A new investigation by animal rights advocates shows horses being flown for slaughter in Japan continue to suffer injuries, illness and even death, reigniting the call for Canada to ban the shipments.

“Horses are still dying. Horses are still collapsing on the flights,” said Kaitlyn Mitchell, director of legal advocacy with Animal Justice, which wrote the report with documents provided by Japan-based Life Investigation Agency (LIA) and the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition (CHDC). 

“You cannot bulk-ship horses from rural Manitoba and rural Alberta to Japan for slaughter and do it in a humane way.”

Retired Conservative senator Donald Plett opposes banning shipments but says Ottawa should demand more rigorous reporting requirements and accountability when horses are injured or die.

“I’ve always promoted that if there are problems within the system, let’s fix the system, not kill it,” Plett said.

According to Statistics Canada, 2,512 horses were exported to Japan for slaughter in 2023, for a total value of $19 million. The industry involves approximately five export companies and several hundred producers, mostly in Alberta, but also in Manitoba and Ontario. 

Animal Justice and LIA received Government of Japan records from 18 shipments of an estimated 1,822 horses from Edmonton and Winnipeg between September 2024 and September 2025. 

In their new report, the groups cross-referenced the Japanese data with Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) documents received by CHDC through access to information requests. 

They found at least nine horses died as a result of illness or injury during transport.

Nearly 300 other horses experienced injuries and illnesses, including lacerations (some infected and some bleeding); wounds to hoofs, legs and eyes; swollen abdomen; fever and diarrhea; parts of ears missing and elevated white blood cell counts (infection). Twenty-nine collapsed.

Japanese records show two horses suffered such serious injuries during transport that they were euthanized after landing. Another could not stand and had to be removed from the plane with a forklift, and one had significant bleeding.

None of this is reflected in CFIA records.

3 horses died in November 2024 transport

CBC News has reviewed the original Japanese documents from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and Animal Quarantine Service, and has verified the data being released in the groups’ latest report.

Two shipments in particular stand out for Mitchell at Animal Justice.

In a transport of 99 horses from Edmonton on Nov. 4, 2024, three horses died from what Japanese officials described as transport-related complications of intestinal infections and circulatory failure, one horse was down during the flight and nearly two dozen others arrived with diarrhea, fever, bleeding and injuries.

However, CFIA records only reference the one horse that fell during the flight, omitting the three that died. 

Mitchell said a shipment from Winnipeg on Dec. 16, 2024, attracted particular attention because Bill C-355, a bill to prohibit the export of live horses for slaughter, was before the Senate, and then-senator Donald Plett was planning to be at the airport to observe the loading process. 

It was also three years after then-prime minister Justin Trudeau directed his agriculture minister to ban the practice.

The day before the shipment, Animal Justice members travelled to Carolyle Farms in Swan River, Man. They discovered the horses were being transported to an interim feedlot the night before the flight. 

Mitchell says it’s a way for an exporter to “reset” the clock, allowing most shipments from Winnipeg to fall under the 28-hour legal limit for horses to go without food, water and rest.

However, during that rest time, Mitchell says her organization recorded drone video of a horse pinned under a metal gate “clearly struggling to free themselves and no one, it seems, was around to help them.”

Within hours, this horse and 85 others were transported to Winnipeg, and then shipped to Japan.

Horses’ condition reported as good

Mitchell says Animal Justice reported this incident to both the CFIA and Manitoba’s chief veterinary officer. She says the CVO’s office confirmed it was investigating the incident.

In an email to CBC News, the office of the Provincial Veterinarian for Animal Welfare said it could not corroborate a screen grab of the horse or its source but “will look into all reports, including this serious matter. ”

Meanwhile, Japanese records of this shipment show one horse arrived with a serious fever, diarrhea and signs of severe dehydration. It suffered convulsions and died days later from chronic enteritis associated with salmonella. One horse was found with two 15-centimetre lacerations on its leg, with exposed muscle and pus coming out. Eight horses had fever, three had leg wounds and four also had diarrhea.

At the same time, CFIA records do not report any deaths or injuries. The condition of the horses was reported as “GOOD” with “0 ” injuries and “0” dead. The Horse Attendant In-Flight Checklist stated that the “horses remained standing, calm, and in good condition” during the flight. 

According to the CFIA website, there were no deaths or injuries in the 2,408 horses shipped between July 2024 and June 2025.

“It’s problematic because the CFIA uses those records to tell Canadians what’s happening with this industry. So if you look at their website, they’ll say, zero injuries, not a single injury in the last year, no deaths. And that’s what they use to justify continuing this practice,” Mitchell said. 

CBC has requested an interview with CFIA and Canada’s chief veterinary officer since 2024, but the agency has declined. In an email response this week, a CFIA spokesperson wrote that the agency and the chief veterinary officer continue to share information about deaths or serious injuries during air transport and that Japanese quarantine stations are being “proactively” provided to Canada.

However, the agency says animal health after arrival is within Japan’s regulatory oversight and that CFIA can only share information on its website that’s within its jurisdictional control. It adds that the CFIA is at the airport for each shipment and verifies horses are fit to travel and are transported humanely.  

‘I do care about the welfare of these horses’

Plett says Canada should demand proper record-keeping and accountability.

“If horses are being injured or dying in transport, that is serious and should be taken seriously. And my position has never been that animal welfare concerns should be ignored. It is that they should be addressed with facts, accountability and better oversight,” he said.

“It’s the CFIA and the Canadian government telling Japan, ‘We’re not going to ship horses to you if you don’t give us proper documentation.'”

Plett says when he observed the horses being loaded off the trucks and into wooden crates, they “were absolutely treated with the highest degree of care. … One of the farmers, literally by hand, was rubbing these horses on the neck as they were being moved along.”

He said reports of lacerations are more serious than salmonella, which is a form of bacterial food poisoning.

While there may be problems during transport, Plett says it’s no reason to shut down the industry.

“I do care about the welfare of these horses … but I also care about the people that are making a living in the livestock industry.”

Industry seems ‘unfixable,’ says animal activist

Mitchell says the CFIA has updated exporters’ paperwork requirements to include the transfer time from the feedlot to the quarantine facilities after arriving in Japan. Some of the flights are now direct, reducing overall transport time. 

But she says it’s not enough.

“It kind of to me shows that this industry is just unfixable,” she said.

Over the years, four private members’ bills and one Senate public bill have been introduced to ban the export of horses for slaughter. In 2024, a Liberal private member’s bill to ban the export of horses for slaughter passed in the House of Commons. Mitchell says it was delayed in the Senate and died when the 2025 federal election was called.

Mitchell is now pushing Ottawa to ban live horse exports by amending regulations under the Health of Animals Act.

Some animal rights groups were disappointed the issue did not come up during Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent trip to Japan.

Others are planning a postcard campaign in Winnipeg this Saturday.

Animal Justice has also taken Carolyle Farms to court in a landmark animal rights private prosecution, saying it should be held liable for not having a contingency plan when a December 2022 shipment from Winnipeg to Japan exceeded the 28-hour maximum. That decision is expected on March 27.