Horse rescuers give animals second chance at life

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In January, Phil DuPaul purchased two horses destined for slaughter and Tammy Loewen takes care of them on her farm in the Brandon area.

If one of Tammy Loewen’s horses was sick, she would shoot it before she’d ever send it to auction to be sold for meat.

But she doesn’t think twice about eating a steak, a chicken breast, or a slice of ham.

"I just don’t have the love for them like I do horses," she said.

The idea of a companion animal being eaten is taboo to her and she’s likely not alone.

In the wake of the scandal in Europe that was sparked by horse meat found in hamburgers, frozen lasagnas and even IKEA meatballs labelled as beef products, the debate wages more furiously about eating horse.

Though the tainted meat never made its way across the Atlantic, the divisive conversation certainly did.

"We don’t live in Europe where it’s something they do, it’s like anything, would we bring a cat or a dog and eat it here? No," Loewen said. "It’s not part of my morals."

Loewen and her friend Phil DuPaul, recently committed to saving two horses which would have likely ended up on the killing floor of a processing plant, fulfilling Loewen’s longtime dream.

The two horses, both eight-years-old, were trainable, healthy and ridable. Guss and Marley, an Appaloosa and a Grade Quarter horse were given new leases on life.

"I wanted to make a difference in something or someone’s life," she said. "I made a difference in these horses’ lives, they could have ended up on someone’s plate."

Cathy Halbesma of Winnipeg, the woman who sold the horses to Loewen, has helped take care of more than 100 horses that have been saved from the Grunthal Livestock Auction Mart.

For the past three years, Halbesma has been working with a farmer in Grunthal who puts up the money to purchase horses from auction and keeps them at his farm. Halbesma volunteers by working with the horses and acts as a broker between the farmer and potential buyers.

During the four horse auctions at Grunthal held each year, Halbesma said most people that attend the auction aren’t there to buy a horse at all.

"The unfortunate thing I have grown to realize ... is the lack of people in the crowd that are there to actually purchase a horse," Halbesma said.

Sometimes she and her partner will walk away from the auction with as many as 20 horses.

"It’s not that they’re bad horses, it’s not that they’re sick, or that there is anything wrong with them, it’s just that there are not enough people in the crowd to give them a chance," she said. "It’s a spectator thing."

Kill buyers will bid on almost every horse, Halbesma said. If horses that end up at auction aren’t purchased by someone, chances are very high they will end up at a processing plant.

"The kill buyer has a front row seat and he will bid on every single horse," she said. "If no one else bids on a horse, he’ll get the horse."

Picking the horses she thinks have an opportunity for another lease on life is admittedly very difficult.

"There are hundreds of horses there usually," she said.

"When they go through the ring, we try and take ones home that we think are going to be adoptable," she said

Crammed in pens and no doubt scared, it’s tough to gauge the personality of an animal in such stressful conditions, she said.

"I just love horses," was her answer when asked what drives her to do the work. "And I feel that the industry itself is very shady, secretive, and underhanded."

"The lay city person that may love a beautiful picture of a horse, but may not be involved in horses, they would have no clue what’s going on."

The Horse Welfare Alliance of Canada promotes the humane handling of horses from birth to slaughter.

Chairman Bill desBarres, a self-proclaimed horse lover, said the coverage of horse meat in recent weeks has piqued an interest to try the perceived exotic meat.

"It’s a backwards kind of advertising, but I’m told it’s working," he said. "People are curious."

Though desBarres said horse meat has gained the curiosity of some, the price per pound has reportedly dropped in recent weeks.

There are only four nationally-licensed horse processing plants in Canada, all of which are in either Alberta or Quebec. Just over 82,000 were slaughtered in Canada in 2012, with most of the meat going to Belgium, France and Switzerland.

"It’s a $70 million a year business in Canada," he said.

A lack of a processor in Manitoba doesn’t mean there isn’t interest in the product.

"Manitoba has a really broad ethnic base," he said. "And I’m aware that some people that I know in Manitoba and I know they eat horse meat."

Humane Society Canada has called for an outright ban on horse meat after traces of the drug phenylbutazone were found in meat exported to Switzerland.

"Horses slaughtered in Canada are generally not raised for human consumption and routinely receive drugs that have been banned in food producing animals," said Humane Society spokesperson Ewa Demianowicz in a release.

"There are currently no legal requirements for horse owners to record the use of such drugs. We have proof, yet again, that current Canadian Food Inspection Agency regulations are inadequate and cannot guarantee that Canadian horse meat is safe."

» gbruce@brandonsun.com

Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition March 11, 2013