Hold Your Horses
The whole M. Wells Horse Tartaregate got me looking into the matter of horse meat in greater depth and intensity. I’m now writing a piece on it for a national publication and will hope to share it soon.
I think it’s terrific that Chef Dufour bowed to pressure from animal advocates and scratched plans to add raw horse meat to his MoMA PS 1 menu. But, the more I looked into the ethics and legality of serving horse meat, the more I found myself sidetracked by the remarkable threat horse meat poses to public health. All those hip adventure eaters who attended the Mooga Booga food festival last May in Brooklyn and ate one of Dufour’s now legendary horse-meat-foie-gras-pork-fat-grilled cheese sandwiches (he sold 5000) might be in for a shock to learn that their knee-weakening soupcon of horse flesh was a chemically infused carcinogenic chunk of flesh that makes pink slime look as innocent as an apple.
Think about the supply chain. Much of the horse meat produced by Canadian slaughterhouses (where Dufour sourced) and exported globally comes from discarded American race horses. Spent American race horses are understood by the industry to be more of an industrial byproduct than a source of food. The horse “product” was nurtured to run around a track and win bets made by fat cats and hucksters, not to become part of a heart attack inducing sandwich sold to slobbering epicureans at a food orgy.
Raising an animal to be a product that runs in circles for money means treating its body like a pharmaceutical landfill. Race horses are systematically injected with chemical cocktails potent enough to, as John Hershey once said of James Agee’s alcohol use, “stun a rhinoceros.” This laundry list of chemicals includes the carcinogenic phenylbutazone, or “bute.” Bute is banned by the FDA for use on animals destined to become food. It is, in a word, deadly. And it bioaccumulates in horse flesh.
Many commentators have declared Tartargate over. I’d hold your horses on that one. Last June a slaughterhouse company called Equine United announced plans to open a horse slaughterhouse in Missouri. It declared that it would slaughter horses “humanely” and distribute the products globally and domestically. Most interestingly, United Equine assured us all that the USDA would be regulating the safety of the meat produced. When a reporter I know called the USDA to ask how it would regulate the use of bute, the representative had no idea what bute was. She had to spell it for him.
No comments? Everyone celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving or something? How about we posit that increasing contamination of animals with toxic metals and organic chemicals is a good thing in terms of raising awareness about not eating animals because it dissuades humans from eating animal flesh? What if the supermarket choice was between contaminated horse and relatively uncontaminated tofu? Or, to subvert the patriarchy, the choice might be horsemeat with estrogen or a black bean burger? The rising level of contaminants in the environment is effecting both plant and animal based diets but builds up in animals more. The problem is to get dull witted consumers (Ranciere would be offended) used to seeking only the lowest commodified price to differentiate based upon real and perceived health risks. A tall order in a society based upon instant gratification for a price. I am sure the FDA will cooperate in allowing levels of chemicals The paradox is because the FDA allows it humans will consume it — so I am not talking about structural impediments to meat consumption or ethical ones but only a selfish health based human consciousness. Remember the blue glowing Chinese pork anyone?
I’m stunned by all of this. Beyond the negative health factors of consuming horse meat, are there no safe havens, no sanctuaries for race horses? The fate they meet, along with their farm animal cousins, is too much to bear. These animals make huge amounts of money for their “well-fed owners”. Carting them off to the slaughter house, when a quiet, green field would be the just reward, is beyond wickedness.
Mara, I barely feel qualified to answer you, but there are sanctuaries for race horses. My kids and I just started volunteering at a local one, and there are at least two more near us that are primarily horse rescue. We learned at our orientation that the racehorse’s “well fed owners”, as you said, do not have a relationship with the horse. It’s an investment. When the horse is not performing as expected, a phone call is made to send them to the slaughterhouse. While I’m not any sadder at the horse’s fate than I am the fate of countless cows, it just floors me.
Thanks Christie. Good to know there are some sanctuaries out there for these miraculous beings. They so deserve it.
