Canada is exporting horses for food to Japan. This is not new but the travel remains horrendous for the horses.
The CBC has a story about the latest news.
Please let me know if the link does not work. I will copy and paste the article if needed.
Feel free to reach out to Canadian Food Inspection Agency at
Cannot find an email address
I know nothing about Canadian government, but why so long for this to get passed??
"It’s been almost three years since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directed his agriculture minister to end the export of live horses for slaughter.
Bill C-355, which would ban the air export of Canadian horses for slaughter, has cleared the House of Commons. Second reading will take place in the Senate this fall.
The logistics of the transportation are horrifying. Sometimes as long as 30 hours without water? Pregnant mares slipping late term foals in flight and dying? Horses arriving with diarrhea and fevers? Good lord, the inhumane treatment of these creatures is appalling.
Hopefully this practice will come to an end soon.
our heroic leader likes to make grand pronouncements and get his picture taken, follow thru not so much unless it benefits him directly. The issues listed are against transport regs as far as I know, but CFIA enforcement is lacking in general most likely due to lack of funding and excess red tape - rarely anyone enforcing transport regs at our local horse auctions, just at cattle sales. Likely a lot of the push back on the act is at least partly due to poor wording making an act that causes more problems then it solves. IMHO it would be more productive to give the CFIA teeth (and motivation) than fight over banning it.
I don’t understand how it’s more economical to ship LIVE horses instead of already processed carcasses? I get the meat needs to be fresh for sashimi, but would it really be harder to fly over already slaughtered horses, as whole skinned and gutted carcasses? Do they not have refrigeration for certain cargo??
The cost in $$$ and to the animals health and welfare to export them live just for them to be slaughtered almost immediately just seems stupid IMHO. The cost in testing, quarantine, handlers, facilities, ect ect seems exorbitant just for fresher meat.
It’s not like Japan is an Itty bitty island completely incapable of raising horses themselves, why do they need to import live horses purely for slaughter?
It’s a Private Member bill, so less time is allocated to it being considered and voted on. It’s a slow process, no matter who is the Prime Minister or the private member. Private Member bills take a back seat to Government Bills.
The stages for a bill originating in the House of Commons are:
At least the current government (Liberal and NDP coalition) voted to allow the Private Member’s bill to proceed to 2nd reading, committee, 3rd reading and now it’s in the hands of the Senate. Private Member Bills move like molasses in winter. Those bills take a backseat to Government Bills.
This is disgusting, I get that some people eat horse meat but WTF.
Just a small addendum… As we have a bicameral system, a bill goes through all the same steps in Senate (1st, 2nd readings, possibly committee, 3rd reading) as it does in the House of Commons, or vice versa… Bills can start in either house.
As well, receiving Royal Assent does not mean that the newly minted act is actually in force on the date of RA.
Acts can come into force in many different ways, including a deemed date, which is the case here: “10 This Act comes into force 18 months after the day on which it receives royal assent.”
So, we have a while ahead of us…
If the PM really wanted this to happen, it would be a gov bill (bill number under 200).
Thanks for adding the Bill’s steps for the Senate. I decided to truncate the steps for the Senate when I wrote the stages. In the scheme of what is considered important to our country and citizens I highly doubt any sitting Prime Minister or Cabinet Member would rise the welfare of horses being transported for slaughter to a Government Bill. We are lucky it made it to the Senate as a Private Member’s Bill.
Would I be correct that this still allows horses to be shipped by truck to Mexico? Maybe even to the U.S. if the law changes in the U.S. That there is some reason the door was left open to allow that?
There is a reason the export was narrowed to ‘by air’. Interested in why.
I am currently travelling in Japan and finally saw horses in the Mount Aso area, which is in the southwest. Most of them were draft or draft crosses, pastured with cattle, so thought they are probably being raised for meat. Also have seen horse on the menu in several restaurants and no, I did not try it!!!
Have travelled quite abit around the country on mostly trains, some buses and most of what you see is rice paddies. No cattle or other livestock, not until I was in the area mentioned above finally saw cattle. Have been travelling up the east coast above Tokyo the last couple of days and have seen several trucks carrying cattle, but no farms.
Although, I personally don’t like the idea of horses being eaten but here and in Europe, it is part of the culture. Other countries import livestock for food. Yes, the shipping conditions need to improve. If we were to look at horses as just livestock, like cattle, pigs etc., we probably wouldn’t not have a problem with them being eaten.
Absolutely!
And the reality is, things tend to be debated with much less depth at the Senate (unless they get excited about something).
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