South American Horsemeat from Torturous Production

Tierschutzbund Zürich (TSB) and Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF) have been reporting about the torturous production of horsemeat in South America since 2012. New investigations from 2018/2019 show that in Argentina and Uruguay the conditions during transport, at auctions, assembly centres and slaughterhouses have not improved, despite all the promises made by the European importers and their associations FEBEV (Belgium) and VPI (Switzerland), and despite new manuals and repeated audits. Injured, sick and weak horses are still left without veterinary care. Some die at assembly centres or in slaughterhouse pens. On their path to slaughter, horses are brutally mistreated with sticks and electric prods, and transported over long distances in vehicles that are completely inappropriate for horses. They frequently lack the mandatory ear tags; thus, their origin remains unknown. Some of the slaughtered horses, whose meat is exported to the EU, are former racehorses or have been used in rodeos. The recent investigations show that slaughterhouses prepare themselves for announced audits carried out by the EU Commission or importers. They do so, for example, by building provisional shelter or removing horses who are in poor condition.
TSB, AWF, Animales sin Hogar, Animals’ Angels USA, Dier&Recht, Fondation Franz Weber, For the Animals Uruguay, GAIA, Italian Horse Protection, Welfarm and Eurogroup for Animals call upon the EU Commission to suspend horsemeat imports from Argentina and Uruguay into the European Union, since these countries cannot guarantee compliance with the applicable EU requirements regarding animal welfare and traceability.