VetClick
Menu Menu
Login

VetClick

/ News
Friday, 29th March 2024 | 4,186 veterinary jobs online | 103 people actively seeking work | 5,479 practices registered

Veterinary Industry News

Send us your news

Make 2014 Europe’s Year Of The Horse Says International Horse Charity As Its Manifesto For The Inspiring Year Is Released

10 years ago
2561 views

Posted
1st February, 2014 16h33


Close up photo of horse and rider Photo credit: World Horse Welfare According to Chinese tradition, the year of the horse, which starts today, stands for strength, loyalty, boldness and vigorousness – all key qualities needed to continue to campaign for better welfare for the horse, says World Horse Welfare as it looks ahead to the new EU elections. “At World Horse Welfare we always challenge ourselves to think ahead – and that’s why we’ve produced our manifesto for the forthcoming European Parliamentary elections to promote what is needed for the benefit of horse welfare. “The new candidates need to be aware of the major issues facing horses across Europe in order to make well-informed decisions about their welfare. Hence the World Horse Welfare manifesto aims to bang the drum for horses at UK and EU government level to make sure that horses are not only seen as an important priority but that their needs are clearly understood during the election campaign,” says Roly Owers, Chief Executive of World Horse Welfare and an active member of the Equine Sector Council. World Horse Welfare has been campaigning for better horse welfare since 1927 and has been at the forefront of challenging existing laws, pioneering new ones and working with others in the horse sector and UK and EU governments on improved systems. As the Year of the Horse captures the public’s imagination, this charity - which helps horses across the world through education, campaigning and hands on care, and is the largest horse rescue and rehoming charity in the UK – hopes to capture the attention of the new European Parliament to ensure that horse welfare is put to the top of the list on these five key issues: Horses need a much shorter journey limit when transported across Europe to slaughter Every year 65,000 horses are transported long-distance to slaughter on journeys which can last for days on end. The conditions they travel in leads to severe suffering caused by stress, injury, thirst, fatigue and exhaustion. Often transporters pass by many slaughterhouses on their journey which could take these horses – making this suffering unnecessary. The EU’s own scientific advisors have stated that there should be a significant reduction in the journey time laid down in EU legislation, World Horse Welfare says that based on scientific evidence this should be a maximum of 9-12 hours – but no action has been taken by the Commission to make this a reality. World Horse Welfare will be ramping up the volume of its transport campaign this year, calling louder and harder for a shorter, finite journey limit, and improvements to be made to the conditions in which these horses travel – aiming for a carcase only trade. What can you do to help? You can donate to our Miles of Pain appeal to help us to continue to press the European Commission for change: www.worldhorsewelfare.org/Appeal/Miles-of-Pain Horses need an identification system that works 2013’s horse meat scandal highlighted the gaps in Europe’s equine identification system. All too often authorities cannot trace horses, and recent surveys indicate that regulations are poorly understood across the board – from horse owners to vets, and passport issuing organisations to enforcement officers. Fraudulent activity would become much more difficult if the Equine Identification Regulation were to be changed to require higher standards for identification documents, better record-keeping and retrospective micro chipping of all horses. This year, World Horse Welfare will be pressing the new Commission and Parliament to continue with the existing ‘five-point-plan’ drafted in response to the horse meat scandal which includes plans to require Member States to put central databases in place so that horses can be traced, and reduce the number of organisations issuing identity documents. World Horse Welfare will be continuing to push for a more robust and enforceable system to help improve traceability and enforcement, reduce the risk of disease spread and make owners more accountable for their animals. What can you do to help? You can make sure your horse is properly identified and call our welfare line 08000 480 180 if you see a horse in distress. Horses need their welfare and health protected in EU legislation 2013 saw the Commission develop ambitious plans for both animal welfare and health – but if these plans are to really help horses, any studies on welfare must take into account the many roles horses play across Europe – from a much-loved companion or leisure horse, to transporters of people and goods or agricultural animals and sources of food – as well as semi-feral horses and ponies who can be found in many areas of Europe. This year, Word Horse Welfare is asking that the animal health legislation be updated as a matter of urgency – the current EU regulations on disease are badly out of date, weakening the level of protection that is offered. The charity will continue to highlight to the new Parliament and Commission that they must continue with the ongoing work on the new Animal Health Regulation to help protect the health of all horses. What can you do to help? You can support our work making the voice of horses heard in the EU by making a donation: www.worldhorsewelfare.org/donate Horses need the law to be enforced If laws are to be effective then they need to be enforced robustly and evenly across the whole of the EU. World Horse Welfare will be calling upon the European Commission to support guidance for the Member States on how to interpret and enforce legislation by making sure that legislation is written in a way that makes it easy to understand, and enforce, and by taking action against those Member States who fail to comply with and enforce the law. What can you do to help? You can fill in a 'tell us' form anonymously if you have any information relating to horses in the UK or Europe that could help our investigations: www.worldhorsewelfare.org/Tell-Us Consumers need food labelling that gives them the information to make welfare-friendly-decisions Consumers across Europe are not being properly informed about where their horse meat comes from. Under the current law, horse meat is stamped as the product of the country in which the animal was slaughtered – even if it was raised in a completely different country and transported thousands of miles in dire conditions. Consumers therefore, cannot tell if they are buying meat from a horse that has suffered injury and pain caused by long-distance transport to slaughter, disallowing consumers from being able to make a welfare-friendly choice. This information has been available for beef for several years and a new law will be soon be in place for other types of meat so consumers of poultry, pork, sheep and lamb will soon be able to tell where their meat really came from – but the situation for horse meat remains unchanged. World Horse Welfare will be pressing for new legislation so that horse meat consumers can make genuinely informed decisions and have an influence on horse welfare. What can you do to help? You can tell Commissioner Borg that you want labels that tell the full story: http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1749&ea.campaign.id=23060

More from


You might be interested in...