Do you know that horses are slaughtered in Canada for human consumption? Pet horses, rodeo stock, racehorses, all breeds and ages – including pregnant mares.
Did you know that Canada allows the export of live horses to other markets including Japan? Again, for human consumption. Horses that are NOT necessarily bred for that purpose.
Let’s start with the export of horses for slaughter from Canada…
Every year, thousands of horses are shipped live from Canada to Japan to then face a horrific death by slaughter – for human consumption.
But before they face a most an unimaginable death, they must first face a cruel, inhumane journey to their deaths:
- Crammed into wooden shipping crates often for over 28 hours
- No access to food, water or veterinary care
- Documented cases show horses dead on arrival, collapsing upon arrival or severely injured on arrival
In Canadian Parliament, Bill C-355 – a bill to ban the live export of horses for slaughter – languished, then died an orchestrated death in the Senate thanks mostly to Senator Rob Black who used procedural delays to “run out the clock” on the bill.
Canadian animal rights advocate ANIMAL JUSTICE has been fighting to stop these inhumane shipments for the last couple of years. They have uncovered that most of these shipments unlawfully surpass Canada’s legal time limit for transport, which is already a gruelling 28 hours without any food, water, and rest.
The Canadian government’s records significantly downplay the risks associated with this industry by failing to document the true time these horses are in transit, as well as how many horses are injured and die because of the shipments.
Part of the failure in reporting is due to Canadian records failing to account for deaths, injuries, and illness discovered after horses are unloaded from planes in Japan. But even injuries, falls, and deaths occurring during these flights often appear to go unreported to the CFIA.
Now, let’s talk about horse slaughter within Canada…
Until just recently two large horse slaughter plants have been operating in Canada. One in Alberta and the other in Quebec.
The Alberta slaughter plant – Bouvry – laid off all of their employees in July of 2025 and as of May 2026 it remains to be seen if they will resume slaughtering horses. Rumour has it the plant is for sale. (This page will be kept updated.)
Meanwhile the plant in Quebec is operating as normal.
The horses slaughtered often originate in Canada – AND horses are also imported from the USA where after the Federal Government defunded the inspection of horse slaughter plants – horse slaughter is currently illegal. NOT banned but illegal. As a result horses are routinely shipped from the USA to Mexico and Canada to be slaughtered.
Again, as mentioned above the horses slaughtered are from a wide range of backgrounds, including competition/sport horses, such as rodeo and horses from the racing industry. Pet horses are also regularly slaughtered (there are even documented reports of stolen pets being slaughtered — see here and here). All ages, all breeds.
Our friend Marie Bennett from Ban Horse Slaughter .com – who has been advocating for a banning of horse slaughter within Canada – and beyond — since 2010, is quick to point out…
“Make no mistake about it, the way in which horses are shipped by air to slaughter AND shipped within Canada including from the USA — in no way resembles how sport horses or race horses are transported.
AND horse slaughter is in no way humane.
We have over 4,000 pages of documents via the Freedom of Information Act with reports filed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that are horrifying”.
You can make a difference…
Please join us in filling out a form that makes it super simple to send a done-for-you email to those who can put an end to the brutal slaughtering of horses within Canada including those imported from the United States.
And the equally brutal export of horses from Canada by air to be slaughtered in other markets including Japan.
It takes less than 2 minutes…
