by DAVE PINK
The disclosure requirements for horses destined to be slaughtered for human consumption are working effectively to keep restricted drugs and vaccines out of the food supply, says Dr. Richard Arsenault, director of the meat programs division for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
Any horse that is to be slaughtered for food must have an Equine Information Document (EID), which tracks its history, including any drugs that might have been administered to the horse. Horses that don’t have that document won’t be slaughtered for human consumption, says Arsenault, a veterinarian.
“It’s extremely well respected in terms of compliance,” he says.
Since July 31, 2010, equine presented for slaughter have been required to have an EID, which includes a six-month documented history showing compliant drug and vaccine use. Drugs and vaccines that have been used in the last six months must be safe for use in food producing animals and the period of time since the last use must be sufficient to clear unwanted residues. The EID was made available to the public in January 2010 to allow owners enough time to comply with the July 31, 2010 implementation date.
As well, the CFIA also has a monitoring program that takes tissue samples of slaughtered animals.
Arsenault’s comments come in response to a rumour that a one-time racehorse that had been treated with the anti-inflammatory drug phenylbutazone — better known as bute — had been sold for slaughter. But without that EID documentation no horse will be processed for human consumption, he says.
There are just four slaughter facilities for horses throughout Canada, all of them in western Canada or Quebec. It is a very small industry, says Arsenault, adding that the regulations for drug treatments in traditional meat sources such as cattle and swine have been more clearly researched and defined. Because of that there is less tolerance for horses that may have been treated with any drug.
“We’re taking steps to make sure the system is working well, and our information tells us that it is working well right now,” says Arsenault. “There’s a potential hazard, but controls are in place.” BF
Comments
Is there a program to make sure the EIDs are accurate? How many horses are sampled?
You better believe they are forged. TB off the track are sent to slaughter all of the time. You know what type of coktails they get
The Canadian Horse Defence Coalition (CHDC) released a report Pasture to Plate: The True Cost of Canada's Horsemeat Industry in December of 2011 based on videos and photos taken at Les Viandes de la Petite-Nation slaughter house in Quebec. In this report, they audited 62 EID documents and not one of these EIDs were given a pass. The EIDs showed that there is major fraudulence in the Canadian system of tracking slaughter horses raising alarm from a food safety standpoint. As well as major omissions on these forms, there were horses matched to the wrong EIDs, illegible owners information, scanty descriptions of horses, and most alarmingly collusion between the owner and/or kill buyer and/or the auction house indicating not one of the horses slaughtered were given any drugs within the prescribed time period. By the CFIA's own admission, only a very small percentage of all horses were tested for bute - a banned drug - in 2009 - 143 of 93,812 horses! And by their own admission, the CFIA continues to test and target muscle, instead of the most sensitive organ for this drug, the kidney. The system does not work, Dr. Arensault, and the controls are not adequate, but you were correct in one part of your statement - there's a potential hazard. For a complete analysis, go to the CHDC website and read the report www.defendhorsescanada.org.
The horse slaughter system in Canada is the most critically flawed in that the people with the most to gain, sellers and kill buyers, fill out EID forms to claim "with the best of their knowledge" that animals haven't received any prohibited drugs. That just isn't good enough. Horses aren't raised as meat animals and they aren't monitored for drug administration from birth to death like farmed animals. The CFIA should simply NOT accept any animal with a lip tattoo, just as a start, because they've virtually all receive bute, lasix, and even Viagra as part of their "job" as racehorses. Standardbreds too. And that's just to start.........
