For over a decade, Animals’ Angels has been fighting non-stop against the unconscionable slaughter of US horses. Our investigators have routinely risked their own safety to conduct undercover investigations at all the main slaughter horse auctions, feedlots, and slaughter plants in order to gather as much information as possible about the industry.
Throughout these years our strategy has always been twofold. We have shared the collected information with US authorities in a push for federal legislation banning the slaughter of horses for human consumption and have also shared this information with EU authorities hoping to achieve a ban of horse meat sourced from the Americas.
A Big Win for the Horses Back in 2014
We were thrilled back in 2014 when, after meeting with Animals’ Angels and our European partners, the EU banned horse meat imported from Mexico. That success inspired us to continue sharing information with our alliance partners & the EU, and to keep pushing for additional countries to be included in the import ban.
Our efforts paid off again in May of this year when Animals’ Angels was invited to speak to the EU parliament about the issues surrounding horse meat imports.
While we were excited about this promising development, we knew the crucial step would be to present our findings to the EU decision makers. We were thus delighted to be notified in late June that the decision-making commission had finally agreed to meet with us again.
The Wait is Over!
Finally, on July 7th at 9:00 a.m., after seven long years of working and waiting, we were given another opportunity to directly address the EU Directorates-General for Trade and Health and Food Safety, which is the EU entity with the authority and capability to initiate a suspension of horse meat imports into Europe.
Together with our partners from the Eurogroup for Animals (Belgium), the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (Australia), and the Tierschutzbund Zürich (Switzerland), Animals’ Angels presented the findings of our extensive investigations and research.
The presentations included investigative footage and previous audit reports of the EU Commission, all of which clearly demonstrated that Argentina, Uruguay, Australia, and Canada fail to meet EU animal welfare and food safety requirements.
Many of the pictures and videos shown to the commission depicted such horrific acts of cruelty that they were deemed hard to watch, and the meeting attendees were visibly distressed, declaring that such cruelty must not be tolerated.
At the conclusion of our presentation, our joint alliance asked the 13 EU representatives in attendance to immediately halt all horse meat imports from these countries.
The EU commission representatives listened carefully to our request but did not offer up a response. Just as in our last meeting, the commission did not make any promises or give any indications about future actions they planned to take. Thus, we will now have to wait to see what actions they will take.
Pushing On to the Finish Line
Animals’ Angels will continue collecting and providing the EU Commission with hard hitting facts and indisputable documentation of the cruelty of the horse slaughter industry as well as the undeniable food safety issues linked to this trade. By continuing our efforts, we are confident we will inevitably push through to the finish line and achieve a total ban on horse meat from the Americas.