Grand Racehorses in your Ravioli and Burger?

Yuck! The horsemeat scandal gets more and more disgusting. Not that eating “anonymous” horses for beef would be less disgusting… Famous horse Synchronised, Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse, a specialist in long-distance steeplechaser, was euthanized after an injury and apparently disposed for horsemeat.

“The owner of a slaughterhouse that disposes of horses fatally injured during Britain’s Grand National race became the first person yesterday to be arrested by police investigating horse contamination of beef products.
Peter Boddy, 63, was arrested on suspicion of fraud after being accused by the Food Standards Agency of providing horsemeat for use in beefburgers and kebabs sold in Britain.
Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool confirmed that the Peter Boddy Slaughterhouse in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, had the contract to remove fatally injured horses.
During last year’s Grand National, Synchronised, the joint favourite, and According to Pete were both put down after falls. Four horses died at the meeting in 2011. A racecourse spokesman said: “We are as confident as we possibly can be that no unfit meat ever reaches human food. (full story the Australian)

British Grand National organizers were apparently devastated about the death of Synchronized on April 14th 2012.

Three days after the National, J. P. McManus issued a statement in which he described his “deep sadness and sense of devastation” at the death of Synchronised. He explained that, “losing any horse is very sad but one as brave as Synchronised is a very big loss for all involved.” He also revealed that the horse had been buried at Jackdaws Castle.
Speaking several weeks after the race, McCoy said that “Synchronised is a horse that I won’t ever forget… it is one of those terrible things that you wish will never happen.” (source)

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

The investigation, which is continuing, discovered horses are being sold by criminal gangs to abattoirs in Ireland and Britain using forged paperwork.

USPCA (Ulster Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) Chief Stephen Philpott

We have been following lorry loads of horses to abattoirs in Ireland, Britain and Europe for months now. We have watched abattoirs being opened up late at night so people can deliver lorry loads of horses and have them slaughtered in the middle of the night

Same source

A CONSIGNMENT of cannabis worth (EURO)600,000 (£485,000) and a four-figure sum in cash were seized by police in Scotland last week after a truck transporting Irish horses was stopped en route to an abattoir in England

(Sunday Times)

The Irish authorities are doing nothing to stop this trade. I would urge countries who are importing horse meat from Ireland and Northern Ireland to enforce an immediate ban as the meat they are importing is not fit for human consumption. Hundreds of unwanted horses are being rounded up and sold into the food chain using false paperwork

USPCA boss again

Of the 27 frozen beef burger products analysed, 10, or 37 per cent, tested positive for horse DNA. The products which tested positive for horse DNA were produced by two Irish plants, Liffey Meats in Cavan and the ABP-owned Silvercrest Foods, and by UK company Dalepak Hambleton, owned by ABP UK.

Irish times 16/01/2013

there are 70.000 missing horses in Ireland. We believe they ended up in the food chain through this illegal horse trade

USPCA boss again

Horse meat would be a quarter of the price of the beef [protein], so greed is a motivator. Consumers have a right to know exactly what is in their food, even though in this case there’s nothing more dangerous than horse meat.

Patrick Wall, former chief of the Irish Food Safety Authority in The Telegraph 18/01/2013

I am in receipt of evidence showing that several horses slaughtered in UK abattoirs last year tested positive for phenylbutazone, or bute, a drug which causes cancer in humans and is banned from the human food chain. It is possible that those animals entered the human food chain.

Mary Creagh UK shadow secretary of Environement, commons 24/01/2013

Despite the Irish minister claiming no knowledge of any of this (?!?!?), RTE (Irish State braodcaster reported on 17/01/25013 that the Irish Dept of Agriculture admitted “of the record” that they have been aware of this problem for over a year. The admission was made to the Scottish authorities when they enquired.

On the same day, RTE reported the finding of US imported horsemeat in the food chain. The horses from which this meat was obtained were described as “walking pharmacies”.
on 18/01/2013 it is reported that the Irish authorities found horsemeat in burgers as far back as November 2012.

The Cavan plant is owned by a guy called Frank Mallon, convicted back in 1996 for possessing and administering illegal growth hormones to cattle raised for meat production.

The Ex. Chief of ABP is one Larry Goodman, convicted of illegally obtaining EU grant aid during the great beef scandal in Ireland in the same year. His fraudulant activities ended up costing the IRISH TAX PAYER no less than 86.3 million € in 1996. In 2003, ABP paid “compensation” of 3.81 million €. The difference was shouldered by the Irish tax payer.
Even then the tax payer was a very convenient whipping boy, with the criminals paying nothing, the tas payer being made to cough up.

On 26/01/2013 the finger pointing begins.

