The equine meat scandal across the UK and EU now includes donkeys; what about the bute?
Cross-posted from the Daily Mirror
by JASON BEATTIE and DAVID COLLINS
The horse meat scandal deepened today amid claims some food sold in supermarkets may have contained DONKEY.
A law banning horse-drawn vehicles from Romanian roads could have to led to a surge in illegal meats, it was claimed.
. . . some of the meat which has turned up in Britain, France and Sweden could turn out to be donkey
Veteran campaigner and MEP Jose Bove said some of the meat which has turned up in Britain, France and Sweden could turn out to be donkey.
“Horses have been banned from Romanian roads and millions of animals have been sent to the slaughterhouse,” he said.
The startling revelation came as fresh tests revealed Tesco’s own-brand budget pasta ready meals were up to 100% horse meat.
Britain’s biggest grocer scrapped tens of thousands of frozen Everyday Value Spaghetti Bolognese dishes amid fears that the food had been contaminated.
And boss Tim Smith announced the firm had now dumped shamed French supplier Comigel, the firm at the heart of the scandal.
Donkey meat is regarded as a delicacy in Italy.
Horses are bought by criminal gangs for as little as £10 in Romania, then sold on to abattoirs and meat exported within the EU.
In 2011 more than 6,779 tons was shipped abroad for processing.
In the meantime, Labour said that 70,000 horses in Northern Ireland remained unaccounted for, raising fears they could have been butchered. Read full report >>
In an earlier article by the Daily Mirror they report:
What about the bute?
Five horses slaughtered in the UK last year tested positive for phenylbutazone [bute], food safety chiefs admitted.
The anti-inflammatory is banned from the food chain over fears it causes bone marrow and liver problems in humans.
But test delays meant meat from the five contaminated horses still ended up on dinner plates. Read more >>
Speaking of bute, BBC News reports:
The global nature of the horsemeat business is also causing problems in tracing exposure to bute.
Using bute on horses for human consumption is banned in the EU, but thousands of tonnes of horsemeat is imported from the US, Canada and Mexico where practices are different.
Many of the animals killed for food in these countries were once racehorses, and the use of bute at racetracks across the US is so widespread that one scientist speaking to the New York Times called these horses “walking pharmacies”.
Research published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology in 2010 highlighted this risk, and EU officials warned last year about serious problems in verifying whether horses killed in Mexico were drug-free. Read more >>
Tuesday's Horse 
Maybe one day we all will be so educated, and so above the poverty level that the world will be a better place for the animals, plants, birds and even people!
I read this story because I had a new mule,named Petey who came to volunteer with or VETSRIDEFREE program and he looked like the donkey in the picture. So far Petey is learning to be spoiled with people who love him. He had his wrangler and kids at his last job, but now he is secure for life, and his old wrangler can visit anytime she wants and bring his old friends too.
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I would suggest that everyone who reads this to go to the newspaper in the UK and the one in Scotland and leave a comment I sure did. The one in Scotland I left a comment telling them about the US horses being sent to Canada/Mexico for slaughter and the US does not use the passport listing all drugs. I told them the US has no restrictions on horse meds at all. And Canada ships the contaminated horse meat via the US to France, Italy, Japan and where ever else it ends up. I’ll bet it is used in any food that France ships to the other EU countries that it has trade with. Their problems are a lot bigger than first thought.
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I live in Canada and the HorseSlaughterHouses in Canada are animal abuse at its most disgusting picture…Horses are trucked in from the US…where they are supposed to be protected but the Bureau of Land Management there is under fire for selling wildhorses to kill buyers.We sometimes have 4000 horses living in filth before they go for slaughter…you can see dead ones on the ground…they are covered in horse shit…they are taken into the slaughter plant covered in dung…disgusting, filthy business…The horse slaughter business is worth 11 Million dollars to our Conservative Government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper….I am very much against Horse Slaughter…it says quite clearly in the Bible that we are too only eat animals with the cloven hoof. Horses were never intended too be FOOD…I belong to Wild Horses of Alberta Society who are trying to petition and protect the last remaining wild horses in Alberta as our government rounded up another 216 last December and most of them went to slaughter houses…Thank you for your comment and I hope that horses and donkeys will end up being protected from slaughter for food.
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Good for you Barbara. This helps immensely so this information is not just coming from us, though it is easy enough to check out. A quick Google will give them reams and reams of documented facts.
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You can find alot of info at Horse Slaughter in Canada or Canadian Coalition of Horses
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Freaken Unbelievable!
STOP the Horse-Slaughter, as simple as that. Horses are our buddies and were NOT raised to be put on a plate!! (duh)
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OMG !!!!!!!!! its enough to make me ILL, just the thought of someone has the ORDASITY to put MY friends in my food supply, is outragous and I want Heads to Roll on this (and im not refering to my friends and family the horses or the Burros) I think this is absolutely unacceptable and unforgiving !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I want somebody the responsible party to be incarcerated for the rest of their lives for doing this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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