The Canadian Horse Defence Coalition traced six standardbreds that were slaughtered at Les Viandes de la Petite-Nation slaughterhouse in Quebec last July. One standardbred, Spill the Ink, was slaughtered three months after her last race. Not one of the standardbreds, according to their EIDs, had received any drugs - let alone bute - in the last six months of their lives. Read the report:
Horses are COMPANION animals & with that in mind just look at the amount of horse magazines on the market. Then take a look at the amount of products that are available to put in them & on them. How in the hell would you ever be able to test for all of them & how these products affect the horses...never mind the people who eat them! Horse dealers LIE to make a dollar. The worm medicine I use on my horses clearly says on the label.....NOT for human consumption! Horses are flight animals & slaughtering them like cattle results in STRESSED out meat & lets not forget the inhumane transportation of them in cattle transport trucks. The injuries during transportation & the final solution in the slaughter houses are horrific! What has your organization being doing to make kill-buyers honest? What have you done about the transportation of horses at the border stuck in too small trucks? Factory farming of any species is not sustainable. Higher yields equals a lousy product. Just look at corn, good for commercial production like ethanol & corn syrup ect but has no taste when you eat corn on the cob! Support your local small family farms & farmers markets..we care what you eat...we are eating it too!
it so happens american horses have multiple banned substances in their bodies making their meat unsafe for human consumption. slaughter also creates the problem with stolen horses all around this country that go to slaughter. the kill buyers need to be held responsible for dealing in our thousands of stolen horses on top of selling slaughter horses that have known harmful substances in their bodies banned by usda .american horses are not suitable as food .
At the EWA, we received photographs of 23 "completed" EID documents from a major US slaughter auction. One was a scrap of paper with the words "no drugs" and a signature. Of the others:
91.3% were signed
86.9% contained the owner's name
21.7% contained the required period of ownership
17.4% contained the required sex of the animal
4.3% contained the required description of the animal
39.1% were dated
30.4% had any information about drugs, affirmative or negative
Of course, I am sure by the time they arrived in Canada, all these deficiencies had been fixed.
As to tissue samples, the USDA tested fat, which made it impossible to get a positive reading. What tissue does the CFIA test? If it is not the kidney, the test is unlikely to show positive.
The propaganda continues! What a package of lies we are being "fed"! If only horses that had never been given the drugs banned in food production were being slaughtered, horse slaughter would be out of business!! Every horse owner knows that almost every horse is commonly given anthelmintic drugs (wormers) as well as horse pain killer, or Bute, which is banned in food producing animals. Go figure! D. Lacroix
this dispicable horse slaughter business only survives becasue the laws are not enforced. you Canandians kill them and send the meat to other countries. if horses were teseted to find the drugs , they would be found but that is not the way it works. woe to the people who eat this meat.
The horse slaughter pipeline is one of the most unregulated livestock venues in North America. Ther is absolutely no desire or motivation on the US side to enforce EID authenticity because Americans do not eat horsemeat. There is no resolve on the Canadian side because they are importing horses for the purpose of exporting the meat. Regulating this paperwork would cost everyone money, and Lord knows no one wants to do that. Kill buyers are bottom level feeders, they do not mainatain frams, they merely travel form auction to auction picking up horses. They have no idea where these horses come from, nor do they care. They know no one is going to question the EID forms. I suppose we will just have to wait for European children to start being diagnosed with cancer before anyone will actually do their job.
I don't know about all of you, but I think that USDA horse meat problems is the LAST thing the cattle industry needs. We lost our standings and USDA credibility with the BSE problem several years ago. That ended up in a closed export fiasco and cost many of us a pretty penny. It was non beneficial to the beef export business. If and when this horse slaughter program is up and running, it can do nothing but harm to the standards and industry we have worked so hard for. If the USDA will be overseeing this EID program and there really is no way to substantiate where a horse was actually raised, this is a disaster waiting to happen. This will be an animal that was never raised for consumption and when the USDA puts their seal of approval on any of it, all that does is dump beef producers into that heap of a mess. A couple of tainted meat problems and the USDA seal will mean nothing. The USDA inspections will lose all creditability in other countries. Things are going fine now, no need to create a problem we definitley don't need.
The traders in the states create the EID to say what they want to get the horses sold. The EU is being used as a garbage disposal for US horses and they have no traceability. While Canada may have farms that raise horses for meat with producers that know what the requirements are for a human food chain - the US does not. There is no traceability for US horses. The paperwork is missing or falsified. The US government even says so in the GAO report of June 2011.