John, I totally get what you are saying and agree, as a vegetarian. But horse meat, rather than other animals who are raised as food animals, have the toxic drugs administered to them for their healthy and safety, that are not allowed in other food animals. Horses are companion animals. And the drugs they are given can be lethal to humans, especially young children.
I thought I replied to you late last night, but my long comment never made it onto the page, sorry to say, Mara.
In it, I listed a number of racehorse-specific rescues, which either retrain, rehab, and rehome these beautiful creatures or give them well-deserved, permanent refuge.
I also mentioned the other sources of horses that the slaughterhouses rely on — among them, rodeos, camps, trail-ride outfits, ranches and dude ranches, PMU barns, and breeders who churn out horses recklessly in hopes of finding a “winner” in the lot.
One of the best websites to visit for all manner of information on horse slaughter is Mary Nash’s site, http://www.kaufmanzoning.net.
You’re right; it’s “beyond wickedness.”
I do hope that the fact that this meat is so toxic brings awareness to the fact that NO animal flesh is healthy.
I will also admit that I have a very hard time pretending to care that someone could drop dead over eating horse meat. I have a secret disgust at people who eschew animal flesh for their own health. But yes, any route to less animal products is good.
I learned about horse slaughter and the virtual extermination of our wild horses a year ago. Sad to say, we are no closer to a solution. While the toxicity of horsemeat is not the reason people should slaughter horses in my book, most don’t know or turn the other way when they find out. The fact that they might get a serious blood disorder from eating hose meat just as a consequence of bute, as commonly used as aspirin for us, at least gets their attention. I don’t care why they stop. I’ve not eaten meat for at least 25 years because I don’t think anybody should have to die for my lunch. I can eat something else. But slaughtering horses is particularly horrific because they are flight animals and cannot be “humanely” slaughtered. Their situation is the horrible death the other animals endure in a slaughterhouse multiplied by at least 100. This is how we repay the creature who is responsible for contributing so much to our civilization. Look into both these issues and you’ll be shocked at the cruelty, corruption, lies, etc. Hope everyone who becomes aware does something to stop it.
[...] by James McWilliams.com [...]
Can’t wait for the next article!! It is unconsionable the U.S. allows unregulated food animals – horses – into a human food chain and then allows the meat to be imported back into the states…..
I don’t know about the US but in the UK all horses are passported and have detailed medical records of what drugs have been given them throughout their lives. There is also a declaration box you can tick if the animal must never be intended for human consumption, legally if they’ve had bute or any of the other drugs humans can’t consume this box must be ticked. Obviously there’s ways to circumvent this but it’s a start.
Aurelia,
No there is no tracking system in the US and that is the BIG problem. One must consider all horses to have been given bute and there is no way to test for bute except in a dead animal. I use bute all the time on my horses. Have a big container of it always on the shelf as do most horse owners. Just over a year ago the NAIS was scraped because farmers and ranchers did not sign up for the volunteer program. Currently there is no system in place to follow the meds horses have been given and there is no enforcement for the forged paperwork kill buyer’s pass on. If anyone wants to eat horse meat they are not going to get the sudden death pro-slaughter types keep looking for but will suffer down the road when they have forgotten what they were eating. Best not to eat American horse meat at all then worry about where your cancer came from down the road.
Lynn,
Thanks for the reply, UK passporting came out about 7 years ago and is a legal requirement which seems to be working well. I agree it’s unlikely any horse will go through life without bute, it’s the drug of choice for any lameness issues and I’ve never met a horse over 10 that hasn’t had even minor lameness at some point in it’s life.
Aurelia ~ I know about the passport system in the EU. We in the US however, look at horses as companion animals, and DO NOT want them slaughtered – period.
American tax payers don’t want to fund a passport system, inspection of horse slaughter plants or USDA enforcement of humane transportation laws on an increased transport of horses to even more slaughter plants. We want to ban horse slaughter and all transport of horses for the purpose of slaughter. Fully 80% of Americans are against the slaughter of our horses. Period.
