For many, this letter from July 12, 2012 to Ron Andio will be old news:
http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/2012/ucm313462.htm
If you don't feel like clicking, here is the meat of the letter (sadly, pun intended):
Dear Mr. Andio:
On April 03, 05, and 30, 2012, the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted an investigation of your
livestock operation located at 4445 South Turner Road, Canfield, Ohio
44406. This letter notifies you of the violations of the Federal Food,
Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the FD&C Act) that we found during our
investigation of your operation. You can find the FD&C Act and its
associated regulations on the Internet through links on FDA’s web page
at www.fda.gov.
We found that
you offered for sale an animal for slaughter as food that was
adulterated. Under section 402(a)(2)(C)(ii) of the FD&C Act, 21
U.S.C. 342(a)(2)(C)(ii), a food is deemed to be adulterated if it bears
or contains a new animal drug that is unsafe under section 512 of the
FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 360b. Further, under section 402(a)(4) of the
FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 342(a)(4), a food is deemed to be adulterated if
it has been held under insanitary conditions whereby it may have been
rendered injurious to health.
Specifically, our investigation
revealed that on or about August 20, 2011, you sold a bay thoroughbred
gelding horse, identified with back tag (b)(4) (USDA Tag (b)(4)) for slaughter as food. On or about August 23, 2011, (b)(4)
slaughtered this animal. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)
analysis of tissue samples collected from this animal identified the
presence of phenylbutazone at 0.0025 parts per million (ppm) in the
muscle tissue and 0.026 ppm in the kidney tissue and clenbuterol at
0.0039 ppm in the eye (target tissue). FDA has not established a
tolerance for residues of phenylbutazone and clenbuterol in the edible
tissues of horses. The presence of these drugs in edible tissues from
this animal in these amounts causes the food to be adulterated within
the meaning of section 402(a)(2)(C)(ii) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. §
342(a)(2)(C)(ii).
Our investigation also found that you hold
animals under conditions that are so inadequate that medicated animals
bearing potentially harmful drug residues are likely to enter the food
supply. For example, you failed to inquire about the medication status
of animals purchased for slaughter. Food from animals held under such
conditions is adulterated within the meaning of section 402(a)(4) of the
FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 342(a)(4).
The violations listed above
are not intended to an all-inclusive list. It is your responsibility to
assure that your operations are in compliance with the law. As a dealer
of animals, you are frequently the individual who introduces or offers
for introduction into interstate commerce, the adulterated animals. As
such, you share responsibility for violating the Federal Food, Drug and
Cosmetic Act. To avoid future illegal residue violations you should
take precautions such as:
1. Implementing
a system to determine from the source of the animals whether the
animals has been medicated and with what drug(s); and
2. If
the animal has been medicated, implementing a system to withhold the
animal from slaughter for an appropriate period of time to deplete
potentially hazardous residues of drugs from edible tissue. If you do
not want to hold the medicated animal then it should not be offered for
human food, and it should be clearly identified and sold as a medicated
animal.
You should take prompt action to correct the violations
described in this letter and to establish procedures to ensure that
these violations do not recur. Failure to do so may result in regulatory
action without further notice such as seizure and/or injunction.
We
also note that the slaughterhouse has on file an Equine Information
Document (EID) certificate (or guarantee) dated August 23, 2011 from the
producer stating that this animal that you sold had not been
administered any drugs or vaccines or treated with any substances not
permitted for use in food processing equine in the last 180 days prior
to your purchase of this animal. During our inspection of your firm, you
admitted that you filled out and signed the producer’s name to this
form and did not inquire of the producer the medication status of this
animal. You provided this EID to the dealer who purchased this animal
from you. Providing such a false guaranty is prohibited by section
301(h) of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 331(h). You should take
appropriate actions to ensure that this violation does not recur.
