Story by Matt McGrath of the BBC
An independent veterinary committee had “repeatedly expressed concern” about a drug found in UK horsemeat destined for export, the BBC has learned
One scientist called racehorses from the US “walking pharmacies”
The discovery of horsemeat in UK foodstuffs is raising big concerns that UK testing regimes are not sufficient.
There are worries that if unregulated horsemeat is substituted for beef it could expose people to a drug called phenylbutazone – often called “bute”.
Once used as an anti-inflammatory, its toxicity to some people led to a ban.
The drug in rare cases caused a serious blood disorder known as aplastic anaemia.
But it is still used widely to treat horses. Once treated these animals are not supposed to enter the food chain.
‘Big trade’
In the UK about 8,000 horses a year are slaughtered for human consumption. This meat is then exported to other European countries. Under EU regulations, it must be tested for a range of substances including bute.
Last July the UK’s Veterinary Residues Committee, which carries out that testing, issued a report. In it, they showed that among 60 samples of horsemeat destined for export in 2010, there were five positive results for bute.
The independent committee said that it had “repeatedly expressed concern over residues of phenylbutazone entering the food chain”.
“The number has gone up a little over the past three or four years,” committee chairman Dr Dorothy Craig told BBC News.
“We’re finding a rate of about 5%. It’s banned, so the number of non-compliant samples should be zero.”
Since 2005, horses are required by law to have a “passport” that contains a declaration as to whether the horse is intended for human consumption.
These passports are also used to record if an animal has been treated with bute; most of the UK positives have come from difficulties with these documents.
“That’s really where the problems come from – either a genuine error or where there’s deliberate fraud going on,” said Dr Craig.
In June 2012, the European Commission‘s Directorate General for Health and Consumers issued its summary of an audit of abbatoirs in Italy – the EU’s biggest consumer of horsemeat. In it, they noted “numerous shortcomings were detected in the passports”.
But the global nature of the horsemeat business is also causing problems in tracing exposure to bute.
Using bute on horses for human consumption is banned in the EU, but thousands of tonnes of horsemeat is imported from the US, Canada and Mexico where practices are different.
Many of the animals killed for food in these countries were once racehorses, and the use of bute at racetracks across the US is so widespread that one scientist speaking to the New York Times called these horses “walking pharmacies”.
Research published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology in 2010 highlighted this risk, and EU officials warned last year about serious problems in verifying whether horses killed in Mexico were drug-free.
“This is a very big trade,” says Mark Jones from Humane Society International.
“The potential is there for quite significant contamination and residues, given that the route by which this meat is moving is very far from watertight.”
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Related Articles
- Bute back in spotlight after slaughter revelations (horsetalk.co.nz)
- Horsemeat does carry a health risk, but it’s incredibly small (guardian.co.uk)
- You: Horsemeat scandal: responsibility ‘lies with retailers’ (guardian.co.uk)
- Bute found in some British slaughter horses, says MP (horsetalk.co.nz)
- The horsemeat scandal: could there be much more to come? (guardian.co.uk)
- Drug-alert horsemeat did enter Yorkshire food chain (yorkshirepost.co.uk)
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- Horsemeat scandal: Findus beef lasagne contained up to 100% horsemeat, say Food Standards Agency (dailyrecord.co.uk)
- Meat industry under scrutiny as horsemeat scandal spreads (cnn.com)
Categories: Horse Health, Horse News, Horse Slaughter
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
This is what Sue Wallis and Dave Duquette want for YOU!!!!
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I see that. Both are pathological liars and i don’t believe a thing they say.. Their followers tend to be a bunch of uneducated dopes who i doubt know the front end of a cow from the back end of a horse.
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I am just loving this situation. I’m not loving what is happening to consumers or those magnificent equines, but $uey and Doink seem to be blatantly quiet on this scandal.
Heard anything from the horsemeat henchmen of late, RT?
I’m curious how they will spin this.
Wonder what they are saying down in Tampa at the NCBA national convention.
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Thanks RT. Shared.
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Perhaps after this scare and uproar our Congress, that Grand Old Benevolent National Asylum for the Helpless, will actually pay attention to the 80% who oppose horse slaughter. We must shut down the pipeline. How about letting the 50,000 wild ones go home and provide a sanctuary of the older, sick and lame horses? We can call it Forida for Horses…God’s waiting room! At least they could be cared for until their time comes. I joke but this could be an idea…
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I love your idea, Steve. It is about time Congress starts paying attention to the will of the people who oppose horse slaughter. Would love to see our wild ones free again and a sanctuary for the older, sick and lame horses is the least we can do, considering the hell we’ve put them through for so long.
