|
|
You Can Help to Prevent Horse
Slaughter!
|
We encourage you to read significant new scientific
research that identifies an important public health risk: the
association of phenylbutazone ("bute") usage with horses bought for
slaughter. Just click on the icon in this frame.
Sixty-seven million pounds of horsemeat derived from
American horses were sent abroad for human consumption last year.
Although horses are not raised as food animals in the United States,
mechanisms to ensure the removal of horses treated with banned substances
-- like "bute" -- from the food chain are inadequate at best.
The FDA has forbidden the use of "bute" in animals
intended for human consumption (including horses) because "bute" produces
serious, and often fatal, effects in humans. The number of horses
that received this drug before being sent to slaughter for human
consumption is unknown, but its presence in some is highly likely.
Thus, people are eating contaminated horse meat without even knowing it!
Please also consider downloading and printing
this short paper -- it's only five pages -- and sending it to your
Congressional Representative and both your Senators along with a brief
letter summarizing the paper's findings. Here are some talking
points you may wish to use:
 | The Food & Drug Administration order bans "bute"
in all food-producing animals including horses.
|
| Because horses are not raised for food in
the US, there is no mechanism to remove horses given banned drugs
from the slaughter pipeline.
|
| "Bute" is also banned in food-producing
animals in Canada, the UK, and the EU.
|
| The paper shows that people are eating
contaminated horse meat without knowing it.
|
| Horses are also given other banned
substances like wormer (ivermectin) every two months because of
local and state laws regarding the proper care of animals, but there
is no mechanism to remove these horses from the slaughter pipeline.
|
| The bottom line is: the availability,
popularity, efficacy, and low cost of "bute" make it a very popular
drug to use in horses for musculoskeletal injuries. The paper
shows that 100% of the horses followed in the study were given "bute"
before being sent to slaughter for human consumption. It is
disturbing that 5 million pounds of dressed horsemeat was
contaminated with "bute," and people who ate this contaminated horse
meat did so without their knowledge!
|
| "Bute," a banned drug with a deadly
profile, has been identified as a carcinogen by the National
Toxicology Program and has been shown to cause death because of bone
marrow suppression. The FDA ban is being circumvented, and you
urge your Representative / Senator to stop the transportation of US
horses across both borders. |
Thank you! |
|
Help
Us Continue to Make Miracles Happen
...
|
|
What's worse than dying a slow and painful death from
starvation? Being a mom and watching your baby die
from starvation, too, knowing you're supposed to be able to
provide milk to keep that baby alive.
Dingolay (aka Layla) and her baby (Tonka), plus a 3-year-old filly
(Sienna Rachel), arrived at our rescue on
May 15, 2009. The baby and his mom were in critical
condition -- the baby was holding on by a thread. Sadly, Tonka
died three days later at the hospital.
Click on this
link to read about them and keep up-to-date about their status.
|
|
|
Magic is
an Arabian stallion who had been treated very badly and was afraid
of humans. Click here
to go to Magic's page to learn more about him and to check on his progress.
From living in fear like
this ... ...
to
this!
|
|
