Thank you for the question.
Currently the international standards we abide by are what define transporting horses. Whether they are competition horses or horses going for end use to be fattened in Japan, we pride ourselves on exceeding these standards. You can argue that stress levels are higher or lower among competition horses or fattening horses, but I don't believe there's any metric by which anyone can adequately measure that with a pair of binoculars.
The other point I would like to make is that there have been some claims that these horses are cramped. One witness testified today that there are 40 of these horses loaded on a trailer. Current transport regulations require that we transport horses only on single-deck trailers. No trailer can put 40 of our export horses on it. They don't make one.
Information has been presented that these horses are bandaged because they are safer having bandages on. One of the reasons these horses have bandages on is that they have steel horseshoes on, so it's to protect them from hitting each other.
Currently I don't believe there's a large difference in it. Can we improve and do better? Yes, we always can. We as an industry are continually looking to improve.