Animal welfare group calls for all-out ban on Edmonton's horse-meat shipments

Um, hey, we're all familiar with the expression. I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse, but many

of us would probably gag at the idea of someone plopping down a horse stake in front of us.

But it appears to be the cultural thing. Consider this. The top eight countries who indulge

in horse meat, they eat about 4.7 million horses a year. Now horse meat obviously is not a staple

on Canadian menus, but we are an exporter up to 3,000 horses get shipped overseas annually,

most here out of Edmonton. And the Canadian food and inspection agency, they've been

taken a task. They've been told, hey, we need you to monitor this a little bit better. And they say

they have and they let everything's on the up and up with the care of these animals. But

when animal rights groups says they have data that says, no, no, no, no, that's not the case.

And so we're going to talk to animal justice's director legal of legal advocacy, as well as

someone who's testified on the federal house committee on this very topic. I join now by Caitlin

Mitchell. Glad to have you on, Caitlin. Thanks so much for having me. So just real quickly, for those

who aren't familiar, talk to us a little bit about how it is that Edmonton has wound up being a

horse meat hub. So every year, as you mentioned, Canada exports about 2,500 live horses overseas

to Japan for slaughter. They leave from Edmonton and also Winnipeg, which is actually where I'm based.

And the reason that they're shipped live is actually because they are eaten raw as a delicacy.

So there is one issue of horse meat exports, which is a very separate issue. Those are horses

slaughtered in Canada. But this is a really, really tiny niche market that really isn't as

staple in the Japanese diet. We're really sending these horses overseas just to satisfy a really

small market for wealthy Japanese and fancy restaurants. Now, you guys put the CFIA on note as

saying that you wanted to see them up their enforcement and monitoring. And they had some data

that came out that looked at June 24 to July 25, 2400 horses exported to Japan. They said no deaths,

no injuries. But you guys, you say you've got data that disputes that.

This is the second time that we've had to go to the government of Japan to find out what is

really happening to these horses. And it's incredibly frustrating. So back in 2024, the CFIA was

actually saying there have been no deaths at all in this industry since 2015. So we got government

of Japan records that completely blew the lid off of that claim and said no horses actually regularly

die during these shipments. They are regularly becoming injured. We thought that the CFIA had

improved things since then, but the new data that we just came out with proves that horses are

still dying. They're still collapsing. They're still being euthanized because of broken legs.

It's really unacceptable. Yeah. So some of the arguments that you get from

proponents in the industry here are that, you know, if we were to transport horses for other

purposes, it would be done in the exact same way that you have no horse shipments that can go on

for more than 28 hours. That doesn't include only flying time, but a time for trucks loading,

unloading, all that sort of stuff. Basically, they're saying that there's a double standard

from your guys' perspective when it comes to horses that are being flown for, you know,

consumption purposes versus other purposes. I would say the double standards actually on their side

because the truth is no one shipping a horse for breeding or show whatever ship their horses in

these conditions. The animals are crammed into wooden crates, three to four horses per crate.

Their legs are not wrapped. They're given no food and water for the journey. And that is

absolutely not how any other horses are exported. And the industry also knows very well that many

of these shipments actually go over the 28-hour legal limit. And that's why these horses have

shipping fever when they land. That's why they're collapsing. That's why they die of dehydration.

These are things that we would never do to other horses. Yeah. What do you make of the fact that,

I mean, because we have the feds, this was on the books. There was something in the works to try

and ban this, I believe, under Justin Trudeau before the election was called, before there was the

the shift in government there. I know you guys have been pushing at this at the legal level. There

was a court case against the Manitoba producer making reference to that time frame, the 28-hour

window that you see had gone past that, but the courts ultimately sided with her if I'm reading

that correctly. So do you think there's the legal or political appetite to make changes for what

you're calling for? I have to hope so. You know, we're going to keep trying to push for a ban

until it actually happens. This was a promise made by the Liberal Party in 2021, and we expect

the Liberal Party, who is still in government, to fulfill that promise. So we're certainly in

discussions with members of parliament. We are advocating regularly for the party to follow

through. I guess that there are other pressing issues on the current Prime Minister's plate.

I see the news and welfare, but the fact that this could just be done through a simple change

to regulation. So there's really no reason that we continue to allow this to happen to Canadian

horses. So would you like to see an outright ban or are you guys looking for something where

it's just better care for the animals? No, the ban is really the only way to protect these horses.

I'm not really what the new data shows because the CFAA has opted to efforts. They have tried to do

a better job at overseeing this industry since 2024. And what this new data shows is that there's

no way to bulk ship horses from rural Canada, all the way to Japan for slaughter, and to do so in a

humane manner. This industry, unfortunately, just needs to come to an end. Yeah, well, certainly,

I know you guys are going to keep at this and probably definitely not the last we've heard of it

in one form or another. So, Caitlin, I appreciate you coming on and bringing us up to speed on

the very latest on this. Well, thanks so much for having me. Always a pleasure.

Thank you. Caitlin Mitchell, Animal Justices Director of Legal Advocacy, talking about someone

of a hidden industry, I think, here in Edmonton, which is the transport of live horses overseas

to be consumed largely by folks in Japan and Caitlin saying that disputing with the CFAA, I said,

which is that it's being done in a humane and timely way that these horses 2400, I think,

over the span of the one year we were looking at. No injuries, no deaths, but you say, you know,

Japanese numbers painted completely different pictures. So