The EU has a relatively new service for recall notification and this year alone, I’ve seen three recalls on horse meat from the UK because of bute contamination and one from Canada for bute and clenbuterol contamination. That horse meat from Canada was eventually traced to – where else? – the US.
We’ve been saying for years that our horses are not safe to eat, but we’ve been totally ignored by those who stand to profit from the slaughter of our horses and seemingly don’t care what happens to the people who eat it.
It’s beyond sickening.
Suzanne, the point of passports isn’t actually about slaughtering as it is about preventing theft and making it easier for prospective owners to guarantee the age and medical history of the horse. Horses aren’t routinely slaughtered in the UK nor do we have a horse meat industry as such, horses are pets here as a general rule. The passport system is majoritally funded by private corporations and societys such as the Welsh Cob and Pony Society, not the tax payer. Yes the tax payer funds some initiatives and pays for inspectors but I personally can’t say anyone’s ever been down to my yard to check all my horses passports. that job is mainly left to sales authorities and vets so doesn’t cost the tax payer all that much. The point I was making was that it would discourage horses from being slaughtered for human consumption because their medical history would be under full review and also that it would be easier to keep track of individual horses.
Aurelia ~ The passport system was invented as a compromise to keep the European Commission from totally banning the use of phenylbutazone – bute – Europe wide. The veterinarians persuaded them to make this compromise because they didn’t want to lose the use of this very valuable and widely used anti-inflammatory drug.
Bute And The Passport System: http://www.box.net/shared/ln3qh88kz42avo4ys1oa
This comes from the UK: Horse Passports And Why You Need Them: https://www.box.com/s/c26dc21083d75ce42223
I’m sorry if you don’t already know this, but the UK exports a LOT of horses for slaughter, mainly to the EU. In fact, there have been a couple of recalls recently of horse meat that originated in the UK being contaminated with bute.
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/portal/index.cfm?event=notificationDetail&NOTIF_REFERENCE=2012.0810
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/portal/index.cfm?event=notificationDetail&NOTIF_REFERENCE=2012.1215
Just goes to prove the passport system isn’t as perfect as consumers in the EU would like to believe. Personally, I wouldn’t think of eating any animal that wasn’t raised as a food animal from birth.
We in the US don’t care to fool with a cumbersome system like this for no reason. Just because there are horse groups that fund the passport system in the UK doesn’t mean that would be the case in the US. Besides, our US Dept. of Agriculture has had it’s funding so stripped they don’t have the funds to do proper inspections of OUR food, let alone the massive inspections it would take to even start to keep the killers from getting around the rules one way or another – just like they have been doing ever since they came here over 30 years ago. Our horse slaughter “business” is a lot more like organized crime than legitimate animal agriculture.
Bravo, Mr. McWILLIAMS! Not only did you research before going to print but you get it. Slaughter is for food production and not a disposal service.
BTW-Unified Equine is not a slaughter company. It is Sue Wallis trying to shove slaughter plants down the throat of a country that does not want them. Missouri ran her out on a rail and her sidekick’s hometown of Hermiston in Oregon is doing the same. NM and TN don’t want it and now she is trying for OK that already prohibits the sale of horse meat. No one wants to buy what she is trying to sell but she keeps pushing.
We commend the USDA for not issuing inspection permits. They know US horses are not raised or regulated as food animals. Once there is a passport program in place (that is enforced) the amount of horses that would be eligible for slaughter wouldn’t financially support a plant past opening day.
Sorry, that should have been Mr. McWilliams….
The term ‘bioaccumulates’ is an operative word here that doesn’t seem to penetrate the consciences of pro-slaughter advocates. They continue to insist that horse meat contaminated with bute (phenylbutazone) must only have a proper withdrawl period to be safe. Yes, there is is a time when it is no longer in effect in the horse’s system, but the toxins remain in the flesh forever. And the quantities bioaccumulate over time as this very common anti-inflammatory is frequently prescribed for horses.