If we KNOW these are riding horse and we KNOW pretty much all riding horses get drugs banned for ever being used in slaughterbound animals, where are these EIDs coming from? You'd be amazed how many drugs racehorses (TBs and STBs) and competition horses get. Even my pleasure trail horses get vaccines, sometimes Bute, and other "banned" drugs.
As someone why buys horses from the same livestock sales the kill buyers do, I can personally attest you NEVER get a vaccination or drug record with any inexpensive horse. Most of the time they don't even do a Coggins test on them (required for shipping). How can the horse be in Canada to be processed in a week or two when the broker hasn't a clue where the horse came from?
Let's look at the economics to even do a 6 month withdrawal period properly: hay and grain are at all time highs. In my area, it might cost me $100 per month per horse. Add in extra if the horse needs anything at all. You've just added over $600 to the cost, plus the broker's labor costs. How can they be buying $300 riding horses in the US, covering the high cost of transport to Canada, and still be making enough profit to do a 6 month withdrawal period? IMPOSSIBLE!
I challenge Canada's CFIA to find any proof the horses are being held anywhere for 6 months. It's just not happening.
You are absolutely right. As an American horse owner, I know how widely banned substances are used in our horses - including mine. I guarantee most American horse owners don't even know what an EID IS, let alone keep one. No paperwork is EVER asked for at auctions.
Inspectors from the EU have already found banned substances and forged documentation in US horses in both Mexico and Canada. In addition the inspectors reported they could find NO evidence that US horses were being quarantined at all. That's because they're not. Kill buyers quarantining horses for six months? Please! They even falsify Coggins tests.
In the US horses are considered to be companion animals by the Federal Drug Administration, which therefore allows horse products to contain banned ingredients. There is NO traceability at all in the US because we don't eat horses, and, as I said, Americans don't even THINK of food safety in connection with horses.
Please also note that for one of the most commonly used equine drugs -- commonly known as "Bute" -- there is NO possible withdrawal period. Once an animal has been given this "horsy aspirin" it is in the tissues forever, and it is a carcinogen. That's why the USDA doesn't permit it at all in animals that ARE eaten in the USA. It's even prohibited in dairy cows. And yet, it's pretty well agreed that a large portion -- half of them, perhaps? -- of US racing TBs get slaughtered for human consumption. Ugh. I pity the consumers in Europe who think they are getting a healthy meat.
None of us prefer the sentencing to death or slaughter of any animal, regardless of the species; but, the reality of it all is, that we need horse slaughter houses as a practical alternative and solution to govern the horse population. Public Laws forbid burying a horse on your own property these days because of possible contamination of water sources and supplies; so, what’s the practical alternative or solution? I agree that the need of unnecessary suffering needs to be resolved in all slaughter houses, regardless of species . . . cow, pig, chicken, etc. As for horse meat for human consumption, if it is untainted and USDA inspected, it is an excellent source of meat protein and an alternative to beef, pork, poultry, and other human-grade meat sources. If that is too hard for the U.S. human meat industry to consider, use horse meat for carnivorous animal food diets, just as other animal sources are used. The horse industry has crashed since the close of horse slaughter houses, and reopening of the horse slaughter houses is the only resolution to the over population of horses in the U.S. Do you really think that hunter’s get the shot exactly right for an instant kill every time, or slashing the throats of cows and pigs is a quick death, or wringing the necks or cutting-off the heads of chickens is instantaneous demise? Sit-back and give serious thought to all animal slaughter solutions, not just that of horses; if you’re going to sympathize with one species of animal, sympathize with them all; but the end result and reality-check has been the same for thousands of years of animal slaughter for human and animal consumption. Citizens within the U.S. need to ban together and offer better solutions to the overall humane slaughter of animals for whatever the meat by-product use is and not the concentration of one species.
Unsigned attack deleted by Editor.
