'Slaughtered for raw consumption': Why is Edmonton a horse-meat hub?

Edmonton Journal

4 days ago

Over the past decade, thousands of horses have been placed in crates and shipped out of Edmonton International Airport. Their final destination is Japan, where they are slaughtered. Their meat is mainly used in high-end dishes, the stuff of culinary blogs and Instagram posts.
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It's an industry that goes along quietly, despite the efforts of animal-rights activists to drag the practice into the light. A federal bill to ban the export-by-air of horses passed through parliament while Justin Trudeau was prime minister, but didn't get past the senate before the 2025 federal election reset the legislative calendar.
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April 14 was just another day in the horse-export trade. Ninety-nine Belgian Crosses were placed three to a crate and prepped for loading onto Korean Air Flight 9214, a Boeing 747-8 making a routine cargo run from Edmonton International Airport to Kitakyushu, Japan, with a refueling stop in Alaska.
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But one crate had a problem; one of the horses was down. A Canadian Food Inspection Agency report stated that the horse had water poured on it and was prodded in efforts by handlers to get it to stand up. Workers debated whether or not to use an electric prod, but decided against it. After 50 minutes, they gave up and the crate was pulled. Only 96 horses made the trip. The CFIA stated that the treatment of the horse was 'unacceptable.'
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Four hours after the Alaska layover, with the plane somewhere over the Pacific, another horse went down and wouldn't get up. Checks were made every half-hour. A hard landing in Japan caused four more horses to topple over.
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The length of the journey from the Alberta feedlot to Japan's quarantine area was 28.91 hours. Under Canadian regulations, the longest a horse in transit can go without food, water or rest is 28 hours. The CFIA report states that the agency did not receive a transfer-of-care document.
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The CFIA's red-flag-filled report led Animal Justice, a national animal-welfare advocacy group, to launch a legal complaint and alert the Alberta SPCA.
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'When people I talk to find out about this, they are shocked and appalled,' said Schwarz. 'Canadians have a special relationship with horses.'