Statements – Fund for Horses

Top Chef Canada horse meat episode raises cultural, moral and food safety concerns

STATEMENT ARCHIVES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 12, 2011

OTTAWA, Canada (May 12, 2011) — Top Chef Canada is stirring up controversy that raises cultural, moral and food safety concerns with an upcoming episode featuring horse meat.

Episode 6: “The French Feast”, that includes horse meat as one of the key ingredients chefs must cook with in the competition, is scheduled to air May 16, 2011 on Food Network Canada.

Following a televised preview of the episode, commenters began flooding the Top Chef Facebook page and sending emails to Top Chef Canada and Food Network Canada objecting to the inclusion of horse meat in the program. Many of them are also complaining to sponsor President’s Choice, and GE Monogram, the show’s official appliance supplier.

“There are three issues generating the Top Chef horse meat controversy”, states Vivian Grant Farrell, president of the US-based equine protection group Int’l Fund for Horses, “cultural, moral and food safety.”

Horse meat is commonly eaten in many countries in Europe and Asia. However, horse meat is considered taboo in English-speaking countries such as the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia.

Another objection to horse meat are the methods used for the production of it — horse slaughter — and the numerous, well-documented cruelties inherent to it.

“The cultural and moral aspects of horse slaughter are constantly debated between those for and against it. What cannot be argued, however, is that horses are routinely given drugs throughout their lives that leave toxic residues, potentially carcinogenic to humans, in their meat”, adds Farrell. “There is a clear food safety issue here.”

In a response by Food Network Viewer Relations on behalf of Food Network Canada regarding the controversial horse meat episode they state, “it is not our intention to offend our viewers,” adding that:

“Before we decide to broadcast a program, our Programming Department screens it to ensure that it is suitable for broadcast. The determination of suitability includes ensuring that the broadcast would not contravene applicable broadcast laws and industry codes including, but not limited to, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) ‘Code of Ethics’, ‘Equitable Portrayal’, and ‘CAB Violence Code’.”

Farrell is not buying it.

“I find it difficult to swallow that promoting a foodstuff with the health and safety issues attached to horse meat does not violate broadcast codes, and question their Programming Department’s due diligence.

It is my opinion that Food Network Canada and Top Chef Canada are clearly crossing the boundary of ethical responsibility to their viewing public by airing a cooking show featuring horse meat”, responds Farrell. “I urge them to issue a warning prior to the screening of this episode.”

Three Number Signs Separator #CC6600

The Horse Fund is the most dynamic equine advocacy organization of its kind. Headquartered in the United States The Horse Fund protects horses at home and abroad by lobbying and acting as horse industry watchdogs.

©The Horse Fund 2019 Logo in Orange.

GAO releases report on cessation of domestic horse slaughter

STATEMENT ARCHIVES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 22, 2011

WASHINGTON DC (June 22, 2011) — The U.S. Government Accountability Office released its report today on the impact of the cessation of domestic horse slaughter.

It is a 68-page report with a number of arguable points. However, the important sections to note are Conclusions and Matters for Congressional Consideration.

Matters for Congressional Consideration state:

“In light of the unintended consequences on horse welfare from the cessation of domestic horse slaughter, Congress may wish to reconsider the annual restrictions first instituted in fiscal year 2006 on USDA’s use of appropriated funds to inspect horses in transit to, and at, domestic slaughtering facilities. Specifically, to allow USDA to better ensure horse welfare and identify potential violations of the Commercial Transportation of Equines to Slaughter regulation, Congress may wish to consider allowing USDA to again use appropriated funds to inspect U.S. horses being transported to slaughter. Also, Congress may wish to consider allowing USDA to again use appropriated funds to inspect horses at domestic slaughtering facilities, as authorized by the Federal Meat Inspection Act. Alternatively, Congress may wish to consider instituting an explicit ban on the domestic slaughter of horses and export of U.S. horses intended for slaughter in foreign countries.”

From a humane standpoint, an outright ban of the slaughter of America’s horses is clearly the right and only effective alternative.

From a practical standpoint, giving the USDA even more funding for horse slaughter related inspections will not achieve the desired effect, and therefore neither a sound or reasonable alternative.