We are now in a position to be able to say with a degree of certainty that the horse meat in burgers is likely, is more than likely, to have come from a significant ingredient that has been supplied to the factory now for nearly a year,” he said.
It’s certainly the likely reason for the 29 per cent horse DNA content in the burger that actually kicked off this whole thing.
Simon Coveney, Irish minister for Agriculture
and
Beef containing horse DNA that was supplied by an Irish company to major food companies like Tesco and Burger King originated in Poland. Results of tests showed that Polish ingredients used by Irish burger manufacturer Silvercrest contained 4.1 percent horse DNA, the agriculture department in a statement.
Irish Department of Agriculture Spokesman
On 29/01/2013 the same Irish Department releases this statement
The Minister confirmed that results received overnight were positive for equine DNA in meat imported from another Member State as raw material for the production of burgers at Silvercrest.
While earlier results had shown trace levels of equine DNA in imported raw materials, the latest results showed significant levels of equine DNA, (4.1%) in raw material which was used in the manufacture of burgers which the Department found yesterday to contain significant amounts of Equine DNA.
and then later that day, the % suddenly increases 5-fold…
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine announced late this evening that in addition to his earlier announcement in which he had confirmed the source of the equine DNA in beef burgers, further tests of the Polish ingredient concerned have been released and are showing up to 20% horse DNA content relative to beef. This confirms previous results that the raw material from Poland is the source of equine DNA content in certain beef burgers.
on 30/01/2013 it turns out that the Polish supplier is Polish in name only
On behalf of the team at ABP, I am very pleased to announce our acquisition of a beef slaughtering facility in Pniewy Poland.Our Aim is very clear, to develop a trusted network of professional beef producers who will supply us with quality livestock all year round in exchange for an open, transparent and rewarding system of payment.We will engage our European sales and marketing network to develop top commercial outlets for this beef over the next number of months and years.
ABP press release
with an immediate denial following hours later
The source of the contaminated meat from Poland is not related to ABP’s plant in Poznan. As with all other parts of the Group this plant does not process any horse meat.
on 31/01/2013
In another potentially serious development, Aldi UK became the first major retailer to suspend its contract with a British plant, Dalepak Hambleton in North Yorkshire, which, like Silvercrest, is part of the ABP Food Group, pending further investigations into why three of nine newly tested burger samples had traces of horse and pork DNA.
on the same day
Aldi in Ireland has terminated its contract with the Silvercrest plant in County Monaghan, Ireland, where Burger King, Tesco, the Co-op and Asda have all pulled out. Burger King said yesterday that new tests on burgers made at Silvercrest had shown traces of horse DNA
on 01/02/2013 the Polish answer
All 14 samples coming from the five slaughterhouses showed negative results, which means that horse protein was not detected,’ PAP quoted deputy head of the Polish veterinary inspection Jaroslaw Naze
on 04/02/2013
Department of Agriculture says Rangeland Foods burger contained 75% horse meat
on 06/02/2013 the horses really start taking over when ASDA finds beefburgers containing 80% horsemeat…
on 074/02/2013 JACKPOT
findusuk “beef lasagne” contained up to 100% #horse meat, food standards agency
on 10/02/2013, lets blame the Romanians
The meals were all produced in Luxembourg for French supplier Comigel, which said the horsemeat used originally came from a Romanian abattoir via a meat-processing firm called Spanghero in southwest France. “We have a real problem,” Paterson told Sky News television.
11/02/2013, further balme on Romania
A law banning horses from Romanian roads may be responsible for the surge in the fraudulent sale of horse meat on the European beef market, a French politician said today.
Horse-drawn carts were a common form of transport for centuries in Romania, but hundreds of thousands of the animals are feared to have been sent to the abattoir after the change in road rules.
and as an afterthought
It came from abattoirs in Romania through a dealer in Cyprus working through another dealer in Holland to a meat plant in the south of France which sold it to a French-owned factory in Luxembourg which made it into frozen meals sold in supermarkets in 16 countries.
and then the real sickener
At the moment we are getting them first to focus on ‘comminuted’ beef, meat balls, spaghetti, beef burgers – but there is a real sense from industry that they are thinking about the wider food chain.”
There have been reports of chicken being secretly injected with waste from the beef and pork production process to inflate chicken breasts to fetch a higher price. The findings are particularly sensitive because Muslims, Jews and Hindus are forbidden from eating either pork or beef. The Telegraph 12/02/2013
13/02/2013
lamb products may also contain horse meat
Dr. Mark Woolfe is a former head of authenticity at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in Britain.
14/02/2013 Asda withdraws more “beef” products
the products were made at the Irish food group Greencore’s plant in Bristol.
15/02/2013
Horsemeat Found In Schools’ Cottage Pies
Sky
and
UK pub group #Whitbread says #horsemeat has been found in its beef lasagne and burgers
It may be incompetence; I fear it’s actually probably an international criminal conspiracy and I’m completely determined to get to the bottom of it
Owen Paterson UK Environment secretary on Sky
Beef sells for around €4 a kilo while horse meat costs no more than 90 cent. So what we are seeing here is fraud on an absolutely huge scale. And the people behind this fraud would have been making enormous sums of money.
Dr. Wall, Irish Food Safety Authority
You don’t say, criminals making enormous sums of money? who would have thought.
Meanwhile, the Irish minister of Agriculture stills knows nothing. I wonder if he knows his very own brother is the CEO of Greencore, the company that has been producing horseef products for ASDA, and a company for which he has been doing a lot of PR work…
But, all is well. it is, according to “sopurces” simply a wrong translation by the French, who translated horse into cow when they changed the labels on the stuff coming from Romania. See, simple, nothing sinister happening here…

