STOP Europe importing the torture of horsemeat IHP is the hub of an international web of associations coordinated by AWF (Animal Welfare Foundation, Belgium) and TSB (Tierschutzbund Zürich, Switzerland) demanding the banning throughout Europe of imports coming from an unregulated, unsupervised horse meat trade which uses torture. The exposure of this trade and the torture is documented in two shocking videos filmed in Argentina, Uruguay and Canada, in collaboration with Animals’ Angels, USA. VIDEO - North American Horsemeat from Torturous Production The videos document the systematic violence perpetrated on horses going for slaughter and on the high demand for horsemeat in Europe, and shows a totally contrasting picture to the idealised vision of equids overseas living a dignified existence in wide open prairies, and to the idea that this horsemeat is both traceable and sanitary and uncontaminated. The reality is totally different. VIDEO - South American Horsemeat from Torturous Production We see the whole process from point of sale sale through to slaughter, via transport and transit holdings, to slaughterhouse. We see horses that arrive from simply everywhere, and very difficult to trace, undergoing a hellish journey where they are brutally treated, not seen or assisted by vets for infected wounds, lameness, serious illnesses or miscarriages. They can wait for days in agony before they die, unremarked and unaided, without shelter from burning heat or freezing cold, deep in mud mixed with excrement, or in ice and snow, depending on the climate where they happen to be. In Canada, foals die at birth from the cold and frostbite. IHP opposes all forms of exploitation, and the slaughter for meat, of horses and other equids. This campaign aims to stop the importation of the horsemeat resulting from this torture, not least into a country such as Italy in which the slaughter of horses is such a delicate issue: the high consumption of horse meat, national or imported, means that consumers need to be well informed about the food that arrives on their plates, both in terms of ethics and sanitary excellence.