December 13, 2014

Last week, the European Union took the drastic step of completely banning the importation of all horse meat from Mexico. This step effectively shuts down the slaughterhouses there for the time being. Horse rescue/recovery groups in the United States are jubilant. The Mexicans - not so much. 

The reason for the ban is that horses in the US are routinely injected or orally medicated with drugs and wormers that linger on in the tissues of the animal. These chemicals are not supposed to be used in any animal destined for human consumption due to that fact. The warnings are on every package of wormer and antibiotic sold in the United States. 

Yet these horses continue to be trucked across the border for sale at slaughter for meat with no tracking mechanism as to whether it is fit for human consumption. Horses are routinely bred and maintained for human consumption in countries such as France and Belgium under strict conditions similiar to cattle and sheep.

Another concern for the Europeans is the entire process that the horses must endure (and we have protested for years.) The items include:

• The health of the horses as they arrive
• The care and feeding in the pens
• The vet care they receive if ill or injured
• The method of 'stunning'
• The actual 'kill' method
• Processing methods
• Sanitation of the plants and workers
• Handling of the meat during shipment
• Quality control mechanisms