Warnings over US horsemeat exported to Europe

By Carina Perkins

- Last updated on GMT

Warnings over US horsemeat exported to Europe

Related tags Horse meat Horse slaughter Livestock

The slaughter of US horses has soared in the last few years, with the majority of meat exported to Europe, a welfare charity has claimed.

The Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA) said that US Department of Agriculture statistics revealed the slaughter of US horses reached a 20-year high of over 176,000 in 2012, up 32% on the number slaughtered in 2011. The majority of horses are now going to plants in Mexico, which saw horses imported from the US for slaughter increase by 61% to 110,202 last year, while exports to Canada decreased 7.5% to 59,812.

The charity said this was particularly alarming because while both Canada and Mexico require horses sent for slaughter to have Equine Information Documents (EIDs), stating any drugs they have been given, Mexico does not test for the painkilling drug phenylbutazone (bute), which has been linked to aplastic anaemia in children.

It pointed out that the majority of US horses sent for slaughter are young sport horses “at the end of very short careers”.

“Since the horses are a by-product of these sports, they were not raised for slaughter and were almost universally given drugs prohibited in food animals,”​ it said.

It added that demand for recreational horses had declined considerably due to increases in the cost of keeping animals, leaving the kill buyers with “bargains galore”.

“The low cost of these horses ($100 to $500) makes them far cheaper than beef, thus providing a huge incentive for the fraudulent substitution,”​ it said.

The US banned funding for horsemeat inspections in 2006, resulting in the closure of horse abattoirs. Congress lifted the ban in 2006, but so far, no horse slaughter plants have opened in the US.

Related topics Meat

Related news

Follow us

Products

View more

Webinars