I agree and don't forget many people who work in these slaughter houses are abusers by nature, enough hidden video has let that out of the bag and more will come. Humane kill is a shot between the eyes by someone who knows how to do it instantly! Nothing less will work. It's all about the money anyway, they don't care about our health only about how to bring in more money at the expense of another living being! Think about it, most times the animal is still breathing when they are hanging to bleed it isn't a instant death, takes about 2 mins. gonna have to do more to convince me for sure.
ha, the reason the horse market has crashed is because of lack of slaughter houses?? are you out of your mind? The reason it has crashed is overbreeding AQHA APHA and all the backyard breeders who THINK they can, just because they have 2 consenting horses! Also, the costs of feed and hay as well as loss of jobs, have created an endless supply of horses, oh yeah and as far as responsible owners keeping the drug records, I am sure they will, cause no one lies...right???
This was a recall issued by the CFIA in October 25, 2011.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is warning people not to consume the products described here. The affected products contain Drug Residues
http://www.healthandsafetywatch.com/HSWEvents.aspx?EventID=fd41027b-0599...
This is laughable. I would think the CFIA could find better causes to destroy their reputation for.
Horses are for riding and enjoying not eating. Americans don't eat horses!
My companion horses have received a host of substances banned for use in animals intended for food. In fact, all my friends that are horse owners have also given banned substances as well. I do not know anyone that takes good care of their horses that doesn't. Yes, the papers are forged and the testing procedures are inadequate.
I absolutely disagree that the horse industry has crashed because of lack of slaughterhouses!! The problem is that there are so many horses being bred, along with other animals and humans, for that matter. North American's are very wasteful and think that if something is not good enough for them, easily discarded. Why not implement breeding standards??… and let the professional horse people breed animals of integrity and purpose!! I am also a real estate agent and have seen people buy small acreage so they can have a horse… this is absurd!! Many people want to own a horse but have no idea of the cost, work involved or proper handling… then the horse is sent off to auction… makes me very angry!!
if you think only certian people should have the right to breed and sell horses, do think the same should apply to humans ??? i sure hope not be careful what you wish for ....
We do need slaughter plants.Instead of stopping slaughter, why don't someone try and figure out how to it humanely.What are you going to do with all the lame,wild, not trained horses? Put $5000 dollars in training to resell and get $200? Our feed bills and hay are going to go up.To many horses not enough room. What about all the hormones in our other meats we eat, you don't think that good for you. There are chemicals and drugs in everything we eat. All the veg. we eat have pestisides in them. Nothing is drug free any more. Beside we were a country exporting, that means alot of truckers are out of a job too. It's going to get alot worse.Call your local USDA and ask them what they been called out to take care of. Horrible things done to horses. If people start letting horses go free, it will be horrific on the main highways. You ever see a deer hit.
Don't think it won't happen. It's already stated in the southern states and out west. It's just gonna get worse. To let you know the better bred horses are not being bred so much any more. It dosent pay to bred. Just your back yard people breeding crap. Looking on AQHA, APHA, ApHA all their breeding has drop off by 40%. Soon their will be no good horses around. Its hard now to find one.
But you can get a lame, not riding, untrained horse for next to nothing and get hurt.Its a sad country we live in were the horses are treated better them the humans. You ever watch wild kindom? When the antalope, zebra, get sick, lame, or to young to run, a lion takes out the animal. The healthy one lives. It's the same with the horses. If you save all the horses the healthy ones will suffer.Their will eventually be not enough food for all!!!Think about that.We don't have room for the wild horses anymore. Look what the goverenment is doing to them.Eventually the goverenment will have to step in and do something and we all will suffer.Taxes will go sky high to pay for all these horses no one wants. Do more research before you think. Soon us humans will be out in the streets too. It will get alot worse!!!
You are being a bit dramatic here. There are a lot of good horses out there. Unfortunately, they are all being slaughtered. Humans have taken horse slaughtering too far. It all started with one very stupid man or I should say it was actually 3 stupid men. Now look at it today. It is a complete disaster. We do have room for wild horses, they are getting pushed out by over ranching. This stems from factory farming. It is too ridiculous. Too many human beings is definitely the problem here, not too many horses.
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