Horses face harrowing journey to Japan

Opinion

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This article was published 13/07/2024 (453 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canada is still exporting live horses to be killed and eaten in Japan.

Years after the Liberal government promised to put an end to the cruel industry, horses packed into crates continue to be flown from airports in Winnipeg and Edmonton, all the way to Alaska, then on to Japan, without any relief along the way. And if that wasn’t bad enough, a new investigation — a first of its kind from on the ground in Japan — is now revealing that the gruelling travel conditions these animals are forced to endure are even worse than we thought. Advocates are now calling on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to halt these shipments, as travel times routinely exceed legal limits.

Canadian animal law organization Animal Justice, along with Japanese animal protection group Life Investigation Agency, tracked four shipments of horses leaving Edmonton this past May and June, for Kansai and Kitakyushu airports in Japan. Canadian law prohibits transporting horses for over 28 hours without food, water and rest. “Yet official time records kept by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency generally end when the horses touch down in Japan, failing to account for the rest of the horses’ harrowing journey,” says Animal Justice in a statement.

Footage gathered in Japan shows horses being made to suffer through lengthy waits post-flight before being transported to a nearby quarantine facility. Total times from landing to reaching the feedlot ranged from four hours 20 minutes to an excessive 6.5 hours, delaying essential food, water and rest.

Upon further analysis of government records, Animal Justice, with the help of the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition, also determined “that all shipments from Winnipeg to Kitakyushu and Kansai airports over the last seven months appear to have gone over the 28-hour limit.”

When the horses do finally arrive in Japan, some were “visibly shaking with fear,” says Ren Yabuki, director of Life Investigation Agency, in the statement. “Horses were sprayed with disinfectant and workers forcefully unloaded them from trucks, yelling at them and banging metal rods.”

Danae Tonge, an organizer with Manitoba Animal Save, has witnessed first-hand horses being loaded up for export at Winnipeg’s Richardson International Airport.

“It’s horrifying,” she says, now knowing what awaits them when they land.

She says the process of getting horses off trucks, into crates and onto planes in Winnipeg takes a long time, hours, before they even take off.

“I’ve documented times when the horses arrive (at the airport) around 10 o’clock at night, then are unloaded, crated and then the flight doesn’t leave until five o’clock in the morning,” she says. “It’s shocking to now know how much worse it is, how much longer the journey is, and that every Winnipeg shipment is essentially breaking the law,” she says.

“It’s heartbreaking,” echoes Kaitlyn Mitchell, a lawyer with Animal Justice, who has joined Tonge in the past to document horses at the airport. “The vast majority of Winnipeggers and Canadians of all political stripes want to see this horrific practice end now,” she adds. “Any delay on the part of the CFIA will enable this industry to continue violating the law with impunity, and doom even more horses to suffer.”

Ater years of waiting on the Liberal government to fulfil its election promise to end the export of live horses for slaughter, advocates are now turning to the CFIA.

“We are urging the CFIA to look into this troubling situation and halt all horse exports for slaughter until the industry can guarantee that the shipments will comply with Canadian animal transport laws,” says Animal Justice.

While Bill C-355, an act to ban exporting horses by air for slaughter, currently sits before the Senate, it won’t be revisited until the fall as the Senate is now in recess. In the meantime, horses continue to be exported.

In an email to the Manitoba Co-operator, the CFIA reportedly states it is reviewing information provided by Animal Justice “and any followup activities will be in accordance with the agency’s compliance and enforcement policy.”

For advocates, this isn’t enough. More shipments of horses are expected over the summer.

“We need this to end,” says Mitchell.

“Now.”

Jessica Scott-Reid is a Winnipeg journalist and animal advocate. She is also on the board of directors of the Winnipeg Humane Society.