You
should notify this office in writing of the steps you have taken to
bring your firm into compliance with the law within fifteen (15) working
days of receiving this letter. Your response should include each step
that has been taken or will be taken to correct the violations and
prevent their recurrence. If corrective action cannot be completed
within fifteen (15) working days of receiving this letter, state the
reason for the delay and the time frame within which the corrections
will be completed. Please include copies of any available documentation
demonstrating that corrections have been made.
In summary, on 3 different days in April of 2012, the FDA conducted inspections of Andio's farm and found violations. The inspection was apparently a result of the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) testing a horse Andio sent to slaughter in Canada in April of 2011 (yes, 2011) and finding Bute in its system. Bute is an illegal drug to administer to any animal entering the human food chain.
The FDA went on to say
"their investigation found that you hold
animals under conditions that are so inadequate that medicated animals
bearing potentially harmful drug residues are likely to enter the food
supply."
And continued with:
"During our inspection of your firm, you
admitted that you filled out and signed the producer’s name to this
form and did not inquire of the producer the medication status of this
animal. You provided this EID to the dealer who purchased this animal
from you."
According to this letter, Mr. Andio not only supplied toxic horse meat to Canada, but admitted to falsifying documents to state otherwise, forging the signature of the individual or firm he got the horse from, and supplying these falsified documents to the dealer who bought the horses from him and took them to slaughter.
We don't know exactly what the statement about inadequate conditions
means. It certainly doesn't bode well for the animals in his
possession.
What is perhaps most appalling is that the FDA slaps him on the wrist and asks for a letter stating how compliance will be done in the future. Other questions abound. Why did it take a year for the letter to be sent to Andio? Why is he still allowed to ship horses when the CFIA has a zero tolerance policy for Bute?
The CFIA only randomly tests meat products. (
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/information-for-consumers/fact-sheets/specific-products-and-risks/meat-and-poultry-products/horse-meat/eng/1331217628360/1331225704619 ) There is no way of knowing how much toxic meat is entering the system, but based on what we know about the percentage of American horses who have received Bute, it's easy to guess that it's a very, very significant amount.
Consumers in both the European Union and elsewhere should be scared, very, very scared to consume anything that may contain American horse meat. The article below cites a number of terrifying side effects:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/03/04/what-s-in-your-horse-burger-chemicals-that-pose-serious-health-risks.html
"Published in Food and Chemical Toxicology, the research study states that the health hazards associated with bute in horse meat aren’t dose related.
According to the study, bute causes
bone-marrow depression like aplastic anemia, agranulocytosis,
thrombocytopenia, leucopenia, pancytopenia, and hemolytic anemia, which
are fatal in the vast majority of cases. The elderly are more
susceptible than younger adults. The risks for developing bone-marrow
depression and other serious effects are heightened because humans
metabolize bute into oxyphenbutazone, which also causes bone-marrow
depression.
The study also demonstrates that
children are at increased risk of developing aplastic anemia from minute
levels of bute and oxyphenbutazone in horse meat, presumably because
their bones are still growing. But even very low levels of bute can
result in a hypersensitivity reaction in susceptible adults that’s
mostly fatal. All of these effects are considered to be idiosyncratic,
meaning it is unknown who will be afflicted.
The National Toxicology Program
showed that bute is a carcinogen. In fact, bute can cause chromosomal
alterations that lead to cancers like leukemia in humans.
In amounts lower than those that
cause bone-marrow depression, bute can also result in a serum
sickness–like illness resulting in “fever, fatigue, malaise, and
inflammation of the kidney, swollen glands and an enlarged spleen. A
person can end up on dialysis for the rest of their life,” the authors
of the peer-reviewed research study wrote in a follow-up letter to the
editor.
Because bute was taken off the
market for human use more than a decade ago due to its side effects, no
long-term studies have been or will be conducted. No safe levels were
set by food-safety regulators. Therefore, the drug was banned for all
animals intended for human consumption, and there is no withdrawal time."
Part of the takeaway message here is that horse dealers can easily pass horses with drug histories into the food chain, and that the "system" in place to protect consumers is lax at best. The dealers don't care what they are shipping; they just want their cash. And the government agencies appear to be largely asleep at the wheel.