THE trade of horses exported live for meat is sickening and I'd like to appeal to readers to join our campaign against it. Animal welfare group Viva! has just launched an undercover video, Journey to Death.

It reveals the brutal reality of horses traded from Poland to Italy for meat. It shows horses collapsed, abused, starving, dehydrated and dead - the most saddening and sickening examples of inhumanity to horses it is possible to imagine.

Each year, around 100,000 horses are exported from Central and Eastern Europe for slaughter in Italy, France and Belgium. Viva!'s new video reveals that transporters are nearly all overcrowded. This and the swaying of the lorries, often causes horses to fall, struggling desperately to regain their feet.

Once down, they are trampled, urinated and defecated on and wounded by their companions.

At the slaughterhouse, horses are driven or dragged from the lorry. Here, stunning methods are often ignored or done incompletely so that animals regain consciousness whilst their throats are slit. Many are slaughtered in front of their companions.

Please support Viva!, and help end this cruelty. Contact Viva! at 12 Queen Square, Brighton BN1 3FD. Tel: 01273 777688 E: info@viva.org.uk W: www.viva.org.uk.

KAT MACMILLAN,

Vegetarians' International Voice for Animals

12 Queen Square, Brighton BN1 3FD, UK