A clique of Conservative Senators delay bill to stop horse export for slaughter, Meanwhile...
More #horses are sent from Canada to Japan. Animal welfare transport regulations are routinely violated in this industry and many horses have arrived injured or dead.
An activist reports from Edmonton International Airport:
Monday morning (2 am) another 100 or so horses were loaded on a plane to Japan for slaughter. They had started their travel in a feedlot by Hanna, so had been on the road for about 2.5 hours in bitterly cold -25C (with windchill) weather. As can be seen in the picture, the horses were kept in the crates on the tarmac until loading. The ride to the airport must have been brutal.
I thought we had evaded security, but they must eventually have spotted us and called the RCMP. We kind of joked that the cops are now taking orders from security. When the cop car pulled up he asked me what I was doing. I thought it was pretty obvious, I was standing at the side of the road with a camera in my hands pointed at the very large plane across the road. After a bit of back and forth, they told me I had to leave because I was illegally walking along the side of the road. I reminded him that I was not on the road but beside it and I’m not sure when it’s become a crime to walk along a road. How absurd, only in Alberta. He also threatened me with charges of mischief, this can be a serious charge but I now feel I should have told him to go ahead since he had absolutely no grounds and it might have garnered some publicity for the horses.
They (airport, horse industry, the powers that be) appear to be getting more and more desperate to keep this a secret. The airport is crawling with security and the RCMP shows up in a flash.
Bill C-355 has been delayed in the Senate since May. Please sign on to the Animal Justice letter urging the Senate to pass this bill.
