Safety of US horse meat ‘impossible to guarantee’

The absence of lifetime medical records for Equus caballus inward the USA agency it is impossible to guarantee a Equus caballus leap for slaughter is gratis of banned or potentially unsafe substances, the caput of the Humane Society of the USA says.

Chief executive Wayne Pacelle, writing inward his blog, “A Humane Nation”, says the export of North American horses to Europe for the meat merchandise has establish its fashion into the headlines, for reasons other than brute welfare.

“And rightly so,” he writes. “The manufacture poses a potentially serious opportunity to human wellness together with safety.

“American horses, whether companion animals, demonstrate horses, pleasance horses, or racehorses, have a myriad of veterinarian drugs throughout their lifetimes.

“Racehorses, equally reported past times Joe Drape inward the New York Times, are frequently given drugs to heighten their functioning — including painkillers, phenylbutazone (anti-inflammatory drug a.k.a. “bute”), clenbuterol (bronchodilator) together with other legal together with illegal drugs.

“Although many of these drugs behave the warning, ‘Not for piece of work inward horses intended for human consumption’, this alert is virtually meaningless since American horses produce non get got lifetime medical records.

“In addition, nearly all American horses have mutual veterinarian drugs, such equally bute, which get got been deemed thus unsafe that at that topographic point is no acceptable withdrawal period.

“That agency that if a Equus caballus receives a drug such equally bute fifty-fifty in i lawsuit inward his or her life, that brute should never hold upwards slaughtered for human consumption.

“In the absence of lifetime medical records, it is impossible to guarantee, regardless of where they are slaughtered, whether a Equus caballus is gratis of banned or potentially unsafe substances.”

Pacelle said the annual slaughter of to a greater extent than than 100,000 American horses inward Canada together with United Mexican States requires that these horses are required past times police to hold upwards gratis of specified drugs for vi months.

“It is widely acknowledged, however, that at that topographic point is a high marking of fraud involved amongst the equine identification documents. International authorities audits get got confirmed these findings.

“For instance, the European Commission’s 2012 audit of EU-approved equine slaughterhouses inward United Mexican States noted that at that topographic point are important problems amongst the identification of alive horses together with the sworn statements past times the owners on medical treatments.”

Pacelle reaffirmed the charity’s opinion against Equus caballus slaughter.

“If altruistic concerns won’t larn the labor done, together with then perhaps naked self-interest will.

“No consumer, together with no regulatory agency, should sanction merchandise inward whatsoever sort of meat potentially laden amongst such contamination together with obvious wellness risks.

“And amongst polling results from Humane Society International, released concluding week, that demonstrate overwhelming back upwards inward Belgium, French Republic together with Italia for a ban on Equus caballus meat imports from countries such equally United Mexican States together with Canada that produce non run across European Union nutrient security regulations, this is non an impossibly heavy elevator on the political side.

“The bottom work is that horses are non raised for food, exactly they are used inward a diverseness of industries together with settings where substances that are forbidden or potentially unsafe for human consumption are injected or fed to them.”

Pacelle said he hoped that States together with European Union world wellness officials took rapid together with serious measures to protect human security past times deeming American horses unfit for human consumption.

 

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