Canadian icon and multi-platinum artist Jann Arden, along with numerous other well-known Canadian figures, have signed a joint letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney and Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald urging them to finally follow through on their party’s promise to ban live horse exports for slaughter. Like the rest of Canada, they are growing concerned about the government’s lack of progress on this important commitment.
December 16, 2025 marks the four-year anniversary of the Liberal Party’s pledge being included in the Agriculture Minister’s mandate letter. Celebrities including Bryan Adams, Bif Naked, Burton Cummings, Chantal Kreviazuk, and Alissa White-Gluz are reminding the government that Canadians have not forgotten this commitment—and that the Liberals must act now to end this cruelty.
Even though four years have passed since the Agriculture Minister’s mandate letter included a clear promise to stop the export of live horses for slaughter, that promise remains unfulfilled. Since the mandate letter, more than 10,700 Canadian horses have been shipped on gruelling long-haul flights to Japan. Many arrive injured, severely dehydrated, or deeply stressed. Upon arrival, they’re sprayed with harsh disinfectant chemicals, confined in quarantine facilities, fattened, and ultimately slaughtered. Others tragically never make it off the planes alive. Horses routinely die during transport or in the hours and days that follow—victims of untreated injuries, extreme exhaustion, and even miscarriages.
But Canadians are not giving up. From everyday advocates to some of the country’s most recognized voices, people across the nation are calling on the government to honour its word and protect these horses from needless suffering. And they’ll keep speaking up—loudly and relentlessly—until the Liberal government keeps its promise and finally brings this cruel practice to an end.
Banner photos: Photos: Flickr, Shayne Kaye, V-spectrum, Tezster, Raph_PH, Crisco 1492 | Wikimedia Commons
Life Investigation Agency, Canadian Horse Defence Coalition
