star investigation: ottawa refuses to say whether drug-tainted horse meat entered food chain - brass plate engraving

After dawn, the Backstreet bully was removed from the trailer and taken to the slaughterhouse in rural Quebec by his cage.
Once owned and competed by Frank Strach of Magna, chestnut stallion will be slaughtered and then packaged into human food.
Just earlier this year, on the morning of January, crazy calls from the Stronach group tried to save the life of the post-street bully --
Protect the public from toxic meat.
A star survey found that Canada's food inspection system was seriously flawed in handling a steady stream of horse races sent to slaughter every year.
In his life, the back street bully, like many competing horses, got a powerful performance --
Enhance the potential for deadly drugs in human meat.
Related: horses as food: Confusion and bugs plague the system, two of them, one nicknamed "riot "(phenylbutazone)
He has been administered to backstreet bullies dozens of times, but the shoddy paperwork and poor supervision allowed by the Canadian food regulator has left him cleared in markets including Quebec, some restaurants in Europe and Toronto.
"You can't kill that horse," recalls Stacie Clark, who works at the Stronach Farm, pleading with an officer at the slaughterhouse.
It's not just a small amount of these drugs that have been given to horses: 21 doses of mirabilpine associated with human cancer, and at least 23 doses of Butte, a drug related to bone marrow disease.
Under the Food and Drug Act of Canada, horses should not be sold as food if they are given mirabilone at any time in their lives.
Houjieba has also taken many other drugs, which may also pose a serious risk to humans.
"Horse racing is a walking pharmacy," said the doctor.
Nicholas Dowman, a veterinarian at the University of tarfs, Massachusetts, has conducted extensive research on the issue.
"Do you really want to eat a piece of meat with rabies vaccine?
"The star found many problems in Canada's horse-related food protection system.
From one document to another, the star finds confusion about which drugs are considered safe, how fast a toxic drug leaves the body of the horse, and whether any trust can be established in the system that manages horses that sell meat.
In an email to Star on Thursday, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it was working with the horse industry to "develop measures to improve the traceability of horses.
"When Clark from Aurora ach's Adena Springs Farm in Aurora tries to rescue her, she's too late.
The back street bully was shot dead in the head while being imprisoned in a narrow slaughterhouse.
Canadian officials declined to tell the star whether the horse meat entered the food chain.
As part of an investigation into the number of horse races sent to slaughter as cash --
The star, near the racecourse in Ontario, tracked the life and death of the Backstreet bully through interviews, government documents and veterinary records.
Without a clue on his leather sling
A brass plate engraved with the name of the back street bully
The fate of this naughty animal with "a large number of puppy personalities" may not have been discovered yet.
According to the star, the identity card of the horse was forged, and now it is the private property of the slaughterhouse, which refuses to produce.
The Star obtained the back street bully's vet record from Stronach while taking care of him, suggesting that he was served with a number of other hazardous substances, such as synthetic metabolic steroids stanozolol, in addition to Alexa and nitrofurazone.
However, the most problematic is the 21 applications of the local ointment for the treatment of skin infection, nitrate Willow nitrogen.
In Europe, it is forbidden to use nitrogen nitrate in food-
Animals were produced in 1995 because it is related to human cancer.
Canadian officials responded in a contradictory and confusing way to furfurazone: the drug could never be given to a horse that would be eaten by humans, but the horse's medical history can only prove that it had not taken the drug for six months before being slaughtered.
Canada is a major international supplier of horse meat.
About 82,000 horses.
Most of them came from the United States that banned the massacre in 2006 --
Factories across the country that were inspected by the federal government last year were killed, exporting about 14,000 metric tons of meat each year, mainly to Europe and Japan.
Canadians also consume 300 tons of horse meat each year, mainly in Quebec.
The rear street bully, like most rival horses, was not eaten when he grew up.
Born in 2004 in North America's leading thoroughbred horse, the early hope was the baby chestnut with long legs --
Found on the Kentucky farm in Stronach
Will be another famous Queen's board or Breeder's Cup champion for Stronach.
The lack of speed ended this hope.
In 2008, the back street bully ran only three times at the Fort Erie racecourse in Ontario, winning a win and winning two championships
Complete 10 games with a $5,333 bonus.
But retirement does not affect his sunny personality.
"He's so funny, he's so cute," said Stacie Clark, a former jockey and television commentator who runs Stronach's horse racing retirement program in Aurora.
Stronach launched the first North American
In 2004, a post-care program was held for horse racing to sell his horse so they could start their second career.
Pure stallion is athletic and has other potential, such as jump shots, rides, or companion animals.
Sarah Irwin at Grandview Farm, a competitive horse-riding stable in orro, Ontario.
In the fall of 2008, she visited Adena Springs to find a gentle teaching horse for young students.
She settled down on the back street bully.
"He is such a lovely person," Owen said . ".
In October, she bought the backstreet bully for $1,050. 21, 2008.
Owen recalled that whenever he was in pain or inflamed, he added the bully powder to his food.
Less than a year later, Owen gave a free back street bully to one of her student's family, who he believed would go with Chris and Karen White to their farm in Apto, near Elmvale in Ont.
Until three months ago, houjieba was still with white people for three years. At that time, the couple thought that the horse was not riding enough and wanted to find him a ranch with more pastures.
In a tearful interview, Karen White said it was a tough decision to send their beloved Backstreet overlord away.
They contacted Glen Paster, a veteran Whitbridge horse dealer, who said he bought and sold about 3,000 horses a year in Ontario and asked him to find a home with a large meadow.
The priest arrived at white farm on the morning of January.
He said he knew a woman this year and there was such a place in the cold water nearby.
