End horsemeat slaughter, protestors demand

Horses are for riding, not for eating, activists say.

Protestors gathered at slaughterhouses, restaurants, and butcher shops in Alberta, Ontario, and B.C. this morning to call for an end to the horsemeat industry. Last year, more than 94,000 horses were killed in Canada. Their meat was mainly shipped to Europe and Asia, where there isn’t as large a taboo around equine-based entrees as there is here. The U.S. banned the slaughter of horses in 2007, and now each year upwards of 50,000 of the animals are shipped across the border to Canada to be butchered. NDP MP Alex Atamanenko has tabled a bill in the House of Commons calling for an end to that cross-border industry, saying that the drugs given to horses could harm humans.