9 COMMENTS

Ephilant February 16, 2013 At 9:40 pm
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
The investigation, which is continuing, discovered horses are being sold by criminal gangs to abattoirs in Ireland and Britain using forged paperwork.
USPCA (Ulster Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) Chief Stephen Philpott
We have been following lorry loads of horses to abattoirs in Ireland, Britain and Europe for months now. We have watched abattoirs being opened up late at night so people can deliver lorry loads of horses and have them slaughtered in the middle of the night
Same source
A CONSIGNMENT of cannabis worth (EURO)600,000 (£485,000) and a four-figure sum in cash were seized by police in Scotland last week after a truck transporting Irish horses was stopped en route to an abattoir in England
(Sunday Times)
The Irish authorities are doing nothing to stop this trade. I would urge countries who are importing horse meat from Ireland and Northern Ireland to enforce an immediate ban as the meat they are importing is not fit for human consumption. Hundreds of unwanted horses are being rounded up and sold into the food chain using false paperwork
USPCA boss again
Of the 27 frozen beef burger products analysed, 10, or 37 per cent, tested positive for horse DNA. The products which tested positive for horse DNA were produced by two Irish plants, Liffey Meats in Cavan and the ABP-owned Silvercrest Foods, and by UK company Dalepak Hambleton, owned by ABP UK.
Irish times 16/01/2013
there are 70.000 missing horses in Ireland. We believe they ended up in the food chain through this illegal horse trade
USPCA boss again
Horse meat would be a quarter of the price of the beef [protein], so greed is a motivator. Consumers have a right to know exactly what is in their food, even though in this case there’s nothing more dangerous than horse meat.
Patrick Wall, former chief of the Irish Food Safety Authority in The Telegraph 18/01/2013
I am in receipt of evidence showing that several horses slaughtered in UK abattoirs last year tested positive for phenylbutazone, or bute, a drug which causes cancer in humans and is banned from the human food chain. It is possible that those animals entered the human food chain.
Mary Creagh UK shadow secretary of Environement, commons 24/01/2013
Despite the Irish minister claiming no knowledge of any of this (?!?!?), RTE (Irish State braodcaster reported on 17/01/25013 that the Irish Dept of Agriculture admitted “of the record” that they have been aware of this problem for over a year. The admission was made to the Scottish authorities when they enquired.
On the same day, RTE reported the finding of US imported horsemeat in the food chain. The horses from which this meat was obtained were described as “walking pharmacies”.
on 18/01/2013 it is reported that the Irish authorities found horsemeat in burgers as far back as November 2012.
The Cavan plant is owned by a guy called Frank Mallon, convicted back in 1996 for possessing and administering illegal growth hormones to cattle raised for meat production.
The Ex. Chief of ABP is one Larry Goodman, convicted of illegally obtaining EU grant aid during the great beef scandal in Ireland in the same year. His fraudulant activities ended up costing the IRISH TAX PAYER no less than 86.3 million € in 1996. In 2003, ABP paid “compensation” of 3.81 million €. The difference was shouldered by the Irish tax payer.
Even then the tax payer was a very convenient whipping boy, with the criminals paying nothing, the tas payer being made to cough up.
On 26/01/2013 the finger pointing begins.
We are now in a position to be able to say with a degree of certainty that the horse meat in burgers is likely, is more than likely, to have come from a significant ingredient that has been supplied to the factory now for nearly a year,” he said.
It’s certainly the likely reason for the 29 per cent horse DNA content in the burger that actually kicked off this whole thing.
Simon Coveney, Irish minister for Agriculture
and
Beef containing horse DNA that was supplied by an Irish company to major food companies like Tesco and Burger King originated in Poland. Results of tests showed that Polish ingredients used by Irish burger manufacturer Silvercrest contained 4.1 percent horse DNA, the agriculture department in a statement.
Irish Department of Agriculture Spokesman
On 29/01/2013 the same Irish Department releases this statement
The Minister confirmed that results received overnight were positive for equine DNA in meat imported from another Member State as raw material for the production of burgers at Silvercrest.
While earlier results had shown trace levels of equine DNA in imported raw materials, the latest results showed significant levels of equine DNA, (4.1%) in raw material which was used in the manufacture of burgers which the Department found yesterday to contain significant amounts of Equine DNA.
and then later that day, the % suddenly increases 5-fold…
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine announced late this evening that in addition to his earlier announcement in which he had confirmed the source of the equine DNA in beef burgers, further tests of the Polish ingredient concerned have been released and are showing up to 20% horse DNA content relative to beef. This confirms previous results that the raw material from Poland is the source of equine DNA content in certain beef burgers.
on 30/01/2013 it turns out that the Polish supplier is Polish in name only
On behalf of the team at ABP, I am very pleased to announce our acquisition of a beef slaughtering facility in Pniewy Poland.Our Aim is very clear, to develop a trusted network of professional beef producers who will supply us with quality livestock all year round in exchange for an open, transparent and rewarding system of payment.We will engage our European sales and marketing network to develop top commercial outlets for this beef over the next number of months and years.
ABP press release
with an immediate denial following hours later
The source of the contaminated meat from Poland is not related to ABP’s plant in Poznan. As with all other parts of the Group this plant does not process any horse meat.
on 31/01/2013
In another potentially serious development, Aldi UK became the first major retailer to suspend its contract with a British plant, Dalepak Hambleton in North Yorkshire, which, like Silvercrest, is part of the ABP Food Group, pending further investigations into why three of nine newly tested burger samples had traces of horse and pork DNA.
on the same day