It is only fair to mention that not only are spent race horses sent to slaughter but most breeds are represented, In fact, the American Quarter Horse Association, the Arabian Horse Association and other breed registries are pro slaughter. Their ‘culls’ can fetch a few dollars for them when disposed of via slaughter. They, as well as the American Association of Equine Practitioners, promote slaughter as a humane means to end equine life. Our Bureau of Land Management also uses horse slaughter as a means of eliminating ‘excess’ mustangs from government range land.
Search for and view horse slaughter videos on You Tube if you believe this is a humane end. Particularly in Mexico where many American horses are slaughtered.
Geri,
For the record, the American Veterinary Medical Association, the umbrella organization to which most of the special groups like AAEP also belong, is undergoing a slightly adjusted change in point-of-view. AVMA now states that horse sloughier is not humane euthanasia, but a different process entirely done for a different purpose. Of course, euthanasia means good death, and horse slaughter definitely is not that. It looks like the AVMA and AAEP decided what their position was going to be back in 2002 or so before they realized the full impact of the public being able to view the entire process for themselves on the Internet. Pro-slaughter people like to say a lot of the web sites are old or irrelevant, but the USDA’s report from January 2005 – November 2005 an 11 month investigation USDA did of its own APHIS right here in the US proves without question that horse slaughter has not ever been humane here in the US. In fact, there is so much evidence that it is everything but humane, that it has caused some clients to lose regard for veterinarians. Veterinarians are expected to protect animals from unnecessary suffering and protect human health from animal based illness. When it comes to horse slaughter, they are failing in both directions. See Kaufmanzoning.org
Great insightful and logical post. We horse advocates are often called ‘emotional’. Which I find ironic. The PSAs are always talking about the good old days in their manufactured imaginations. You know, when you could send as many horses to slaughter as you wanted to and no one would know about it. I suspect they won’t like your article. Prepare to be shrieked at…
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James, just for the record—I don’t know who you walked to at USDA, but we have a National Residue Program carried out by the Food Safety Inspection Service for meat. The 2010 FSIS Residue List included phenylbutazone testing for beef. The trouble is that even though phenylbutazone is banned in all food animals, it is still appearing in some dairy cows and bob veal. However, many in the pro-horse slaughter group claimed that the use of bute was not uncommon in beef—it must be prescribed by a vet, but it is not highly controlled and it would not be unusual to find bute on a farm that horses and cows. A non-prescribing vet has no regulatory authority if she finds a banned drug she did not prescribe at a farm to be used on a food animal. Drugs given to horses are often compounded at strengths five times than those given to a cow, which makes it more dangerous. And yes, people can die instantly to bute—its called sudden serum reaction, but it is rare.
It is not only racehorses that end up at slaughter and have bute in their systems. Just about ANY horse is vulnerable to be sent to slaughter and nearly every horse has ingested bute at one time. Bute is so commonly given – it is like tylenol for horses. Used for pain, inflamation of just about ANY part of the body, any sign of soreness or stiffness – people give the bute!! Many if not most performance horses are given bute on a regular basis or ‘as needed’. But bute is also in the systems of the pet horse living in someones’ private pasture or backyard. Bute was prescribed by a veterinarian for a horse I have that was forming tumors in his eyes to see if it would slow or inhibit the growth of the tumors. It didn’t seem to help and the horse quickly became totally blind in both eyes. If he had been owned by someone not so compassionate he could very well have been sent to slaughter. Bute was also prescribed to be used for 6 months every day for another horse I have to see if it would help an old injury the horse sustained prior to me obtaining him. SIX MONTHS every day!! And guess where I got this horse???? Off of a feedlot where he was destined to ship to slaughter!! How does anyone know if he had already been on bute for months in an attempt to help his injury? Odds are he had already been on it to no avail and sent to slaughter when the treatment was not adequately effective. Point being – bute has been used in horses at every level of lifestyle whether high-end competitive horses to the elderly pet pony in your neighbors backyard. And ALL are at risk for slaughter of thier personal safety nets breakdown:((((
The USDA rep needs to be fired! That person could give a pass to something that would prove deadly–like cynide laced kool-aid. Who is that bozo?
