Mountain Grove, MO (EWA) – A much publicized proposal to locate a horse slaughter plant in Mountain Grove, Missouri was soundly rejected by the Mountain Grove town council tonight. The meeting was attended by a capacity crowd of about 300, with many people being turned away and others sitting in areas where they could not see or hear.

The plan, proposed by Sue Wallis of Unified Equine, was to use land just east of the town of Mountain Grove to build a facility to slaughter horses. Wallis had claimed that she chose the location because people in the area were “100% behind what we are doing and 100% behind how we are going to do it.”

The first cracks in her plan happened just days earlier when Dr. Temple Grandin, who Wallis said was to design the plant, publicly stated that she knew nothing about it.

Continue reading Mountain Grove Rejects Horse Slaughter Plant →

Chicago (EWA) – A six month investigation by the EWA and other animal investigation organizations has finally determined the predominant source of abandoned horses in the Southwestern US. The findings show that most or all of more than 5,000 horses a year are being abandoned after being rejected for slaughter at the Mexican border.

The investigation explains the source and reason for abandonments, most of which have been reported in the vast stretches of isolated land north of the Mexican border since 2009. Most of these horses could clearly be identified as domestic stock from such indications as nail holes in their hooves (where shoes had recently been removed) but no other clues to their source were found.

Until now articles about their discovery have speculated that they were abandoned by individual owners because they could no longer afford to feed them. The horse slaughter lobby has further suggested that this was made worse because individuals “no longer had a slaughter option”.

Continue reading Mystery Surrounding Abandoned Horses Finally Solved →

October 4, 2011 – Chicago (EWA) – In a press release today titled “Equine Scientists Debunk Horsemeat Health Risk Claims”, United Horsemen (UH), an extremist pro horse slaughter group, cited a letter from four equine instructors ostensibly written to the Journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology complaining about the accuracy of the landmark study that found that the meat derived from horses administered the carcinogen phenylbutazone (PBZ/bute) is being shipped to the European Union for human consumption.

In an embarrassing attempt to discredit the peer reviewed paper, Association of phenylbutazone usage with horses bought for slaughter: A public health risk, the instructors cherry picked facts to make their case, but merely succeeded in demonstrating the risk of offering a professional opinion outside of one’s area of expertise.

None of the authors of the UH letter are medical doctors and they provided no information that is contrary to the mandate by the EU and FDA banning Phenylbutazone in all food producing animals, including horses.

The letter begins by stating the paper’s authors did not cite the levels of Phenylbutazone (PZB, bute) in the study horses. But there are no acceptable levels. One only needs to prove the administration of bute at any time in the horse’s life to make the horse ineligible for human consumption. The paper by Drs. Marini (PhD/MD neurology), Dodman (PhD/DVM) and Blondeau (PhD in neuroscience), did exactly that. The study proved without doubt, through tracing race track drug records, that horses given bute are making their way into the food supply.

Continue reading Equine Instructors Face Off against Medical Experts over Horse Meat →