Let me, I hope, correct a few misconceptions about this.
This effort was driven by the European Union, where a lot of the horse meat for consumption goes. They have always had rules about the use of drugs in slaughtered animals, just never really enforced it before. Last April (?) they decided to enforce it and the Canadian Gov’t (seeing as we now are the dumping ground for all the US horses that were "saved by refusing to pay meat inspectors to work in horse slaughter plants inthe US anymore), set up this preliminary set of guidelines as a beginning.
In the actual paper that came out last week, I saw no notice of a “quarantine” period at all. Perhaps I missed it or perhaps that is coming in the next part of the ruling. General talk seems to be that any horse without a certificate (more later) will have to be feed lotted at a gov’t regulated lot for 6 months to de-toxify, in case they were given any of the drugs listed as acceptable after 6 months.
On to the “certificate” found here http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/meavia/man/ch17/annexee.shtml This cert will need to be filled out for any horse that is intended to be made available for slaughter. IOW, if you take your horse to an auction and want the KB’s to look at him, you’d best have one of these filled out and given to the auctioneer or they won’t likely buy.
Now, the really cool part is…GUESS who gets to fill out the portion that says “I guarantee that this horse has had none of the 99,000 medications listed here in in the last 6 months, nor ever has had any of the other 1 million medications that are on that other list.”
The OWNER! Isn’t that great? The guy trying to make 300 bucks off this poor horse, gets to sign this form himself, with no vet needed!
And, if you look a little further down, inthe FAQ’s, you might note that ANY horse who has everbeen given Bute or is suspected of having been given Bute cannot EVER be sent for slaughter. Maybe it’s me, but that pretty much cuts out every horse except the ones every owner raised from a foal. That’s the only way you can be certain. I foyu bought the horse, you can’t know what his former owner did for a sprain.
This could be interesting.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-slaughter. I think it’s a necessary evil.
If those strident people who managed to get the slaughter houses in the US closed are done congratulating themselves, perhaps now they could put their energies into making sure that double deckers are banned for horse transport and that rest stops and water stops are enforced on that much longer journey they’ve force these animals on.
NJR
PS…I’d also like to point out that Canada’s slaughter laws are much more stringent than the ones in the US. So be assured on that front.
