Welfare Cowboys ride for honesty, good health and fair treatment for all!

Friday, June 17, 2011

KNOW THE FACTS!

By Sue Wallis
It has come to our attention that the anti-horse activists are trying to spin the results of an official European Union food safety document to portray horse meat as unsafe and full of toxic drug residues.
When faced with this kind of inflammatory rhetoric it is best to know the facts, and to get those facts directly from the scientists and veterinarians. To that end, please find here a summary of the EU document that is posted on the Vetsweb site, as well as a link to the entire European Food Safety Authority Technical Document:
http://www.vetsweb.com/news/efsa-report-on-veterinary-drug-residues-in-animals-and-animal-products-2216.html
Technical Report of the European Food Safety Authority
Please note – this report was published in 2010 for samples in 2009, and it only covers animals produced and processed in the European Union. It does not cover the U.S., Canada or Mexico. The report covers bovines, pigs, sheep and goats, horses, poultry, aquaculture, milk, eggs, rabbit meat, farmed game, wild game, and honey. The report notes that the methodology has changed so is not valid to compare to previous years.
“The residue situation in 2009 was similar to the two previous years for all substance groups. However, because the sampling plan and the spectrum of analysed substances were not necessarily the same over the three years, such comparisons should be regarded as having a high degree of uncertainty.”
Most importantly of all, if you take the time to actually read the report you will see that it shows that the incidence of prohibited drugs in horses is zero. Even where the anti-horse activists are crowing about the report showing that the horse samples were higher for hormones and for NSAIDS (which are NOT in the prohibited category), the only way they could show higher levels in horses is by purposely leaving out results for other species like sheep and goats which were twice as high as the incidence in horse meat.
Do your own homework, folks, and don’t believe a word of the animal rights activists’ misinformation campaigns. Again ZERO prohibited drugs in the prohibited A1 steroid category. Only two European Union member countries reported one sample each of prohibited B1 anti-bacterials non compliant samples out of 3,000 – one sample in Austria, the other in Estonia.
Know the facts!

5 comments:

Heather said...

I might suggest viewing this article - http://www.veterinaryirelandjournal.com/Links/PDFs/CE-Large/CELA_Dec_2010.pdf.pdf .

In this article, it is stated that "If a child were to consume an animal-based product
containing even the minutest amount of bute or its
metabolite then the child may develop aplastic anaemia. As
the horse is deemed a food-producing animal and horsemeat
is consumed in large quantities in Europe, the European
Commission decided to remove phenylbutazone from the
shelf and ban its use altogether."

One thing that the proponents of slaughter generally do not take into consideration are the metabolites of bute - oxyphenbutazone. Unless tests specifically look for metabolites, they likely won't find them. But the metabolite - oxyphenbutazone, has a much longer life in the muscle and other tissues of the horse -
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7297544

Are you certain that you posting the results of scientific studies that include examination of tissue samples for the metabolites of NSAIDS? I am not so sure.

Editor said...

Fact Sheet: Moral, Cultural, Food Quality, and Food Safety Concerns in Horse Meat : United Horsemen
www.united-horsemen.org
From a moral standpoint it is generally accepted that human beings are omnivores that require both animal and plant products for good health. Horses, so long as they are well treated and humanely handled may be ethically used as food animals. The enjoyment of horse meat is a cultural choice that is

Editor said...

To all bloggers on Welfare Cowboy, Heather's words about Aplastic Anemia reminds me to urge you all Please go to: www.ToLoveAmerica.Blogspot.com

Heather said...

^^What a great cause - I hope the event is a success and that Hailey recovers.

Editor said...

Very kind Heather. Thank you.