When the U.S. is looking for ways to cut spending, not increase it, we see no benefit to horse welfare, the horse industry, or the nation’s economy in re-establishing USDA horse slaughter related inspections with or without the proposed enhanced funding.

An “explicit ban on the domestic slaughter of horses and export of U.S. horses intended for slaughter in foreign countries” is the only humane and viable option of the two presented in the GAO report.

VIEW THE REPORT
Report, PDF, 68 pp.

©The Horse Fund 2019 Logo in Orange.

BLM solicits proposals to establish wild horse ecosanctuaries

STATEMENT ARCHIVES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 16, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC (March 16, 2011) — The latest public relations exercise by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), who issued a news release yesterday announcing they are soliciting proposals to establish wild horse “ecosanctuaries” on non-BLM managed land to “help the BLM feed and care for excess wild horses that have been removed from Western public rangelands,” exposes the hypocrisy that runs rampant through the Department of Interior agency.

Madeleine Pickens has been negotiating with the BLM for more than two years to set up a wild horse sanctuary, and has bought the grazing rights on 500,000 acres in Nevada to do so, but is no closer now to closing the deal than when she started.

The BLM have run out of money to continue their mission of mass destruction of America’s wild horses and burros, and are beseeching Congress for more taxpayer dollars so they can finish the job. Not sure they will get it because of a recent cut in funding of $2M because of hard work by advocates exposing the harsh truth about the BLM’s mismanagement of the Wild Horse & Burro Program, what an opportune moment for this type of damage control.

Incidentally, while all of this is going on, the BLM are shopping around other federal agencies for part of their budgets to beef up their barren coffers to continue their assault on the nation’s wild horses and burros.

The news release goes through the hoops of bureaucratic red tape interested parties must jump through, stating “applications for partnerships relating to ecosanctuaries located on both private and BLM-managed lands will be posted at a later time.”

America’s wild horses and burros should not be in long-term holding costing the taxpayer a reported $100,000 per day. In escalated and unnecessary roundups based on conjured numbers by the BLM, they have been harassed, abused and sometimes killed, stripped of their freedom, robbed of their rightful homes, separated from their families, with little or no hope of their lives ever being the same. These are violations of the Free-Roaming Wild Horse & Burro Act enacted to protect them from exactly this.

By the time the BLM are through with their roundup plans, there will be very few wild horses left on public lands. The small herds remaining will be below genetically viable survival numbers due to the gelding of stallions and the treatment of mares with admittedly experimental birth control drugs that could potentially cause the mares to be permanently sterile.

The only wild horses and burros left under BLM control for the proposed ecosanctuaries they are suddenly interested in will be the ones languishing in long-term holding who have escaped the three strikes rule and sold into uncertain futures.

Perhaps the BLM sees the ecosanctuaries they are suddenly interested in — managed as “private-public partnerships” — as a way to be rid of long-term held horses too. At least for awhile. Until, of course, the BLM declare there are too many wild horses and burros in the ecosanctuaries they intend to keep a say in.

Three Number Signs Separator #CC6600

SOURCES

• BLM News Release
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2011/march/NR_03_15A_2011.html

©The Horse Fund 2019 Logo in Orange.

BLM fails to convince in Phoenix

STATEMENT ARCHIVES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 12, 2011

PHOENIX, AZ (March 12, 2011) — A large contingent of wild horse and burro preservation advocates are attending the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Advisory Board Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, with high hopes of hearing something, anything, convincing them Director Bob Abbey will implement the reforms he promised in his agency’s Wild Horse & Burro Program.

Joined by throngs of online mourners both in America and abroad, advocates held a candlelight vigil outside the hotel where the meetings are taking place to commemorate the lives of the wild horses and burros terrorized and killed by the BLM: the ones we know, and the ones we will never know.

Humane observers — except for the occasional few who are closely monitored — have little or no access to the round ups or holding facilities where wild horses die from gather related injuries and diseases, in some cases put down instead of being treated, or shot because they do not “look right.”

It is a scandal on a grand scale how the Obama Administration is destroying the nation’s wild horses and burros, that if the United States had a truly free press it would be widely reporting it and the individuals responsible exposed, prosecuted and removed.

However, the failure of the media has in no way deterred the people who work to preserve these magnificent and iconic animals.

