Winnipeg animal rights advocates are calling for a ban on live horse shipments after horses were left to freeze on a tarmac during a recent shipment.<\/p>\n
Members of the advocacy group Manitoba Animal Save said they documented a live horse shipment from Winnipeg on Feb. 23 during which crates with horses had been outside in the cold for several hours. The horses were being shipped to Japan where they are considered a delicacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was minus 29 \u2013 minus 30 with wind chill it was very very cold that night,\u201d said Danae Tonge, organizer at Manitoba Animal Save.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s beyond time for these shipments to end, these horses are suffering,\u201d Tonge added.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the federal body that regulates livestock exports, told CityNews in a statement that the shipment on Feb. 23 followed the standard export process, including the CFIA veterinary oversight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe horses that were exported live outdoors year-round and have developed winter coats\u00a0that mitigate cold exposure, particularly when three or four horses are together in a crate,\u201d the CFIA said.<\/p>\n
According to CFIA regulations, horses can not be without food, water or rest for more then 28 hours.<\/p>\n
However, animal rights advocates say CFIA regulations are often violated.<\/p>\n
Krista Boryskavich, animal advocacy lawyer at Winnipeg Humane Society said, \u201cThey are being denied food, they are being denied water, they have to stand for multiple hours at a time. that\u2019s a very stressful situation for these horses.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the advocacy group, Animal Justice, over 11,000 horses were exported in the last five years. These shipments are legal in Canada, but animal rights groups from across the country are calling for a federal ban.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a blackmark on Manitoba, because we are one of only two provinces where this occurs,\u201d Boryskavich said.<\/p>\n
Kaitlyn Mitchell, director of legal advocacy, Animal Justice, echoed Boryskavich.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so incredibly disappointed,\u201d she said of the practice. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to express how disappointing it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tonge says Monday\u2019s incident was reported to Canadian Horse Defence Coalition (CHDC) to determine the farm that shipped horses and the number of animals.<\/p>\n
In a statement from CHDC said the horses being forced to endure a grueling trip amid frigid temperatures was \u201cyet another glaring example of abject animal cruelty.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCanadian horses should not have to suffer this way,\u201d CHDC said. \u201cThey deserve better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advocates they planned to keep the pressure on until the shipments stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ban was promised is 2021,\u201d Tonge said. \u201cAnd now it\u2019s 2026 and we are still seeing horses shipped from airports in Alberta and airport in Winnipeg.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winnipeg animal rights advocates are calling for a ban on live horse shipments after horses were left to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-506369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}