World Horse Welfare Celebrates 85th Anniversary At Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace HRH The Princess Royal resized World Horse Welfare has celebrated the launch of our 85th anniversary in style with a reception evening at Buckingham Palace. The event last night (Thursday 8 March 2012) saw the attendance and support of many well-known faces including: - World Horse Welfare President HRH The Princess Royal, Olympic eventing hopeful and World Horse Welfare Trustee Pippa Funnell, Olympic eventing hopeful Alex Hua Tian, BBC Formula 1 Reporter Lee McKenzie, and retired horse racing commentator and Vice President of World Horse Welfare Sir Peter O’Sullevan, During the reception evening HRH The Princess Royal said: “I am always impressed by the difference World Horse Welfare makes to horses’ lives, and what an impact they can have. World Horse Welfare is successful in part because of the values it has held since it was founded: it works for lasting change rather than short-term fixes, provides practical solutions based on scientific evidence wherever possible, and possesses great determination to improve the lives of horses - and the ability to make others care about horses and join their cause. It’s important to mark what we have achieved over 85 years, but there is still so much to do.” The occasion was to recognise the impact of our work improving the lives of horses in the UK and overseas for the past 85 years. There have been numerous significant achievements during those 85 years which have included:

• 1927 – Ada Cole founds the International League for the Protection of Horses (ILPH) after seeing work worn horses on the docks of Antwerp destined for slaughter.
• 1937 - The ILPH helped with the introduction of the Exportation of Horses Act which stopped the export of live horses for slaughter from Great Britain.
• 1949 - The charity’s first rehabilitation centre opened in Britain.
• 1978 - The ILPH rehomes scores of retired police horses and pit ponies, emerging as the largest equine rehoming charity in Britain.
• 1994 - HRH The Princess Royal becomes the charity’s President.
• 1994 - ILPH hands a petition containing 3,286,645 signatures to the European Parliament to demonstrate public feeling against long-distance journeys of horses to slaughter.
• 2008 - The ILPH is re-branded as World Horse Welfare. The charity becomes associate member of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) after almost three decades as their welfare advisors.
• 2010 - Written Declaration highlighting the horrific horse slaughter transport trade is adopted by the European Parliament.
• Today – A leading international charity, we have eight training programmes in place on three continents, and we continue to work to change legislation and attitudes to horse welfare, including through our campaign to end the long distance transportation of horses across Europe to slaughter. Our UK-wide network of Field Officers investigate and resolve welfare problems, and we run four Rescue and Rehoming Centres where horses in need can be rehabilitated and find loving new homes through our rehoming scheme – the largest of its kind in the UK.

For more information about our charity’s past and our achievements please visit www.worldhorsewelfare.org/about-us/our-history

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