The chances your horse is going to die from Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA) are slim and none. The chances your horse is going to die from a Coggins test are very good. Why? Because of the present "Test and Destroy" policy in place based on research from 1973 some 40 years ago and enforced by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency - CFIA.

Ask the CFIA how many horses die from EIA and the answer is "we don’t have any idea." Yet it is a federally reportable disease, which provides the CFIA the opportunity to adopt a quarantine or euthanize (slaughter) means to eradicate the disease. And the CFIA is doing just that---quarantining and killing useful, apparently healthy horses which test positive for EIA. Has there been eradication of the disease over the last 40 years? Of course not! Why? Money! Is there an EIA epidemic? No. Is the disease easily transmitted? No.

The CFIA website states that participation in the program is voluntary but if EIA is such a deadly threat why is it not mandatory for all horse owners to test their horses on a yearly basis for EIA? The argument that quarantine and slaughter can eradicate the disease makes absolutely no sense when you consider there is no effort to test all horses. Only about 17% of Canadian horses are tested, so the program cannot possible work. To advocate such a program only testifies to the ignorance which drives it. Yet Canada does not conduct any research and there are no research facilities anywhere in Canada. The quarantine and slaughter is the fear campaign which keeps the discriminatory testing mandatory if one horse is found positive and keeps the money flowing into the pockets of veterinarians and testing laboratories. It is time for politicians to be accountable for the emotional and financial losses they are causing. Whether the positive horse is an expensive show horse or a backyard 4-H project horse, it is disheartening to lose a horse to EIA.

The time has come to make the desperatley needed changes to the present "Test and Destroy" policy. For detailed and up to date information please go to www.equinecity.ca. Help and support us to get the desperately needed changes to the present test and destroy policy by signing our petition.

Horse owners, you’d better start riding today; as one of these days your horse could be marked for death--COGGINS POSITIVE.