fake horse passports

how easy is it to get hold of fake horse passports?

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TANNA

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Dear forum members,

I am interested in hearing from anyone who has been approached to buy or knows how to get a fake horse passport for horses looking to be sold on without the records of their veterinary drug use being recorded.

I am a reporter for Channel 4 News and would like to have a chat on the telephone with someone - discretion and anonymity are guaranteed.

Is this a widespread issue? How easy is it to get a fake passport?

If you are willing to speak to me please can you email me at asha.tanna@itn.co.uk with your daytime/evening contact number.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks
A
 
I bought a mule with a Gypsy Cob passport that could have been any animal. The vet reckoned he could have done a better job on his computer. He microchipped the mule and I downloaded a passport form off the internet. The vet did the whorls and I sent it off with payment and got a new passport with no bother.

An RDA group I am involved with have been given a couple of horses without passports. The vet microchipped them and filled in a basic pet ID form and we sent them off with payment and got them new passports.

So I would say getting fake/new identities for horses is very easy.
 
EPRider said:
I bought a mule with a Gypsy Cob passport that could have been any animal. The vet reckoned he could have done a better job on his computer. He microchipped the mule and I downloaded a passport form off the internet. The vet did the whorls and I sent it off with payment and got a new passport with no bother.
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I recently bought a mule that had just been brought over from Ireland, so had gone through two ports, with no passport at all!

My falabella came with a passport, but when I tried to change the ownership details I discovered the 'passport issuer' didn't exist..:rolleyes:
 
I bought a pony imported from Holland, she had a Belgian passport and was sold to me as an 11 year old. When I went to register her with her breed society in this country I had to send the passport to them, turned out that once the passport had been translated if it had been hers she would have been 40yrs old! As it happened she was traced through the 2 microchips and brands that she had and it came back that she was in fact 21 years old!
 
Jaycee said:
I bought a pony imported from Holland, she had a Belgian passport and was sold to me as an 11 year old. When I went to register her with her breed society in this country I had to send the passport to them, turned out that once the passport had been translated if it had been hers she would have been 40yrs old! As it happened she was traced through the 2 microchips and brands that she had and it came back that she was in fact 21 years old!
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I know a purebred haffie from holland who looks crossed and passport is about ten years out on what she was sold as.... interestingly the passport has two DOBs down for her which was only found out after several years of friends owning her when someone translated it :D
 
My friend bought a donkey with a Gypsy Cob Society passport, it could have been anything on it. My connie who I bought over 5 years ago as a 4yo is registered with the Spotted horse and pony Society who no longer exist but his passport is genuine. However my youngsters passport is registered with his microchip to it now whereas my other one isn't.
 
Nearly every horse i have owned with the exception of two have had questionably passports. I had one pony from Ireland with a passport that the microchip didn't match. Later to prove with a DNA test that it was not his passport. And the horse I have now I'm not entirely happy with his passport. Only 1 previous owner recorded. And the markings chart was inacturate. Spoke to passport agency who said I should get a vet to do a fresh markings chart and send the passport back and they would alter it. As even though it was not accurate he did have one. Vet just signed the difference and microchipped him and recorded m chip number on the passport. So now his passport. To be honest the whole system is a sham.
 
A friend bought a 5yr old from Ireland, sent passport off and the issuer told her the identity part was fake. Horse was actually 9. Ive just changed the ownership on one of mine online, way to easy to do, could have been done from a scan of the first page
 
I personally have never been approached or had a problem with horses I own or breed.

However, when passports were first introduced I purchased them for my two elderly geldings. The passport from the HPA says height 'over 14.2hh' age 'unknown' breed 'unknown'.

It made me realise how easy it would be to pass on to another horse with similar markings - black with two white feet and a white strip on his face.
 
I bought a horse last year and had it 5 stage vetted. She passed but when I called my own vet out to microchip her he would not do it as he said a lot of her markings such as a pink fleshy nose were not on the passport!:confused:
 
Not so much a 'fake' but it's very easy to buy a horse and later find out passports have been confused at some point and the passport doesn't belong to your horse.
They are awful as far as being able to identify the horse is concerned.
 
