A large-scale investigation by ABC News (Australia) found that slaughtering horses for food for animals and humans at slaughterhouses in New South Wales and Queensland.
Worth mentioning, this activity is taking place despite the horse racing industry rules and regulations on animal protection.
Secret investigations revealed brutal treatment of horses at slaughterhouses before and during slaughter. Horse slaughter is not illegal in Australia but it is against the policies and rules of the horse racing industry.
For the past two years, Elio Celotto and the Equestrian Protection Alliance have been monitoring Meramist slaughterhouses, located north of Brisbane, with remote cameras and have recorded daily activities there. In the Meramist kiln, people slaughter all kinds of cattle, but horses alone are estimated to be slaughtered about 500 per month.
As for the Equestrian Protection Alliance, a group of secret investigators entered the slaughterhouse and recorded over a thousand hours of images of horses being put through slaughterhouses and how they were treated.
This process records about 300 racing horses that have passed through the Meramist slaughterhouse in just 22 days. Especially, there were days when a secret camera recorded more than 40 racing horses being slaughtered.
The images recorded and transferred to ABC News also show slaughterhouse workers torturing animals before killing them. Specifically, the horses were beaten and tortured, repeatedly hit on the head and killed. Some were kicked and subjected to electric shocks.
And yet, one worker saw a piece of wood pounding the horses repeatedly, another beating them with water pipes.
The horse racing industry in Australia is a massive business that requires a large supply. In the last fiscal year, the industry has produced 14,000 foals. In addition, each year, about 8,500 horses are withdrawn from the track.
However, according to him, the guarantees of the horse racing industry are not reliable. The fact is, a large number of horses are having a very terrible end, at least 4,000 horses per year.
Peter V’Landys, a horse racing official in New South Wales, said he was unaware of the horses being taken to the slaughterhouse, and said anyone found to be in violation of the rules would be Strict handling.
ABC has confirmed that Luddenham Pet Meat is supplying minced meat to the hound racing industry. However, Mr V’Landys said he had no evidence that people supplied racing horse meat to hunting dogs.