Jann Arden – singer and animal rights advocate.
“They deserve so much better than this.” These are the words of Juno Award-winning and Canadian Music Hall of Famer, Jann Arden.
No stranger to music and animal lovers, Arden’s passion for our four-legged friends is well known. And on September 15, she put herself on the frontline of a protest to halt the export of live horses to Japan for slaughter, where horsemeat is a delicacy and often served raw. “Horses have shaped this country. They have carried us on their backs and plowed our fields,” says Arden. “Like dogs and cats, they are our companions. We don’t need to treat them this way.”
The protest was organized by the Canadian Horse Defense Coalition (CHDC) and took place at the Calgary International Airport where the protesters gathered as several horses were placed on crates to be flown to Japan. According to the latest information available from Statistics Canada, 2,720 live horses were exported in 2019 from Alberta, and of these animals, 1,449 were shipped to Japan.