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Why is no one giving a crap??? Is the bute and the other possible chemicals not scaring them enough by now if the moral and ethical reasons of the act of slaughtering and eating a horse alone is not enough for them to stop??? It is the MONEY and the GREED I tell you. That is what it is. Someone is line these twat’s pocket’s and making them blind to what was is really going on what in front of them. It is going to mass mass sickness, contamination of the food supply. I mean thousands, 10s of thousands from eating contaminated horse meat and then finally, maybe they will open up their bloody eyes and take off those bloody blinders and see the wrong that is in front of them. I am LIVID at this point. This shouldn’t have happen. They shouldn’t have started slaughtered horses years ago before I was born. I am sooooooooo freakin’ mad I just want to take my guns and take care of whoever is responsible and put THEM through the slaughterhouse, the torture, the agony at gunpoint and see how they like it. Enough is enough. This needs to stop one way or another. I’ve had it. Other people have had it. Let’s do something about it. What say you? Obviously laws on paper aren’t going to stop them. Or words. Something physical must be done at this point. Grrr
(Plz note that I am a really uber nice, lovely person. I am just really, really uber mad but I would never shoot anybody or hurt anybody in anyway. I just love horses and there is only a few people I would lay down my life for 1. Christ, 2. My family(depends who 🙂 and 3. My horse. No one else. Oh my bff and her baby would be 4 of course :D. Just sick and tired of my friends, my lovely dears, the horses being slaughtered. It really hurts and breaks my heart is all.)
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Like so many health issues, it’s not a problem until your loved one is a victim. Then suddenly it’s the most important thing in the world. Why play “toxin roulette” with aplastic anemia, toxoplasmosis, excess levels of dioxin, lead, and other pollutants when you don’t have to? As was said by a Canadian lab tech who tested horse meat, “I wouldn’t eat horse, especially old horse.”
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Reblogged this on Serenity's Musings and commented:
Why is no one giving a crap??? Is the bute and the other possible chemicals not scaring them enough by now if the moral and ethical reasons of the act of slaughtering and eating a horse alone is not enough for them to stop??? It is the MONEY and the GREED I tell you. That is what it is. Someone is line these twat’s pocket’s and making them blind to what was is really going on what in front of them. It is going to mass mass sickness, contamination of the food supply. I mean thousands, 10s of thousands from eating contaminated horse meat and then finally, maybe they will open up their bloody eyes and take off those bloody blinders and see the wrong that is in front of them. I am LIVID at this point. This shouldn’t have happen. They shouldn’t have started slaughtered horses years ago before I was born. I am sooooooooo freakin’ mad I just want to take my guns and take care of whoever is responsible and put THEM through the slaughterhouse, the torture, the agony at gunpoint and see how they like it. Enough is enough. This needs to stop one way or another. I’ve had it. Other people have had it. Let’s do something about it. What say you? Obviously laws on paper aren’t going to stop them. Or words. Something physical must be done at this point. Grrr
(Plz note that I am a really uber nice, lovely person. I am just really, really uber mad but I would never shoot anybody or hurt anybody in anyway. I just love horses and there is only a few people I would lay down my life for 1. Christ, 2. My family(depends who 🙂 and 3. My horse(s). 4. My bff and her family. No one else. Just sick and tired of my friends, my lovely dears, the horses being slaughtered. It really hurts and breaks my heart is all.)
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ummm If that is what Sue Wallis & Dave DuQuette want for us.. We will “force feed,” both of them with the contaminated meat!!!!!! See how they like that!!!!!
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How many toxins are enough? “Horse Hair as an Indicator of Pb Pollution Around Shiraz Oil Industry, Iran” Pb is lead. “Pollution is a subject of worldwide concern and discussion and various areas of science are seeking to integrate their knowledge in an attempt to improve understanding of the harmful effects of modern human activities. Toxic metals are natural components of the environment, but human activities in industry and agriculture, have been responsible for the wider diffusion of these elements. The almost ubiquitous presence of some metal pollutants, especially Pb, facilitates their entry into the food chain and thus increases the possibility of them having toxic effects on humans and animals.” http://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jest.2008.42.46
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I wonder if they perform hair tests on horses for heavy metals. Grazing animals are a prime indicator of industrial pollutants.