Aldi in Ireland has terminated its contract with the Silvercrest plant in County Monaghan, Ireland, where Burger King, Tesco, the Co-op and Asda have all pulled out. Burger King said yesterday that new tests on burgers made at Silvercrest had shown traces of horse DNA
on 01/02/2013 the Polish answer
All 14 samples coming from the five slaughterhouses showed negative results, which means that horse protein was not detected,’ PAP quoted deputy head of the Polish veterinary inspection Jaroslaw Naze
on 04/02/2013
Department of Agriculture says Rangeland Foods burger contained 75% horse meat
on 06/02/2013 the horses really start taking over when ASDA finds beefburgers containing 80% horsemeat…
on 074/02/2013 JACKPOT
findusuk “beef lasagne” contained up to 100% #horse meat, food standards agency
on 10/02/2013, lets blame the Romanians
The meals were all produced in Luxembourg for French supplier Comigel, which said the horsemeat used originally came from a Romanian abattoir via a meat-processing firm called Spanghero in southwest France. “We have a real problem,” Paterson told Sky News television.
11/02/2013, further balme on Romania
A law banning horses from Romanian roads may be responsible for the surge in the fraudulent sale of horse meat on the European beef market, a French politician said today.
Horse-drawn carts were a common form of transport for centuries in Romania, but hundreds of thousands of the animals are feared to have been sent to the abattoir after the change in road rules.
and as an afterthought
It came from abattoirs in Romania through a dealer in Cyprus working through another dealer in Holland to a meat plant in the south of France which sold it to a French-owned factory in Luxembourg which made it into frozen meals sold in supermarkets in 16 countries.
and then the real sickener
At the moment we are getting them first to focus on ‘comminuted’ beef, meat balls, spaghetti, beef burgers – but there is a real sense from industry that they are thinking about the wider food chain.”
There have been reports of chicken being secretly injected with waste from the beef and pork production process to inflate chicken breasts to fetch a higher price. The findings are particularly sensitive because Muslims, Jews and Hindus are forbidden from eating either pork or beef. The Telegraph 12/02/2013
13/02/2013
lamb products may also contain horse meat
Dr. Mark Woolfe is a former head of authenticity at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in Britain.
14/02/2013 Asda withdraws more “beef” products
the products were made at the Irish food group Greencore’s plant in Bristol.
15/02/2013
Horsemeat Found In Schools’ Cottage Pies
Sky
and
UK pub group #Whitbread says #horsemeat has been found in its beef lasagne and burgers
It may be incompetence; I fear it’s actually probably an international criminal conspiracy and I’m completely determined to get to the bottom of it
Owen Paterson UK Environment secretary on Sky
Beef sells for around €4 a kilo while horse meat costs no more than 90 cent. So what we are seeing here is fraud on an absolutely huge scale. And the people behind this fraud would have been making enormous sums of money.
Dr. Wall, Irish Food Safety Authority
You don’t say, criminals making enormous sums of money? who would have thought.
Meanwhile, the Irish minister of Agriculture stills knows nothing. I wonder if he knows his very own brother is the CEO of Greencore, the company that has been producing horseef products for ASDA, and a company for which he has been doing a lot of PR work…
But, all is well. it is, according to “sopurces” simply a wrong translation by the French, who translated horse into cow when they changed the labels on the stuff coming from Romania. See, simple, nothing sinister happening here…
- Ephilant February 17, 2013 At 9:28 pm
  Well then. A clap of thunder on a clear day, or an EU-wide cover-up?
  MINISTERS were warned more than 18 months ago that illegal horsemeat was getting into the human food chain.
  John Young, a former manager with the Food Standards Agency (FSA), says he alerted the government to a potential scandal of illicit horsemeat with drug residues in human food but was ignored.
  Young, who until 2008 worked at the Meat Hygiene Service, which was then an executive agency of the FSA, helped draft a letter in April 2011 on behalf of Britain’s biggest horsemeat exporter to Sir Jim Paice, then a minister in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which is handling the current crisis.
  The Sunday Times, 17/02/2013
Jean February 17, 2013 At 10:45 pm
Aren’t horses used to make some medications? For instance, the hormanal pills many women start taking upon menopause, at least required a compound found in the urine of pregnant mares in the late 1990s (maybe still). That was leading to all these mares being made pregnant all the time and not treated too well during the pregnancies either. The foals were just getting sold by weight as too plentiful a commodity . I saw this information posted at a pharmacy of all places. It asked people to be aware of how badly horses were being treated.
Jean February 17, 2013 At 10:53 pm
I don’t know about Europe, but in North America about 12 years ago I came across a notice at a pharmacy. It spoke of the mistreatment of horses due to a compound used in hormone pills for women going through menopause. The compound was extracted from the urine of pregnant mares, which led to a lot of mares being impregnanted constantly. They were not treated well during pregnany and one result was also a surplus of foals. I remember the notice said the foals would be sold by the pound. They weren’t being sold to loving individuals but to companies to be slaughtered for whatever reasons horses are slaughtered. i know I stopped my mother from starting to take these pills though she was being advised to by her doctor.
- keeptalkinggreece February 18, 2013 At 10:37 am
  surely pills woul dbe given also to donkeys to have high milk production for cosmetics.
  no animal is protected from human cruelty and stupidity
  - Ephilant February 18, 2013 At 11:08 am
    Would you expect anything else? Humans don’t even protect themselves from human cruelty and studity. In fact, they would seem to be hell bend on inflicting it on each other, out of sheer cruelty and stupidity…
    - keeptalkinggreece February 18, 2013 At 11:18 am
      I am allowed to write something, no?
      - Ephilant February 18, 2013 At 11:32 am
        I wasn’t picking on you, in fact, I agree with you.
      - keeptalkinggreece February 18, 2013 At 12:34 pm
        picking for the shake of picking?

