The Horse Welfare Alliance of Canada plans to unveil a plan in November to improve practices at horse slaughter plants in Canada.
The plan is a set of voluntary animal welfare guidelines, which provide information on facility design, effective handling, stunning of horses and acts of abuse, said Bill des Barres, chair of the Horse Welfare Alliance of Canada.
“On the 22nd day of November, a whole new audit process is being rolled out, which has been researched and done by the Horse Welfare Alliance of Canada,” des Barres said. “That whole process is being introduced to the horse meat plant in Fort Macleod.”
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The Horse Welfare Alliance of Canada, an organization formed in 2008 in response to allegations of inhumane practices at a horse slaughter plant in Neudorf, Sask., commissioned the project in partnership with the Alberta Equestrian Federation.
Jennifer Woods of J. Woods Livestock Services in Blackie, Alta., led the development of the guidelines with a committee that included representatives from the Bouvry Exports slaughter plant in Fort Macleod, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and animal behaviourist Temple Grandin.
The final document is entitled Recommended Handling Guidelines and Animal Welfare Assessment Tool for Horses.
“These guidelines … provide third party assessors and their clients with a consistent standard upon which to measure animal welfare,” the document states.
Such voluntary animal welfare guidelines are commonplace in the slaughter industry, said des Barres, a mediator and financial planner in Medicine Hat, Alta., who also breeds Appaloosa horses.
“The other species, beef, pork, sheep, have had this for a number of years…. It’s a handbook, a checklist of things to be done.”
The horse slaughter industry was put on the defensive earlier this year when the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition released undercover videos taken at horse slaughter plants in Fort Macleod and Massueville, Que. The tapes showed horses struggling after employees failed to kill the animals with the first shot.
The videos, posted on YouTube, generated global headlines and prompted a CFIA investigation into practices at the two plants.
But Woods said the project wasn’t a response to the controversy.
“This was not a knee jerk reaction to the video…. I was writing the audit when the video came out.”
The guidelines provide a list of how to stun animals, design a plant and transport horses. The document also sets industry standards for animal welfare, Woods said.
“I think the most important thing is that we now have a written guideline,” said Woods, who was a student of Grandin’s at Colorado State University.
