Christmas ponies may end up as horse meat

DEAR EDITOR:

The Christmas season is here and children were busy sending lists off to the North Pole and waiting to Zoom with Santa to tell him what their heart's desire was.

At the top of the list for many was a pony and some of the lucky ones actually received one. These youngsters and their parents will spend the next years taking riding lessons, travelling to events, and collecting ribbons to decorate bedroom walls.

However once off to college, the horse that meant so much that special Christmas morning will become part of their past with no place in their future.

The parents make the decision to sell the horse and if the horse is lucky, it will be successful in finding someone to love and take care of him, if unsuccessful the horse will be sent to auction.

What most people do not know is that 85%plus of all horses that go through auction are purchased by people who buy horses at low prices and ship them to slaughter for profit. According to Agriculture Canada, more than 18,000 horses were slaughtered for export of their carcasses with over 6,000 shipped alive to Japan for slaughter there in 2019 for a total of 24,581 averaging 98.5 horses killed each workday.

Horse meat is mainly exported to Japan, France and Belgium but is also consumed within Canada.

If you want to help stop the slaughter of past Christmas ponies, etc. please write to your local politician and tell them to stand up against horse slaughter in Canada. To learn more, go online research horse slaughter, view videos on YouTube and contact: canadianhorsedefencecoalition.org.

Get involved; speak up for these beautiful creatures that deserve so much better than to end up on a plate beside the mashed potatoes in a foreign country.

Surely that is no child’s Christmas wish.

Theresa Nolet, Summerland