Time to enact promised ban on the export of horses for slaughter

More than 40,000 Canadian horses have been exported for slaughter year-round in all weather since 2013. Because horses have strong fight or flight instincts, these conditions are extremely stressful, putting them at risk of illness, injury, and even death during transport.

As Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau's mandate letter gathers dust, horses continue to suffer and die. Since September of 2021, more than 2,000 Canadian draft horses have been shipped by air to Japan for slaughter. Their suffering is hard to imagine. And it could have been prevented.The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY KAITLYN MITCHELL, BRITTANY SEMENIUK, AND SINIKKA CROSLAND

December 8, 2022

Every few weeks, in the dead of night, a heartbreaking scene repeats itself at Western Canadian airports. Trucks full of large, gentle draft horses arrive in Winnipeg, Edmonton, or Calgary, where the frightened animals are unloaded, often forcibly as workers prod them v...

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