The White confirmed that the post-street bully had received three applications for the EBA in June 2011, and they sold the horse to the priest for $100, on an understanding, that is, if the woman in the cold water does not want the back street bully, it will be returned to them.
The priest promised to do so.
On the contrary, after the unknown cold water woman refused to buy the horse for $150 --
He's going to pay $50 for gas.
He spent the night in the barn.
The next morning, January.
8. The priest used a truck to transport the back street bully at the San Antonio Livestock Exchange.
Jacobs took part in a weekly auction near Waterloo.
The priest signed the federal government's mandatory horse information document.
A passport that must accompany all horses destined to be slaughtered --
And said that as a boss, in the past six months, he had "uninterrupted possession, care and control" of the back street bully.
In fact, he has owned him for about 24 hours.
When the pastor signed his passport, he also proved that the Post Street bully had not used drugs in the past six months and had not received any "not allowed" substances listed on the government website.
Critics of the passport system say the form is confusing and easily misunderstood or completely fraudulent.
The priest who worked in the horse industry for more than 40 years said that he saved the horse and sold it to a good family.
He told the Star that he mistakenly claimed that he owned the back street bully for six months because there was "everyone does it" on the horse file ".
The priest called himself the "last resort" of a man who no longer wanted a horse. He said that the Backstreet bully was a skeleton that looked 15 years old instead of 9 years old. He took the car for auction, did a favor to the white man.
Over the years, the priest said, he sold dozens of horses at auction without any problem.
"The only mistake I made was that the horse should not go with it.
The priest told the Star that this is where everything was leaked.
The federal government relies heavily on passport accuracy, which has existed since 2010 and is the first line of defense to prevent contaminated horse meat from entering the human food chain.
The government does not require the owner of the sale of horse meat to provide additional medical history, such as veterinary records. Dr.
Martin Appelt, national veterinary program manager, food inspection Canada, admitted that the government relied on the honor system and hoped that the documents "reflected the truth ".
But this is far from a 10 thousand foolproof system: last year, contaminated horse meat shipped from Canada to Belgium was found to contain traces of two controversial drugs, Butte and clenbuterol, the latter will never give animals sold to human food on Canada's list of medicines.
On 2002, the Canadian Food Inspection Bureau began testing the meat of the horse in the laboratory.
According to an agency spokesman, the overall compliance rate was 96 to 98 when detecting prohibited veterinary drug residues in meat.
The test is random, although the horse or its body will be tested if there is a red flag or concern.
The European Union has taken a tough stance on many veterinary drugs in human food, including Groupon and furazone, which are produced for its native horses.
However, the EU will accept Canada
If the animal's documents say they had no drugs for six months at the time of slaughter, then processed horse meat.
Very few studies have shown how fast horses are consumed, and if so, how much is the level of consumer safety.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency did not monitor provincial auction houses.
It has inspectors in four slaughter houses where horses are killed and then processed into human food.
There are two slaughter houses in Quebec and two in Alberta.
The back street bully was sent to the small country of San vieanders. André-Avellin, Que. , a 90-
Minutes drive northwest of Montreal.
This is the same slaughterhouse that handled two contaminated meat samples shipped to Belgium last year. On Jan.
8. The back street bully passed St.
According to Mindy Lovell, owner of pure stallion in Cumberland, Ontario, Jacobs sells rings that look healthy and weigh 1,200 pounds.
Who was there that day?
Lovell runs a transition pure stallion, a non-
A profitable horse racing rescue operation that saved dozens of horses from slaughter.
That morning, she revealed her situation to an auction employee who, in turn, reminded her of the chestnut stallion in one of the pens.
Lovell tried to bid for the elding, but claimed that the auctioneer ignored her crazy wave at him.
She lost to a Québec named Jonathan LaRonde, who said he bought the backstreet bully for 26 cents a pound --about $300.
Lalonde is one of a number of people who supply horses to the slaughterhouse, some calling it a "killer buyer ".
When the pastor who was told signed the horse passport in error, Lalonde said "this is not my problem", and in addition, it is the duty of the horse owner to ensure that their animals do not have drugs at the time of purchase.
Lovell said she was trying to buy the back street bully from Lalonde.
He refused and told her the horse was "just meat ".
Lalonde told the Star that he refused because he respected the wishes of the boss's pastor and the back street bully was sold meat.
Lovell was frustrated driving home.
She knows the name of the horse.
She read it on his cage nameplate and wanted to know his history.
In the early morning of January.
The computer search shows that the back street bully used to be a powerful horse.
She called her friend Stacie Clark around 7: 30 a. m. m.
Clark said this on the phone after 8: 00. m.
She offered to fax it to the slaughterhouse manager of the back street bully, but was rejected.
About an hour later, on another phone call, Clark was told that Ma was dead.
She insisted that the former horse race had been bought away, prompting the slaughterhouse staff
Autopsy Drug Test
The slaughterhouse said it was a private message but would not reveal the results.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency will not talk to the stars about the backstreet bully case.
Star's email from agriculture and Agriculture Canada
Food Minister Gerry Ritz told a woman who was concerned about the fate of the post-street bully that the test was negative for bout.
The email did not say whether the dead horse had been tested for nitrogen or other drugs.
What happened to the body of the back street bully was a closely guarded secret.
Neither the government nor the slaughterhouse owners will say whether the horse meat will be dinner somewhere in the world.
Slaughterhouse owner Jordan Harpur declined to answer any questions the Star newspaper had about how the drug test was carried out, or whether the body of the back street bully was released for meat.
Harpur also refused to provide a passport to the back street bully.
"Unfortunately, for competitive reasons, we will not share these documents," Harpur said . ".
At mormsby @ the star, you can contact Mary omesby.
Ca or 416-869-4373 .
You can find Dale Kakao at dbrazao @ the star.
Ca or 416-869-4433 .