JanetGeorge
Well-Known Member
This evening I e-mailed the Shadow DEFRA Minister, Nick Herbert (who was an old mate from a former life
) and got a very prompt and positive response! This outbreak of EIA has fortunately happened at a time of year when risk of spread will be low - although the horses in question had apparently beein in the UK for a month - and horses from the premises will undoubtedly have moved to other parts of the country within that time!
This has been an accident waiting to happen - let's make sure it doesn't happen again. It only takes 50 MPs getting 5 e-mails each on a topic for it to become 'an issue' - Nick will do his bit to bring pressure on the Government - he'll need backing from MPs who have constituents jumping up and down on the subject!
I've copied a few bits from my e-mail below - and anyone who'd like to use them in an e-mail to their own MP, please do!
[ QUOTE ]
As you can imagine, the reported cases of EIA found in Wiltshire have
caused serious consternation amongst intelligent horse owners and breeders
throughout the country. And more than that, it has caused real anger
against the Government/DEFRA as this has been an accident waiting to
happen for years - and more particularly since the rise of the FRANCH
rescue scam.
The rescue situation may have escaped your notice. In France, a number of
farmers are in the business of fattening horses for slaughter - these
horses coming into France from other parts of the EU. A wily French
farmer cottoned onto the fact that sentimental English horse lovers could
be conned into 'saving' these horses - by buying them at several hundred
Euros above slaughter value. These horses are coming into the UK under
the tripartite agreement - with bugger all by way of health checks. The
best of them are also being bought out of the fattening farms by English
dealers, brought over here and sold at substantial profits - despite the
fact that there was a good reason they'd ended up slaughter bound!
A Defra spokesman claims: ""Imports of horses on any basis are only
permitted from countries where the risk of disease is perceived negligible
or equivalent to the UK," - so how are 9 horses from Romania - where EIA
is endemic - allowed in??
Horse passports contain a total of 6 pages for recording details of health
checks when horses are imported and exported. Unless it's a competition
horse, these pages are usually blank!
This is a serious and ongoing problem that DEFRA appears clueless about.
DEFRA actually believes horse passports are working! They're not! Horses
are regularly sold without them. MANY horses in the National Equine
Database (NED)have been sold half-a-dozen times since their records were
last updated - and some have two or three passports! While most Breed
Societies are religious about proper identification and recording, the
generic PIO's are not.
There are allegedly more than a million horse owners in the UK- and
contrary to Labour's views, not all of them are Tory foxhunters! Many are
ordinary working class people who sacrifice all their spare time and money
for the pleasure of owning an ordinary 'happy hacker' - kept on d.i.y.
livery. They see DEFRA's incompetence as putting THEIR horse at serious
risk! (And let's face it, if these two EIA infected horses had arrived
during the summer, the disease would have spread as quickly as F&M - and
we'd be seeing compulsory slaughter of thousands of previously healthy -
and much loved - horses and ponies.
Horse owners would like to see a strong response to this wake-up call.
1. Why have exports been stopped - but not imports?
2. The Tripartite agreement is seriously flawed - it should be
re-examined and safeguards be put in place to ensure it does NOT allow
horses from countries where EIA/other diseases are endemic to slip into
the country via France or Ireland.
3. PRE-import tests for EIA/CEM/etc should be required for ALL horses
coming into the country.
[/ QUOTE ]
Add any pertinent information you have about horses being bought or sold without passports, or about dodgy imports, and ask him/her what he/she intends to do about it! If you're ina very horsey area, stress how many of his/her constituents are horse owners!!
Let's ensure DEFRA's kitchen gets very hot indeed!
This has been an accident waiting to happen - let's make sure it doesn't happen again. It only takes 50 MPs getting 5 e-mails each on a topic for it to become 'an issue' - Nick will do his bit to bring pressure on the Government - he'll need backing from MPs who have constituents jumping up and down on the subject!
I've copied a few bits from my e-mail below - and anyone who'd like to use them in an e-mail to their own MP, please do!
[ QUOTE ]
As you can imagine, the reported cases of EIA found in Wiltshire have
caused serious consternation amongst intelligent horse owners and breeders
throughout the country. And more than that, it has caused real anger
against the Government/DEFRA as this has been an accident waiting to
happen for years - and more particularly since the rise of the FRANCH
rescue scam.
The rescue situation may have escaped your notice. In France, a number of
farmers are in the business of fattening horses for slaughter - these
horses coming into France from other parts of the EU. A wily French
farmer cottoned onto the fact that sentimental English horse lovers could
be conned into 'saving' these horses - by buying them at several hundred
Euros above slaughter value. These horses are coming into the UK under
the tripartite agreement - with bugger all by way of health checks. The
best of them are also being bought out of the fattening farms by English
dealers, brought over here and sold at substantial profits - despite the
fact that there was a good reason they'd ended up slaughter bound!
A Defra spokesman claims: ""Imports of horses on any basis are only
permitted from countries where the risk of disease is perceived negligible
or equivalent to the UK," - so how are 9 horses from Romania - where EIA
is endemic - allowed in??
Horse passports contain a total of 6 pages for recording details of health
checks when horses are imported and exported. Unless it's a competition
horse, these pages are usually blank!
This is a serious and ongoing problem that DEFRA appears clueless about.
DEFRA actually believes horse passports are working! They're not! Horses
are regularly sold without them. MANY horses in the National Equine
Database (NED)have been sold half-a-dozen times since their records were
last updated - and some have two or three passports! While most Breed
Societies are religious about proper identification and recording, the
generic PIO's are not.
There are allegedly more than a million horse owners in the UK- and
contrary to Labour's views, not all of them are Tory foxhunters! Many are
ordinary working class people who sacrifice all their spare time and money
for the pleasure of owning an ordinary 'happy hacker' - kept on d.i.y.
livery. They see DEFRA's incompetence as putting THEIR horse at serious
risk! (And let's face it, if these two EIA infected horses had arrived
during the summer, the disease would have spread as quickly as F&M - and
we'd be seeing compulsory slaughter of thousands of previously healthy -
and much loved - horses and ponies.
Horse owners would like to see a strong response to this wake-up call.
1. Why have exports been stopped - but not imports?
2. The Tripartite agreement is seriously flawed - it should be
re-examined and safeguards be put in place to ensure it does NOT allow
horses from countries where EIA/other diseases are endemic to slip into
the country via France or Ireland.
3. PRE-import tests for EIA/CEM/etc should be required for ALL horses
coming into the country.
[/ QUOTE ]
Add any pertinent information you have about horses being bought or sold without passports, or about dodgy imports, and ask him/her what he/she intends to do about it! If you're ina very horsey area, stress how many of his/her constituents are horse owners!!
Let's ensure DEFRA's kitchen gets very hot indeed!