In spite of the BLM’s lack of transparency, wild horse and burro advocates have still managed to collect documentary evidence of the agency’s cruel and destructive practices.

The Internet is abundant with videos, photographs and eyewitness accounts of the trauma, injury and suffering inflicted on wild horses and burros by the BLM and its contractors during roundups, capture and holding.

Advocates have hammered long and hard at Congress, the Department of Interior, and the White House with this information calling for a moratorium on all wild horse and burro roundups until the government conducts a full investigation. They have been largely ignored. Until recently.

At long last Congress took notice and responded by taking away a portion of the BLM’s funding.

Dean Bolstad of the BLM announced at the Phoenix meeting what many advocates expected to hear, that the agency cannot conduct any further round ups until the start of the next fiscal year on October 1st, but added that the BLM found some money in another federal agency budget that will enable them to conduct a few small gathers, here and there.

Compelled to instill Congressional confidence in the agency following the recent funding cut, officials reporting at the BLM Advisory Board Meeting put forward information full to overflowing with the same type of faulty data and misrepresentations they always use, to the groans and even a few boos from members of the audience.

It seems quite clear from this latest bit of flummery that the BLM have high hopes of their own, that Congress will not see through, or to choose to look past, the ruse and give them the increased funding they are asking for the fiscal new year so they can continue their mission of mass destruction of America’s wild horses and burros.

They may convince Congress. They fail to convince us.

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Tragedy and insensitivity overshadow Grand National as two horses die

STATEMENT ARCHIVES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 10, 2011

LIVERPOOL, England (April 10, 2011) — Insensitive BBC commentators continued to call the 2011 Grand National as two horses died in front of thousands of spectators and a worldwide television audience of 600 million.

Ornais fell at the fourth breaking his neck and Dooneys Gate fell at Becher’s Brook breaking his back during the first circuit.

Large green tarpaulins screened the bodies of the horses while Aintree staff flagged the jockeys on the second circuit, sending them away from the jumps where Ornais and Dooneys Gate now lay dead.

During the television re-run of the race following the finish, commentators still failed to mention the fatalities.

The public flooded social networking sites and message boards criticizing the BBC and expressing concern for the horses who run in the Grand National. Commenters on the Corporation’s website accused the BBC of covering up the tragedy, minimizing the deaths of the two horses.

A spokesman for the BBC stated they were “aware of the unfortunate events of the two fatalities” and “during the race and the re-run this was covered with as much sensitivity as possible.”

“Sensitive coverage of the deaths of Ornais and Dooneys Gate would have been to acknowledge the tragic event during the race and having an on-air moment of silence in honor of the fallen horses afterwards, not act as if it didn’t happen at all,” responds Vivian Grant Farrell, President of the U.S. based Int’l Fund for Horses and a native of Liverpool. “This type of behavior at a moment like this does nothing for the reputation of horse racing. Instead it signals a callous attitude concerning the lives of racehorses to all those watching.”

Only 19 of the 40 horses who started this year’s Grand National finished the race. The eventual winner, Ballabriggs, was too exhausted to be ridden into the winner’s enclosure. Stewards banned his jockey, Jason Maguire, for five days for excessive use of the whip.

“40 horses in the Grand National are 15 to 20 horses too many,” states Farrell. “A way to shield horses and jockeys from injury and death is to control the quantity and quality of the horses allowed to race.”

Saturday’s Grand National tragedies follow the death of Inventor on Thursday, the first day of the Aintree meeting, adding to the growing list of casualties at the famous Liverpool racecourse.

Four horses were killed at the three-day Aintree meeting last year, and five in 2009. Since 2000, a staggering 33 horses have died at the Aintree spring festival amid increasing protests from animal welfare groups.

The Grand National held at Aintree racecourse is considered the greatest steeplechase in the world. A test for both horse and jockey, the Grand National is run over 4 miles and 4 furlongs with 30 testing fences in 2 circuits.

Three Number Signs Separator #CC6600

SOURCES

“BBC attacked for ‘covering up’ Grand National deaths”, by Jasper Copping, The Telegraph, Apr. 9, 2011, http://tiny.cc/uzqyb

“Aintree day of horror as TV audience of millions see two horses die at the National”, by Stephen Davies, The Daily Mail, Apr. 10, 2011, http://tiny.cc/za4gg

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