Horse meat predictions by Vicki Tobin, Equine Welfare Alliance

Guest OpEd by Vicki Tobin ~ VP of Equine Welfare Alliance

“Our predictions are now a reality that can’t be ignored”

Predictions come in many forms. Some from a gut feeling or wishing it were so. For equine advocates, they were based on evidence and scientific fact. We predicted that foreign consumers would realize the US had been allowing toxic meat to enter their food chain. We predicted that horse slaughter would give the meat industry a black eye.

What we didn’t predict was the prediction coming true with hurricane force.

Our predictions are now a reality that can’t be ignored. Slaughter supporters laughed and called us everything from radical vegan wackos to culturally ignorant. The two loudest mouthpieces are silent. The darkside duo, Sue Wallis and Dave Duquette haven’t uttered a peep on the epic scandal rocking the meat industry and horse slaughter business. The silence is deafening from the US meat industry.

For weeks the scandal has been raging and the two that kept the propaganda flowing with lame emails and excuses have suddenly disappeared. The two that claimed horse slaughter was humane, highly regulated, defended kill buyers with arrest records and a livestock plant owner shut down by the USDA for inhumane treatment of slaughter animals, have finally shut up. They probably still don’t get it and are trying to find a way to spin what has happened.

The darkside duo’s Facebook group is now a closed group. While we miss the entertainment value, it is one less site full of propaganda that the public can stumble upon.

Their fight was never about welfare or feeding the hungry. The latter means comprehending food safety and the difference between an animal raised for food vs. one raised for other purposes. It means understanding you don’t send an abandoned horse to slaughter because if you can’t find the owner, you can’t obtain vet records to prove the horse is safe for consumption. I’m sure the consumers of the toxic meat will take comfort in Wallis’ word that the horses probably didn’t have much vet care.

Is that how the US qualifies animals for food production?

Perhaps with foreign countries protesting and calling for a ban on horse meat it will sink it. Perhaps now that consumers don’t want [or are afraid] to buy anything containing beef, it will sink in.

The scandal has not only exposed the lies, deceit and fraud from the global meat industry but has exposed the underbelly of the horse meat trade. The US slaughters millions of cows and yet, much of the beef in our stores have multiple countries on the labels. Why are we importing beef from Canada, Mexico and Uruguay and is it really beef? The world now knows that the horse meat business makes its own rules and doesn’t give a damn about food safety or the humans consuming the meat. All they care about is lining their pockets.

Does anyone really think what is happening in Europe isn’t happening here? We don’t know because our government keeps us in the dark like mushrooms.

Europe has found a way around passports. In the US, kill buyers and auctions are pros at falsifying EIDs for US horses going to Canada and health affidavits for US horses going to Mexico. Mexico also requires chips for all horses entering Mexico. Does anyone wonder how all US horses mysteriously have chips at the border?

We proved through decades of investigations the cruelty inherent with horse slaughter. We proved that US horses containing banned substances are entering the global food chain but our Congress chose to believe the propaganda from the meat industry.

Our organization sent copies from auctions of the falsified paper work to the EU almost two years ago and never received a response. Canadian Horse Defence Coalition did the same in Canada. The EU’s own FVO reports confirmed banned drugs and falsified paperwork and yet they and Congress continued to allow US horses into Canada and Mexico to turn into toxic meat for their consumers.

Let’s not forget to thank legislators Kingston, Blunt and Kohl for making it possible for states like Oklahoma to introduce slaughter bills. It is mind boggling that in the midst of the scandal, Oklahoma is still moving forward with the legislation.

What I find ironic is the cattle industry supporting horse slaughter because of the “slippery slope” nonsense and the darkside duo claiming we are all out to bring down animal agriculture—when in fact—they’re doing it themselves. The cattle industry has had years to distance itself from horse slaughter so now, they can live with the “unintended consequences”.

They can’t blame advocates for mislabeling beef or supporting sending toxic horse meat to consumers.

Maybe no one listened to us but I bet they’re listening now. So all you tireless equine advocates stand up and shout out loud, WE TOLD YOU SO…

more wild horse info at www.windwildhorse.com