http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=21890079-00da-4c1a-869a-65aaab77e944
Keep horse meat off the menu, says activist
Horses being slaughtered in Canada for food

Lora Grindlay
The Province

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Actor and avid horsewoman Bo Derek is supporting a campaign to ban the Canadian slaughter of horses for food.

Derek, 51, said yesterday she was shocked six years ago to learn domestic horses were being slaughtered in the U.S., with the meat being exported overseas as gourmet food.

"I was truly offended this was happening to the American horse," said Derek, who was in Vancouver as guest of the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition.

Derek, who rides and breeds Andalusian horses on her California ranch, joined a group of activists and successfully lobbied U.S. governments to stop the slaughter.

"As of last year, there are no plants operating in the U.S. The state laws are being upheld in our courts and, hopefully, very soon we'll tie it all up with a federal bill banning horse meat for human consumption," said Derek, who became a household name after appearing in the 1979 film 10.

"I would bet . . . that the Canadian public doesn't know, just as I didn't, what's going on here."

The U.S. ban has meant a boom for the six Canadian plants that slaughter horses. There is one in B.C. -- at Westwold, southeast of Kamloops -- two in Alberta, one in Saskat-chewan and two in Quebec.

"These same horses that we saved in one respect, a lot of them are ending up here and that only increases their suffering because the distances are further and the conditions that they are transported in are really horrendous," Derek said.

Horse meat sells for about $66 a kilogram wholesale, she said. It's popular in Japan, Belgium, France and some is sold in Quebec.

Horses are not farmed, but retired sport horses or unwanted pleasure horses sold at auction often end up at slaughterhouses, said Sinikka Crosland, executive director of the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition.

Crosland said 50,242 horses were killed in Canada in 2006 for human consumption and, by the end of November last year, almost 70,000 had been killed in 2007.

Crosland wants the federal government to ban the practice and to prohibit the export of horses for slaughter.

Horses are considered livestock under federal law, she said, but they are most often cherished companions like dogs and cats.

"The thought of horses being slaughtered for human consumption overseas is abhorrent to many Canadians."

Derek urged Canadians to write their MPs, demanding an end to the killing.

lgrindlay@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2008