Canada’s Largest Horse Butcher Faces Legal Woes as Prime Feedlot Sits Empty and Slaughter Operation Suffers Serious Decline
Last year, Animals’ Angels and our EU partner the Animal Welfare Foundation released a new film exposing the shocking abuse and safety violations found at the Bouvry Exports feedlot and slaughter plant in Canada, and we called on the U.S. Congress and the EU Commission to enact legislation to stop horse slaughter for good.
In the months since, we’ve kept a close eye on the Bouvry Exports operations and have reported on the company’s steady decline – a clear sign that our efforts to end slaughter are working. However, despite the substantial progress made, our work north of the U.S. border is not quite done.
Despite a dozen legal charges pending against Bouvry Exports, their slaughter plant is still slaughtering a small number of horses.
Recent online rumors suggesting Bouvry Exports may resurrect their dying slaughter business have stirred concerns and raised questions, prompting Animals’ Angels to devote this month’s newsletter to an update on Bouvry’s current status and the role they play in Canada’s declining horse slaughter industry.
What is happening at Bouvry Exports?
Throughout the last sixteen years, Animals’ Angels and our EU partners have investigated and documented the appalling conditions and inhumane treatment within Bouvry’s feedlots and slaughter plants, witnessing abuse, neglect, and food safety violations firsthand, and reporting our findings to the proper authorities.
Despite the efforts of Bouvry’s staff to hide the horrifying truth about the abuse at their facilities, Animals’ Angels managed to document terrible suffering during many onsite visits, observing sick, injured, and malnourished horses kept in inhumane conditions and mistreated by callous workers.
We used those findings during the two meetings we held with the EU Commission and presented them to the EU Parliament and the U.S. Congress as we called on legislators to take action against the company, which has long been Canada’s largest horse butcher.
Since then, a range of consequences were delivered as Bouvry’s horse slaughter operation continued its rapid decline. Highlights included:
June 2023: Animal Justice Canada used evidence gathered by Animals’ Angels to file an official complaint against Bouvry Exports with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
August 2023: Système U, a major French retailer cooperative with about eight hundred independent markets and grocery stores, announced publicly that it would no longer buy horse meat imported from Canada and cut all ties with Bouvry Exports.
September 2023: The CFIA filed a dozen charges against Bouvry Exports for violation of the Safe Food for Canadians Act and the Health of Animals Act.
January 2024: Animals’ Angels investigators returned to Bouvry’s Prime Feedlot. The facility was completely empty without a single horse. A worker at the feedlot office told investigators that horses would no longer be kept on the premises and that Bouvry intends to focus on cattle going forward.
March 2024: Bouvry Exports pled not guilty to a dozen charges in a Fort McLeod courtroom. (The case against the company is still ongoing at the time of this newsletter).
June 2024: Our investigators uncovered CFIA documents that detailed a long list of violations at the Bouvry Exports plant, including:
Sanitizer was found to be dripping on meat.
Spray from a high-pressure hose used to clean floors was sprayed on beef carcasses.
Multiple incidents were reported of the carcass temperature being too high.
Beef sides were heavily contaminated with fecal matter and hair.
Multiple bullets were found in tongues, heads, and cheeks of animals ready to be placed in the freezer.
A compromised animal (trouble walking, shivering hind leg, arched back) was not segregated or identified as being compromised.
Multiple reports were made of evisceration tables not being clean, resulting in meat being degraded to pet food.
Boxes wrongly labeled as horse meat were processed on July 25, 2023, a day when only beef was processed.
A banned substance was detected in horse meat on March 29, 2023.
A banned substance was detected in horse meat liver tissue three times on June 23, 2023.
A banned substance was detected in horse meat on August 30, 2023.
Multiple flies were found on carcasses and equipment.
Unsanitary conditions were found in offal room with equipment covered in dried blood and rotting fat.
Multiple walls, doors, and overhead structures were observed to be in a state of disrepair.
These violations occurred despite all previous warnings and the previous suspension of the Bouvry Exports license for similar violations, thus demonstrating the company’s complete disregard for food safety and animal welfare.
July 2024: AA investigators returned to Alberta and found that Bouvry’s Prime Feedlot was still empty. The investigators continued on to the Bouvry slaughter plant in Fort Mcleod and noticed that there were approximately 75 horses inside the pen area. A truck with a Granum feedlot trailer was unloading animals onto the loading ramp. Investigators observed the driver forcefully poking a stick into one of the holes in the side of the truck in an apparent attempt to prod what appeared to be a downer back onto its feet.
August 2024: Agriculture & Agrifood Canada released their quarterly Horse Trade Report, which showed that 1,236 US horses have been shipped to Canada for slaughter as of June 2024, and a staggering 37% drop in Canadian horse meat exports compared to 2023.
AA investigators returned to Alberta on August 19th to find Bouvry’s Prime Feedlot still empty. At the slaughter plant, they found approximately 40 to 50 horses in the pen area but saw no activity during the course of the day.
Bouvry’s Prime Feedlot was still empty as of August 29th and all the horses observed the week before at the plant were gone, with only cattle left.
The Sorry State of Bouvry Exports’ Slaughter Operation
It’s true that Bouvry Exports is still slaughtering horses but the numbers are low and steadily decreasing and contrary to the rumors spreading online, our investigators have found no reliable indicators that full scale horse slaughter will ever resume at the Bouvry plant. Based on our findings, it seems much more likely that Bouvry will turn its focus to cattle going forward.
It's also clear that Canada’s most infamous horse butcher is finally facing the long-overdue legal consequences of their heinous actions with twelve different charges pending. CFIA documents reveal plenty of issues with everyday operations of the plant which could result in even more consequences on an international level, especially since there were again multiple incidents where banned substances were found in horse meat.
Rest assured that Animals’ Angels will share the findings within this newsletter with the EU Commission to keep them informed that Bouvry Exports has kept none of its promises and should never be allowed to export horse meat to the EU again, further ensuring its slaughter operation has no hope of making a comeback in the future.