I’m glad this writer actually started investigating this a bit instead of just taking headlines. I hope they became educated a bit.
USDA BUTE CAUSES CANCERS AND APLASTIC ANEMIA! It kills! That’s why the FDA banned its use. Not horse advocates. THE FDA!
We have “tartaregate” every week at La Palette in Toronto. I know how hard it is to educate some of these chefs, who believe that, because it’s “inspected,” it must be safe. No amount of education will convince many people that there are risks. What makes it more difficult is that the restaurant we protest against is owned by a clean-air bicycle fanatic who can’t see the relationship between his philosophies and ingested chemicals and the gas spent to truck horses thousands of miles so his clients can eat them. There is a real disconnect with chefs I find, and there are usually abysmal at food safety. Certainly this restaurant only received a conditional pass at its last resto inspection.
With so many problems regarding “legitimate” and “legal” horse meat – Makes one shudder to think of the “humane” infractions AND the human health risks that happen on the black-markets.
Here in South Florida there’s a ring of such places being shut down by a local advocate “Kudo” who founded ARM – Animal Recovery Mission. According to his investigations in the last 2 years about 75 of these places were busted with at least that many more still in operation. The ugly flesh sells anywhere from 4 to 40 dollars a disgusting pound. Many of the horses are stolen. And it’s alarming – but these horse-butchers are spreading to other states as well.
http://animalrecoverymission.org/about/
Thank you for your efforts and your articles, Mr. James McWilliams. We will keep supporting you and spreading the message that you write so well.
I’m glad this issue is receiving more attention within the vegan community, so thanks for continuing to highlight this important issue. I know many vegans in Toronto who support our protests against restaurants serving horsemeat – they are important allies and I can’t speak highly enough of their dedication to every animal cause they embrace. Although I’m not really vegan, they are all people who inspire me to be a better person by completely eliminating animal products from my diet.
Yes, thanks again for your articles. I love your metaphor comparing horse meat from ex-race horses to industrial waste. Though it would not have crossed my mind to make this comparison due to my fondness for horses, but looking at it from a hard, cold truth POV, it is dead on.
What I learned from researching ivermectin is that there is bonding between a substance in the cells of the meat and a substance in the drug that fuses the meat and the drug together. Rather than “cooking it out” increasing the heat of residue laden meat may increase the toxicity of the substance. Whether it is due to the increasing strength of parasites or increased drug resistance, I noticed that the USDA raised the amount of allowable parts of ivermectin in beef this year.
As a result of Sue Wallis’s campaign to slaughter US horses, I have learned that just because a substance is prohibited does not mean that some stockmen are not using it. Moreover, I have been told person to person by more than one person that people who raise beef may not follow the FDA, FSIS, and EPA guidelines regarding withdrawal times of drugs banned in food animals. You would hope that the meat industry would do a better job policing itself, but rather than insisting that US horses not be slaughtered because they are full of drugs banned in all food animals, the National Cattleman’s Beef Association endorsed the slaughter of US horses. What does this tell us about the ethics of food producers? Perhaps they were too afraid that they would be called out by their own members for their hypocrisy if they stood up for food and, therefore, human and animal safety. Since I have learned that meat producers decided to stick together on this (along with puppy mill style dog breeders), I have found that my desire for meat has greatly diminished, although I am not vegan. I just work to eat far less meat and use less dairy as well.
What a fantastic, well-written article Mr. McWilliams! Bless you for doing the research and seeing the light on horse slaughter and how it can never be safe for human consumption. The door to horse slaughter needs to be shut once and for all. I hope your articles and work to come brings this issue home for more Americans.
Anyone seen this yet? http://rtfitchauthor.com/2012/10/14/canada-closes-its-slaughterhouse-doors-to-american-horses/
I’d say the European Union has finally done what they’ve been promising to do for over two years.
Yes I saw this! In the article I read, one of the horse buyers said that the activists are just prolonging the horses’ agony and that they will simply be turned loose to starve to death. I find it interesting that the anti slaughter advocates are the ones being blamed for what these people have caused.