTE]

Well, the HSUS’s president took credit for closing the plants in TX, in an interview to the Dallas paper, bragging how his lawyers found that obscure 1947 law and twisted it around to mean, not that horse meat should not be sold as beef, but that all horse meat sales were illegal and used that to close the plants.

The HSUS, you know, that group that wants, amongst other distracting agendas, to eliminate all use of animals by humans, eventually.

[LexInVA]

Does this mean that horses will now be fed to the mutant Grizzly-Polar Bear hybrids that you are secretly mass producing in Canada in an attempt to create a trained army of Bears that will invade the US? Colbert wants to know…

[shawnee_Acres]

I hate to get drug into this arguement, but I have to put my two cents worth in! Have ANY of you been to the small horse sales lately?? Have ANY of you seen the skinny horses selling there for $50? WHERE do you think those horses are going, they aren’t going to slaughter around here becuase there are so few going to the sales the slaughter buyers won’t come. Why are there so few going to the sale, NOT because there is a shortage of unwnated horses, but because people would rather let them starve in their backyard than spend the gas to carry them to a sale where they won’t even bring gas money!!! WAKE UP people! Those ones that actually bring the $50 are likely going to another backyard where their fate is just as bad as the last one, when the kiddies get tired of them, or dad loses his job. I just keep banging my head on the wall wondering what the anti-slaughter groups are thinking!! Lets promore HUMANE slaughter HERE in the US, lets promote HUMANE transport, lets get REALISTIC as to the problem and the solution! OK that is ALL I have to say on the matter.

[MSP]

[QUOTE=Bluey;4725833]
Well, the HSUS’s president took credit for closing the plants in TX, in an interview to the Dallas paper, bragging how his lawyers found that obscure 1947 law and twisted it around to mean, not that horse meat should not be sold as beef, but that all horse meat sales were illegal and used that to close the plants.

The HSUS, you know, that group that wants, amongst other distracting agendas, to eliminate all use of animals by humans, eventually.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, and they have commercials on TV where they claim to rescue animals. So, they lie a lot!

I would really like to know who pushed to put these new regs in place.

[Geroni-mo-oh-oh]

Bluey:
The HSUS, you know, that group that wants, amongst other distracting agendas, to eliminate all use of animals by humans, eventually.

Hey Bluey: This is such a pile of manure that no one with half a brain would post it. Check your facts.

[Alagirl]

@shawneeAcres;4725868

I hate to get drug into this arguement, but I have to put my two cents worth in! Have ANY of you been to the small horse sales lately?? Have ANY of you seen the skinny horses selling there for $50? WHERE do you think those horses are going, they aren’t going to slaughter around here becuase there are so few going to the sales the slaughter buyers won’t come. Why are there so few going to the sale, NOT because there is a shortage of unwnated horses, but because people would rather let them starve in their backyard than spend the gas to carry them to a sale where they won’t even bring gas money!!! WAKE UP people! Those ones that actually bring the $50 are likely going to another backyard where their fate is just as bad as the last one, when the kiddies get tired of them, or dad loses his job. I just keep banging my head on the wall wondering what the anti-slaughter groups are thinking!! Lets promore HUMANE slaughter HERE in the US, lets promote HUMANE transport, lets get REALISTIC as to the problem and the solution! OK that is ALL I have to say on the matter.

yep