Recent Big Victory for Pregnant Mares in Switzerland
Following a revealing investigation of horse blood farms in Iceland, Switzerland recently became the first country to ban the use of the PMSG hormone obtained from the blood of pregnant mares. Our client Animals' Angels helped to internationally publicize the investigation results, and Switzerland was the first country to respond to the public pressure.
At the farms, up to 5 liters of blood are taken every week from each of 5000 pregnant mares. The blood contains PMSG, a hormone used in veterinary drugs to harmonize the estrus in sows. In addition to having their blood taken, the mares were found to be living in terrible conditions where they are beaten with sticks and chased by dogs. Hopefully, this victory in Switzerland will persuade the European Union to follow suit and disjoin from supporting this cruel practice.
Meet Sonja Meadows, Founder of Animals' Angels
Sonja Meadows epitomizes courage. Originally from Germany, Sonja moved to the US in 2005 and was a practicing lawyer working on behalf of the automobile industry when she encountered a double deck trailer loaded with horses at a gas station. Sonja described how she had watched the trailer shake from the force of the horses kicking their legs against the aluminum. When she peered through the trailer holes to see the horses in distress, the driver angrily told Sonja that the horses would soon all become meat. Like many people in the US, Sonja was unfamiliar with the horse meat industry, and could find very little information on the topic. She quit her lawyer job, and one of her first campaigns was following people loading large quantities of horses to auctions and documenting the treatment of the animals that she witnessed during transport and at auction. Subsequently, she also became a certified humane officer and covert tactics specialist.
In 2007, Sonja founded Animals' Angels, and she has since traveled across the US on behalf of America’s farm animals - visiting auctions, feedlots and slaughter plants, documenting the dreadful conditions that far too often exist. Sonja’s videos exposing cruelty and intolerable conditions have been used by countless media, educating the public about the plight of US farm animals. She is responsible for the first-ever cruelty conviction of the largest auction on the East Coast. She is also behind the exposure & conviction of a large scale horse rescue that, instead of providing hundreds of horses with a safe home as promised, was shipping them to slaughter. Sonja has testified in court against animal abusers and has lobbied local, state, and federal bodies, advocating for stronger laws and improved conditions for farm animals.
Animals' Angels is a leader in the fight against horse slaughter & farm animal cruelty in the US
Today, Animals' Angels has four full-time investigators, including Sonja and her husband Keith, working throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada with the goal of improving conditions for farm animals. They are helped by approximately 30 volunteer investigators. Sonja is also often accompanied by her loyal six-year-old shepherd.
The investigators work primarily in the field, trailing livestock trucks on highways, visiting markets and auctions, collecting stations, and slaughterhouses. They objectively report observations, document conditions, and expose animal cruelty. Animals' Angels now has the biggest database available in the US of kill buyers, auctions, and slaughter companies.
Sonja emphasized how crucial it is to their work that all reporting is factual--the cruelty speaks for itself without exaggeration--so as to maintain credibility. Sonja also emphasized that although "ag-gag laws"(state laws that prohibit or restrict recording at industrialized farming operations) have added challenges to investigative work, all of Animals' Angels footage is obtained legally. They share their investigations and documentation of cruelty with law enforcement and government agencies to ensure that violators of animal protection laws are held responsible for their actions; as such, it is essential that their information have been obtained legally so it is admissible in criminal prosecutions.
Animals' Angels successfully met with the European Commission to ban horse meat imports from Mexico.
Much of the horse meat available in Europe is sourced from US horses--a fact unknown to both many Americans, and many European horse meat consumers. Animals' Angels launched an EU Consumer Awareness Campaign in 2012. The initial expose which aired in Switzerland created a firestorm of reaction with grocers immediately pulling more than 50% of horse meat products off the shelves. Switzerland’s largest retailer cut ties with Bouvry Exports altogether, followed by yet another major importer who opted to do the same.
In 2014, Animals' Angels met with the EU Commission to present compelling evidence from their investigations along the Mexican border of the inhumane practices implicit in the horse slaughter industry. They are the only US organization that has ever been invited to present to the EU Commission on horse slaughter, and they continue to provide updates and reports to EU legislators. The EU banned all horse meat imports from Mexico as of March 1, 2015. As a result, the number of horses sent to Mexico for slaughter has dropped dramatically from over 100,000 each year to under approximately 20,000.
Animals' Angels is currently asking the EU Commission to also ban horse meat imports from Canada. Animals' Angels met with the EU Commission again last July to present findings from their investigations along the northern border. In addition to documenting the cruelty in the hose slaughter pipeline, Animals' Angels was also able to prove that much of the accompanying paperwork is fraudulent, which creates health risks for consumers. The verdict from the EU Commission is still out, but Sonja is optimistic.
Read about more of Animals' Angels many successes HERE.
How You Can Help Save Horses
Animals' Angels is taking a two-pronged approach to minimizing the number of horses that end up in the slaughter pipeline. 1) Because much of the horse meat in Europe is coming from horses that were originally US horses, they are working to disincentivize the import of horse meat by proving to the EU Commission and to the European public the cruelty and health risks associated with the industry. 2) They are working to pass federal legislation in the US to prohibit horses from being transported for slaughter.
The SAFE Act (Save America’s Forgotten Equines Act of 2021) is currently pending in US Congress. This bill would amend the Horse Protection Act "to prohibit the shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption, and for other purposes."
Identify and contact your representatives and ask them to support the SAFE Act.
Support Animals' Angels
Animals' Angels is always grateful for financial contributions. Investigations are expensive - Animals' Angels uses state-of-the-art cameras and equipment that allows them to take high quality footage exposing cruelty from afar without trespassing. They incur the costs of flights and rental cars to travel to their investigative locations. These investigative reports are all on their website, and you can help educate people about these animals' plight by sharing the reports. Finally, if you are looking to welcome a horse companion to your life and are considering visiting an auction, please first search Animals' Angels compilation of over 500 auction reports to learn more about it.
Additional Resources to Learn More
From the Kill Pen (full documentary from 2015) -- Documenting the underground horse slaughter industry, from its inhumane practices to its unregulated meat products. This is a potentially toxic, financially driven network operating through Big Ag and at the expense of taxpayer dollars.
Platinum Ticket’s Final Ride -- This documentary exposes the dirty secrets of the horse slaughter industry through the tragic story of Platinum Ticket. This successful grey Thoroughbred racehorse was discovered in a kill pen at the Knoxville Livestock Auction barely alive with a bullet in his head. The film tells the story of how he got there: From winning purses at the racetrack to winning ribbons in the jumper show ring – until his fortunes suddenly changed. Like tens of thousands of American horses each year, he became trapped in the horse slaughter pipeline – a long, cruel road leading to a brutal death in the slaughterhouses of Mexico and Canada.
Hoofbeats of Horror -- This video from Animals' Angels shows the brutal reality of the horse slaughter industry in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Argentina. Our investigators followed the slaughter horses' torturous journey all the way from US auctions to kill buyer feedlots and from there to export pens and slaughter plants across the border. Warning: contains graphic content.
North American Horse Meat – Cruel Production and Endless Suffering
Tierschutzbund Zürich (TSB), Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF) and Animals’ Angels USA have been reporting about the cruel production methods of horsemeat in North America since 2012. New investigations carried out in early 2019 show that the conditions remain unchanged at US auctions, Canadian & US feedlots, as well as during transport and at the Bouvry slaughter plant in Alberta.
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