The silhouette in my horse's passport isn't him . . . wrong markings, physical features, etc. Also his age is wrong. The microchip matches, but his passport doesn't. He is a Polish sporthorse and apparently it's pretty common for breeders there to not be too scrupulous unless the horses are registered.

PM me if you would like further information.

P
 
I don't think fake passports are the issue, so much as the ease with which it is possible to obtain a new one. There are 75 passport issuing authorities in the UK, all with responsibility for administering their own system, and no central database to oversee them. It's more than possible for a horse to have multiple passports with different PIO's. No need to get fake ones, when you can pick up a legit one very cheaply.

Incorrect details/passport not corresponding to microchip don't necessarily mean its fake, just that its either a re-issue where the chip hasn't been recorded/a new chip has been implanted into an already chipped horse (and the orig chip shows up on a subsequent scan), or the details have simply been entered incorrectly.
 
You don't need a fake one, vets will happily issue a new one after giving a new microchip (without checking for an existing one) so horses can have 2 passports and 2 micorchips.

My horses passport says he's chestnut (brown) he is grey (white) and the hair patterns on the description don't match him - he's competed internationally (not with me!) an this has never been a problem for him.
 
Horses not competing under certain rules can have a passport where the identification chart is signed by the owner. Two of my passports have been done like this and at the time you simply sent two photos with the passport form, which were stuck in with glue! Could have got a primary school class to have done it. So easy to fake, so easy to simply obtain a new one. Farce doesn't cover it!
 
I think you need to talk directly to the passport agencies who are prepared to issue passports to older horses and question them as to what checks they make that the horse does not already have a passport with another agency.

There are people on this forum reporting that they are buying "non-TBs" only to later find that they are microchipped and that they are recorded with Wetherby's as dead racehorses.

I bought an eight year old cob four years ago who was passported only a few months before, so no-one has a clue what the horse actually was.

I think this issue is caused by passport agencies willy nilly issuing new passports, rather than forgery, in the main.
 
There is no problem with fake passports as far as I know..........as Austlander has said it's far too easy to get a passport issued to make it worth bothering with a fake, especially now we have no central database.
 
PandorasJar said:
I've several chesnut/bay looking foals who have the grey gene so wouldn't surprise me to see a grey down as something else on passport.
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I'm sure you're right, but it's doesn't help the non horsey person match the passport to the pony. It's just another easy example (for the non horsey OP) to illustrate the limitations in the system

In fact his owner bought him as a 4 year old when was all white, he's now 19 and really flea bitten/ dappled and getting more every year - so I'd guess by 25 he'll be back to being chestnut!
 
My boy's passport issuer doesn't exist, so technically not worth the paper its written on.
It also says he was born in 1999 but actaully when vetted he was only a 3 year old (the passport claimed he was 9 at the time)
There is also no part in the passport that says he is/isnt destined for human consumption so if god forbid anything happened to me and he found himself in the wrong hands, the medication he has had could potentially be life threatening if he ended up on someone's plate.
 
My horse came from Holland on a fake passport, as an 11 year old. After doing some digging with the Dutch studbook, found out he was actually 17! Also, the microchip on the passport didn't match the microchip in the horse - it was only out by one digit, but it just shows how badly administered the international movement/registration of horses is.
 
I have had a bay gelding with a wetherbys tb passport that was scanned by the vet and we discovered he was a Dutch warmblood with a KWPN chip. We guess someone swopped his passport at one stage. I also registered a foal a few years ago with a reputable PIO who was a chestnut filly. The passport came back stating she was a black colt.

I have never known a vet to check a passport before doing a vaccination and scan the horse to see if the microchip matches and I have also never known a vet to scan a horse when vetting to see if the horse being vetted matches the passport.

Doesn't inspire much confidence does it?! Especially as we have now lost our national database.
 
You could easily have multiple passports.

My old horse lost his (long story). I couldn't remember which agency he was with so called a couple to try and trace it. None could find him on the system ( in fact one didn't have an OPTION of searching for him on a system :rolleyes: )but all offered to send me paper work for a new one.
 
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