Carlos Osorio/Carlos Osorio for The Globe and
Horses flown live from Canada to Japan for slaughter to produce an expensive sashimi delicacy are suffering from injuries and dying on planes more than previously reported to Canadians and their MPs, a Canadian animal-law organization is alleging based on Japanese records.
A Japanese animal-welfare organization, Life Investigation Agency, has obtained official government reports of shipments of horses from Canada, including pregnant mares, in crates. The records, acquired through Japan’s freedom of information laws, show that pregnant mares have miscarried and died. Some horses, transported together in wooden crates, had difficulty standing and fell during flight. Horses also suffered injuries such as a fractured leg – with some dying on board and in quarantine.
Several also experienced heat stroke, dehydration and physical compression, with one horse subjected to accidental suffocation, among a variety of injuries and illnesses, the records say. Some of the flights lasted over the 28-hour legal limit, with one lasting more than 35 hours, before the horses could receive food and water, according to a report published Thursday by Animal Justice, the Canadian non-profit that examined the Japanese records.
In 2022 and 2023, 2,500 live horses, including draft horses, were flown annually to Japan for their meat. Parliament is already considering a bill, supported by the government, to ban the transport of thousands of live horses to Japan to be used for that purpose. Bill C-355 is currently in the Senate, having been through its Commons stages.
Liberal MP Tim Louis, who sponsored the bill, said the Animal Justice report “underscores the need for greater urgency for the Senate to pass C-355 as quickly as possible.”
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which monitors the transports and inspects the animals to ensure welfare standards are adhered to, gave evidence in February to the Commons agriculture committee about the welfare of live horses transported to Japan.
In response to Animal Justice’s report, the CFIA said in a statement that the “allegations are troubling and the CFIA is taking them very seriously,” and that it was “taking immediate steps in response” to them. It said it will revise its information accordingly and notify the committee if necessary after studying the reports.
The CFIA said it wants to meet the airline transporting the horses to Japan in the coming days, and that it is in touch with Japanese authorities. Air carriers are required by law to send a report to the agency’s veterinary inspector about every animal that was seriously injured, died or killed during transport by aircraft.
But Kaitlyn Mitchell, director of legal advocacy at Animal Justice, said its report “paints a completely different picture than what the industry, as well as official CFIA records, suggest and shows horses are regularly dying, falling ill, and becoming injured due to the conditions in which they’re shipped overseas for slaughter.”
The report, based on records obtained from Japan’s Animal Quarantine Service – part of the country’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, which oversees import of live animals – says that 21 horses shipped from Canada for slaughter between June, 2023, and May, 2024, died during transport or in the days following.
On one flight from Edmonton on Jan. 8, 85 horses were flown in crates to Kagoshima, and four horses fell within their crates during the flight, the report says. A mare was severely injured from the fall and died. Upon arrival in Japan, the three other horses were found collapsed in their crates, and were suffering shortness of breath. Two had injuries so severe they died shortly after arrival.
On Jan. 16, during transport from Edmonton, one horse died after falling on the plane, and two pregnant female horses died days later after giving birth or miscarrying. Japanese records say several horses fell during this transport.
One of the horses found collapsed in Japan could not walk, and was towed and lifted by “forklift” onto the quarantine transportation vehicle, the report says. The horse was unable to stand for three days, and died on the third day, it adds. The average draft horse weighs roughly 1,500-2,000 pounds, and the report says being unable to stand for this time can have a severe impact on the animal’s health.
But the incidents on this flight were not recorded in CFIA records, the report says, as the agency was informed on Jan. 17 that all horses “arrived safely and in good health.”
Ren Yabuki, director of the Life Investigation Agency in Japan, which obtained the records, called on the Japanese government to immediately ban acts that violate the welfare of animals.
The Japanese embassy in Ottawa said in a statement that it is “looking into this matter” with its agriculture ministry.
“Japan well recognizes the importance of animal welfare and hopes that the needed trade will continue by transport measures that meet international standards, and we believe that both the Canadian exporters and the Japanese importers care about the appropriate transportation of the horses,” the embassy said.