No Slaughterhouse Cruelty?

There's video evidence of abuse toward horses at the Bouvry slaughterhouse. Why didn't the RCMP lay charges?

Last week, Calgary RCMP announced there was no evidence of intent to cause cruelty against horses killed at Bouvry Horse Exports Ltd., a Fort Macleod-based slaughterhouse that kills horses to sell their flesh as gourmet meat on foreign markets. This announcement will discourage anyone who believes that words still have meaning.

The investigation followed the release of undercover video taken at the Bouvry slaughterhouse, the largest horse-killing plant in North America, and at Viandes Richelieu in Quebec. The videos were given to the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition (CHDC) and are available on the organization’s website, along with analyses provided by three veterinarians who denounced the practices as serious violations of welfare regulations.

However, those statements merely verify what is obvious from the videos; what any serious person would recognize as cruelty. Horses are “flight” animals, who panic easily and experience great anxiety when confronted by new phenomena. They are especially agitated when confined in small spaces like the kill chutes at the Bouvry slaughterhouse. One can only imagine the terror that these sensitive animals must experience as they are subjected to the chaos of blaring rock music, the slamming and grinding of machinery, the shouts of workers who attack them with whips and electric prods, the smell of blood, and the screams of the fellow creatures they see killed beside them.

Although horses are supposed to be killed quickly and painlessly, it is clear that these animals are subjected to fear and agony. The video shows several horses slipping and falling in the chutes, likely fracturing their bones. Some are left in these confined spaces, frightened and panicked, while workers go on break. Desperate, frightened horses are seen struggling to escape. Several horses are not killed immediately but are shot several times. One horse is shot in both eyes before seeming to be immobilized by a third shot.

Videos show deliberate cruelty: horses being whipped repeatedly, often in the face, beaten and shocked with electric prods. In one scene, a woman (possibly a government inspector, according to the video) deliberately startles a horse. Workers ignore guidelines for checking that the animals are dead before shackling and hoisting them to slash their necks and bleed them out. Wounded horses are shown being hoisted by their legs on chains, and one horse’s feet are cut off while the animal is still alive.

Based on these videos, it seems surreal that the RCMP could find no evidence of cruelty.

Presumably, the RCMP declined to lay charges in part because they had little incentive to do so. Profits are being made. Both provincial and federal governments are defenders of the horse-slaughter industry. It is now a booming business in Canada, after it was banned in the U.S. in 2007. Unconcerned with similar scruples, Canadian slaughterhouses seized their opportunity to make money and expanded their horse-killing operations. Despite the fact that few Canadians eat horses, we are now among the world’s top sellers of horse flesh.

Not surprisingly, Bouvry claimed that six officials from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and a veterinarian were always on site when horses were killed. However, the CFIA’s reputation is dubious. In a previous investigation of the Richelieu plant, the CHDC charged that no CFIA inspectors were present in the kill area, in violation of government regulations. The CFIA also praised the horse-killing operations at Saskatchewan’s now-defunct Natural Valley Farms slaughterhouse after the CBC broadcast video of abuse there. Clearly, the CFIA’s interest is in defending industry, not animal welfare.

Furthermore, the RCMP were probably persuaded by Bouvry that their operations conformed to standard practices. This is probably true, but this is simply an indication of the loathsome nature of the entire industry. Anyone seeking verification of this may turn to Gail Eisnitz’s book Slaughterhouse.

As depraved and horrific as they are, the scenes at Bouvry are simply instances of a far greater pattern. The entire industry is based on cruelty: deliberately depriving sentient beings of the lives they enjoy simply to satisfy the trivial desire to savour their flesh in our mouths.