By Andy Blatchford, The Canadian Press

MASSUEVILLE, Que. - Animal-rights protesters with fake bulletholes glued to their heads urged Ottawa on Monday to stop permitting the slaughter of horses.

Horse lovers held several demonstrations across Canada, with about 20 of them surrounding a slaughterhouse outside Montreal.

Protesters with painted faces shouted into megaphones from the Quebec abattoir's parking lot, condemning the workers inside as "cowards."

They called for support of a private member's bill that would ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption.

Bill C-544, tabled in Ottawa by the NDP's Alex Atamanenko, is stalled in Parliament and can't move forward unless another MP reintroduces it. Atamanenko gave another of his own bills priority over C-544; the legislation is unlikely to make it to the Commons floor for a second-reading vote.

The NDP MP fears that most horses sent to abattoirs are not bred for their meat. The animals are often given medication, he says, that could be harmful to humans.

"As it currently stands, horses are not raised for human consumption, they're given many drugs that are prohibited for use in the food chain," Atamanenko said in an interview.

"The system of inspecting this meat hasn't really been that thorough."

The protesters agreed.

Demonstrators waved placards and repeatedly shouted "murderers!" at the windowless Richelieu Meat Inc. plant on the outskirts of Massueville, about 100 kilometres northeast of Montreal.

"The animals who come here are sick - they're usually ill from old age, they're usually ill from injuries, but they're also sick from things like cancer," said Cherie Collins, a former horse breeder who drove a few hours from Cardinal, Ont., for the demonstration.

"I gotta tell you, there's been a lot of drugs going into a normal horse before we give up, so those drugs are in this meat."

The protesters also argue that the horses aren't always slaughtered humanely. They allege that many are left injured by bullets that are meant to kill - and the animals suffer as they are left to die.

Many of the protesters had painted their faces white and stuck rubber Halloween-type bullet wounds on their foreheads. Blood-coloured paint spilled out of the bulletholes.

They pointed to videos released earlier this year by the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition, which they allege show horrific conditions inside the Richelieu plant, as well as the Bouvry Exports slaughterhouse in Fort MacLeod, Alta.

"From the bit that I saw, (the horse) got one in the eye, it didn't kill it immediately," protester Mary Parker said while describing how a marksman had to shoot a horse three times in the head to kill the animal.

Parker said between shots the man appeared to take his time reloading the rifle as the horse thrashed from the pain around the pen.

"We would like to see them shut down permanently," she said.

A senior manager with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency indicated that sometimes, even with the best intentions, steps to kill an animal don't go according to standards.

"Things happen," said Martin Appelt, the agency's national manager of meat programs.

Appelt said government staff visit abattoirs to ensure workers are trained and that they comply with the regulations.

A 2007 federal court ruling closed the last horse-processing plant in the U.S., which means the animals are now being sent to Mexico and Canada for slaughter.

Since the change, the number of horses that Canada imports from the U.S. for slaughter each year has more than doubled from about 25,000 to 60,000, according to Appelt.

Overall, Canadian abattoirs process about 90,000 horses per year and most of the meat is exported.

Appelt said a government inspector is present for all livestock slaughters and the meat is always tested for the presence of unwanted substances.

Since July, horse owners selling their animals to an abattoir have been required to fill out a form listing the medications it received, Appelt said.

If the horse has been given anything deemed unsafe, it is ruled ineligible for slaughter and is quarantined for six months.

"I'm absolutely convinced that any meat coming out of Canadian, federally inspected . . . plants is fit for human consumption," Appelt said.

But some demonstrators aimed to persuade Canadians on Monday to stop putting meat - of any kind - on their dinner plates.

"We're here to shut down a plant that fires bullets into the brains of beautiful, intelligent animals," said Len Goldberg, an Ottawa resident who was holding a framed photo of a horse.

"We're all earthlings and I don't see how any sane person can say it's humane to kill another earthling so that we can eat their flesh."

The event wasn't officially organized by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - but members of the group renowned for its sometimes shocking publicity stunts did indeed help with planning.

The boisterous protesters didn't appear to cause much of a disturbance of the Quebec slaughterhouse's operations.

They taunted a security guard outside, but after an hour-and-a-half of chanting no trucks had tried to get past them to enter the facility's grounds.

Demonstrators also protested outside a Vancouver butcher shop and in front of a Toronto restaurant that serves horse meat.

Two dozen Toronto protesters carried signs calling for an "end to the slaughter," standing peacefully along a downtown sidewalk outside the restaurant Beer Bistro.

One placard displayed gruesome photos of horse body parts, including heads.

Horse steak tartare is among the items on Beer Bistro's menu.

In Halifax, only a handful of protesters came out.

Caroline MacPherson of Halifax said that while no horse slaughterhouses exist in Atlantic Canada that she knows of, she fears horses from the region are being sent to other Canadian slaughterhouses.

"It's very, very wrong. There's video on YouTube, there's video on CBC that show the horrific cruelty to these animals," she said, while walking outside the Halifax public library with a few other protesters.

"I'm here to educate people to stop this, nationwide."

When asked about the issue, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz's office responded with a partisan shot.

"Unlike the NDP who think they have the right to tell producers what they are allowed to sell, our government will continue to work to maintain the highest of food safety standards and the humane treatment of animals," Ritz said in an emailed statement.- with files from Michael Tutton in Halifax and Gregory Bonnell in Toronto