ATAMANENKO WELCOMES HUMANE SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL/CANADA CAMPAIGN SUPPORTING HIS BILL C-571
By Alex Atamanenko
Alex Atamanenko, MP (BC Southern Interior) couldn’t be more pleased that Humane Society International/Canada has launched a new campaign to support his private members bill C-571 that will severely restrict the slaughter of horses for human consumption. Parliament will be debating Bill C-571 at the end of this month.
“There is a long list of drugs that are so toxic to humans they are prohibited for use even once in food animals but are commonly and often routinely administered to horses,” noted Atamanenko. “By no stretch of the imagination should horsemeat be considered a safe food option by those who consume it.”
According to Atamanenko the primary concern of owners is to ensure that their horse performs as required in its career, not whether it will one day wind up on someone’s dinner plate. Over half the horses slaughtered in Canada are imported from the US where slaughter is banned and no drug monitoring program is in place. In fact the US is not even permitted to sell horsemeat directly to the EU or within its own country for that matter.
“Audits performed by officials from the EU, Canada’s main market for its horsemeat, have criticized Canada’s Equine Identity Document system as ‘unreliable’ and ‘unverifiable’ and are demanding changes,” noted the BC MP. “But, while Canadian and EU regulators look for ways to tinker with the regulations, no doubt in a trade-friendly manner, the sale of potentially tainted meat continues unabated.”
C-571 would prohibit anyone from transporting horses to slaughter. The only exception to this prohibition is for horses that are raised primarily for human consumption and are accompanied by a lifetime medical record in chronological order of all medical treatments received.
Ewa Demianowicz, campaign manager for HSI/Canada said: “Bill C-571 will bring us a giant step closer to ending the cruel and potentially unsafe horse meat industry in Canada. We encourage all MPs to vote in favor of this important bill.
For more information on horse slaughter and my Bill C-571 as well as the HSI/Canada action campaign please visit www.alexatamanenko.ndp.ca
This article is a press release from Alex Atamanenko.
