According to a new study, horse disguised as beef could be on the menu in Mexico .....

There’s a new reason to ban the horsemeat trade in all of North America. This time, it’s not just about the utterly cruel and disgustingly inhumane treatment of animals—it’s also a matter of public safety and health.

A new study—commissioned by Humane Society International and conducted in six Mexican cities—found unmarked horsemeat in a whopping 10 percent of 433 tested meat product samples sold as beef or not clearly labeled in common vending points such as butcher shops, supermarkets, street markets and street stalls. Even worse, some of these raw meat samples contained high levels of a veterinary drug often prescribed for horses, clenbuterol, which is NOT approved for food producing animals and can harm humans.

Because U.S. horses are not raised as food animals, they receive treatment with drugs unfit for human consumption. Between January and September of 2017, U.S. kill buyers shipped some 60,000 of these horses—many of them working, racing and companion horses, or even children’s ponies—to both Mexico and Canada. What this recent study out of Mexico further reveals is that the horse slaughter industry has been deceiving many Mexican vendors and consumers, who are unaware that the meat they have acquired to sell and/or consume contains horsemeat as well as traces dangerous veterinary drugs.

Let this be a loud call to stop the trade of horsemeat throughout North America. Let’s demand United States leaders protect U.S. horses from being shipped to a country where they will be slaughtered for human consumption (which is illegal stateside) despite veterinary treatments and drugs that make them dangerous to consume. And let’s call on Mexico to build on recent animal rights momentum and crack down on horse slaughter—for the sake of horses and health of its citizens.

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD
Call your U.S. Representative and your two U.S. Senators to support the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act. You can look up your lawmakers here. Ask them to cosponsor and support the Safeguard American Food Exports Act, H.R. 113/S. 1706, which would keep horse slaughter plants closed in the U.S. and end the export of horses for human consumption.