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Here is a interesting response by World Horse Welfare, a large rescue group in the UK that was quoted by the Independent newspaper citing the “need” for “humane slaughter” I wrote them a letter detailing the drug issue in American horses, and the meat shipped to Europe, as well as the likelihood of the same problem in European horses killed. Their media outreach person wrote this back—
“Thank you for getting in contact with us about this emotive issue. World Horse Welfare are focused on helping horses while they are still alive, so we do not get involved in discussions about horse meat safety in the USA. We stand by our view that humane slaughter is possible and has a role in protecting the welfare of horses. However we appreciate that others may take a different view.” Simple as that! Just a “different view”!
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There was a well known US horse rescue organization founded in 1971 that said basically the same thing. During the 90’s (as California passed Prop 6 in 1998) Donna Ewing (remember her?), founder and former director of the Hooved Animal Humane Society (HAHS) in Illinois, testified that there should be a horse slaughterhouse in every state and at a livestock convention in Texas she stated that when she takes a horse to slaughter (Cavel, in their home state) they put her first in line. She was well paid, lived in a house for free on a large acreage donated to the rescue. If I recall she was finally ousted from the org, with a large severance, then turned around and started a new org – HARPS, founded in 2001 by Donna Ewing. With no local slaughterhouse, she no longer advocates horse slaughter due to the slaughter pipeline of horses being held with strange horses by killer buyers and transported inhumanely to slaughter by killer buyers.
See the 2nd to the last paragraph here – http://www.harpsonline.org/Our_Policies.html – apparently written before the Texas slaughterhouses were closed. It seems she’s changed her position on horse slaughter though.
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Yes, I remember Donna and HAHS and HARPS well.
Hmmm, maybe she’s no longer being paid (by whomever) to be pro-slaughter?
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Thanks for letting us know, Susan, so we won’t donate to World Horse Welfare and regret it too late.
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“The top eight [horse meat eating] countries consume about 4.7 million horses a year.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_meat
Could that number be true?
Where are all those horses coming from? From recent and past investigations into the selling of our wild horses and burros by BLM .. some are OUR wild and free-roaming horses and burros from our public lands.
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“WorldNews” (PBS) carried a report on this last night—so it is getting some quality international TV coverage. Wait until PZP enters the food chain ! So how safe is our meat suppy ? Imported products? 80 % of Americans are against horse slaughter. While that may be an emotional/cultural reaction, it sure beats reliance on a faulty passport system.
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Don’t forget Sue Wallis and what’s his name Doink wanted this for our school children.
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Years ago, when I was a kid, a family I knew bought a large pony for their daughter. She was a sweet pretty little mare – probably came from the Unadilla sale barn. They had her for several years & gradually she just melted away to skin & bones. I remember being told by the owner of my barn that she came from an area near a mine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dont know what kind, but no matter what they fed her nothing made a difference – vets couldnt figure out what was wrong. So hearing this report about horse hair. I’m sure no matter what kind of oil, gas, mining operation is near, it does affect the horses – one way or another. And if someone EATS these horses, certainly will affect THEM.
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Greed goes on and on…shameless people..I hope they all go to hell. I will never stop fighting for our
Wild Horses and Burros, stopping slaughter and the transportation of our equines to other countries.
The only way this will be stopped is through legislation. I just spoke today with my US Rep regarding the Wild Horse, Burros and the slaughter issue.
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http://www.theworld.org/2013/02/horse-meat-europe/
Advocates —I did a slow burn listening to PRI’s Marco Werman on “the World” make a sly and smirky investigation into the repercussions of the horse meat scandal in Europe. He interviews a purveyor of “Exotic Meats” who claims the scandal has resulted in a huge increase of sales in horse meat for his “business”, which Mr Werman seemed to find quirky and delightful. The interviewee actually made a slight reference to the safety and inspection process, the vaunted “passport system” which has been shown to be corrupted and fraudulent, but Werman failed to question this or follow the clue. Please listen and send remarks to the PRI site or Werman’s FB site—I did, and roundly excoriated his pathetic story, setting him straight on some of the public health facts.
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