Comments are closed.

Grand Racehorses in your Ravioli and Burger?

9 COMMENTS

Popular News

Food & Tourism Workers in Greece to launch 24h nationwide strike

Toxic Pufferfish in Greek Seas: Real danger for humans or unnecessary panic?

Two strong earthquakes rattle Crete; Samaria Gorge evacuated

9 years later: Justice for schoolboy killed by stray bullet during event

13-year-old boy handed over to blackmailers €370,000

We want your opinion

Weather Greece Live

Find us

Latest News

Villages evacuated as big forest fire burns in Evia

Brutal killing of dog by car driver captured on video; reward offered ATT: Graphic Content!!!

Two strong earthquakes rattle Crete; Samaria Gorge evacuated

9 years later: Justice for schoolboy killed by stray bullet during event

13-year-old boy handed over to blackmailers €370,000

Toxic Pufferfish in Greek Seas: Real danger for humans or unnecessary panic?

About us

Latest Articles

Villages evacuated as big forest fire burns in Evia

Brutal killing of dog by car driver captured on video; reward offered ATT: Graphic Content!!!

Two strong earthquakes rattle Crete; Samaria Gorge evacuated

Most Popular

Villages evacuated as big forest fire burns in Evia

Brutal killing of dog by car driver captured on video; reward offered ATT: Graphic Content!!!

Two strong earthquakes rattle Crete; Samaria Gorge evacuated

Subscribe