Cookies taste like slaughter
This morning I had a tour of Bouvry Exports Canada, one of two places in Canada that slaughters horses. It wasn't so much that I wanted a tour as I felt that I needed to go to form an educated opinion on the matter. Due to the company's past bad experiences (such as undercover photography and video taken by Animals' Angels), we could not view the kill line in operation. We were lucky to get a tour at all, as the security on packing plants is tight for this very reason... not that I would have wanted to see it in operation, though.
For the first time in about three years I had a characteristic attack of nerves as I entered the building, much like I used to get before going to a hospital or even writing an important exam. I forgot what that was like... shaking, sweating, and almost hyperventilating. Even before entering the industrial part of the plant, I could smell something odd in the office area. Perhaps it was just the heavy layers of disinfectant that had accumulated. After donning hair nets and lab coats, we proceeded through the plant. I can't remember all of the rooms we went through, but the ones that stuck in my mind were the stunning chute (where the animals are stunned with a .22 calibre RIFLE, of all things) and blood pit, the employee stations for cutting off the limbs, heads, and slitting open the hides, the refrigeration room with about fifty bison carcasses and five horse carcasses hanging upside down, the giant bins of lungs, spleens, and kidneys, and the freezer room with boxes of packaged meat with a diagram of the type of animal inside. That's something I didn't know -- that they also slaughter bison, cattle, and ostriches. However, the vet giving the tour said that they slaughter horses 3.5 to 4 days a week, and that there are about 200 (!) killed each day. I knew there were a lot of horses in the feed lot next to the plant, but I never would have guessed that there were three thousand horses in there, seeing as it is only a few kilometers square. Bouvry's website says that "The animals are raised in complete freedom in magnificent open surroundings and fed with natural products." The vet said some horses get 40 pounds of barley a day, and that that sometimes causes them to founder (a serious, painful illness), but that the treatment of the feedlot animals was not under his control. And um... I'll let you decide whether to believe the "magnificent open surroundings" part next time you drive by Fort Macleod -- if you even notice the place with the 10 foot fences and trees in front. Apparently there is a similar feedlot near Granum, with twenty thousand head of horses. Wow. And in addition to that, 200 horses come from the United States each week to be slaughtered. The most interesting thing I learned was that as of today, the United States has effectively banned horse slaughter for human consumption and the three plants there will be closed. I have yet to find documentation of this, but I believe the vet knew what he was talking about, as it directly affects him. I question what impact this ban will have on the Canadian slaughterhouses and feedlots. In 2001, fears over B.S.E. increased overseas demand for horse meat, and Claude Bouvry, the owner of Bouvry Exports, was quoted as saying "his business cannot process horses fast enough." So what will happen now that the U.S. is no longer slaughtering them? Will the feedlots simply overflow? In addition to this, apparently Bouvry has lost its market for shipping live horses to Japan to be slaughtered there, as the Japanese government has now stated that only animals that have lived over half their life in Japan are considered Japanese, and the people want fresh Japanese meat. My understanding is that almost everything they eat is non-Japanese due to lack of space to grow/raise food, so don't ask me to explain that one.
From the way I described the areas of the plant earlier, perhaps you are thinking there was blood and guts everywhere. Au contraire, my friends -- I would have eaten pie off of that floor! Er, maybe not. But it was spic and span. However, as indescribable as this is, I felt like I had slaughter all over me afterwards. And when I had one of Josh's cookies later in the evening, it tasted like slaughter. I mean, it tasted like the smell of it... oh, nevermind!
For the first time in about three years I had a characteristic attack of nerves as I entered the building, much like I used to get before going to a hospital or even writing an important exam. I forgot what that was like... shaking, sweating, and almost hyperventilating. Even before entering the industrial part of the plant, I could smell something odd in the office area. Perhaps it was just the heavy layers of disinfectant that had accumulated. After donning hair nets and lab coats, we proceeded through the plant. I can't remember all of the rooms we went through, but the ones that stuck in my mind were the stunning chute (where the animals are stunned with a .22 calibre RIFLE, of all things) and blood pit, the employee stations for cutting off the limbs, heads, and slitting open the hides, the refrigeration room with about fifty bison carcasses and five horse carcasses hanging upside down, the giant bins of lungs, spleens, and kidneys, and the freezer room with boxes of packaged meat with a diagram of the type of animal inside. That's something I didn't know -- that they also slaughter bison, cattle, and ostriches. However, the vet giving the tour said that they slaughter horses 3.5 to 4 days a week, and that there are about 200 (!) killed each day. I knew there were a lot of horses in the feed lot next to the plant, but I never would have guessed that there were three thousand horses in there, seeing as it is only a few kilometers square. Bouvry's website says that "The animals are raised in complete freedom in magnificent open surroundings and fed with natural products." The vet said some horses get 40 pounds of barley a day, and that that sometimes causes them to founder (a serious, painful illness), but that the treatment of the feedlot animals was not under his control. And um... I'll let you decide whether to believe the "magnificent open surroundings" part next time you drive by Fort Macleod -- if you even notice the place with the 10 foot fences and trees in front. Apparently there is a similar feedlot near Granum, with twenty thousand head of horses. Wow. And in addition to that, 200 horses come from the United States each week to be slaughtered. The most interesting thing I learned was that as of today, the United States has effectively banned horse slaughter for human consumption and the three plants there will be closed. I have yet to find documentation of this, but I believe the vet knew what he was talking about, as it directly affects him. I question what impact this ban will have on the Canadian slaughterhouses and feedlots. In 2001, fears over B.S.E. increased overseas demand for horse meat, and Claude Bouvry, the owner of Bouvry Exports, was quoted as saying "his business cannot process horses fast enough." So what will happen now that the U.S. is no longer slaughtering them? Will the feedlots simply overflow? In addition to this, apparently Bouvry has lost its market for shipping live horses to Japan to be slaughtered there, as the Japanese government has now stated that only animals that have lived over half their life in Japan are considered Japanese, and the people want fresh Japanese meat. My understanding is that almost everything they eat is non-Japanese due to lack of space to grow/raise food, so don't ask me to explain that one.
From the way I described the areas of the plant earlier, perhaps you are thinking there was blood and guts everywhere. Au contraire, my friends -- I would have eaten pie off of that floor! Er, maybe not. But it was spic and span. However, as indescribable as this is, I felt like I had slaughter all over me afterwards. And when I had one of Josh's cookies later in the evening, it tasted like slaughter. I mean, it tasted like the smell of it... oh, nevermind!