NED Makes Swift Changes To Protect Horse Owners

[JuliaFSH]

Official Press release:

The recent emergence of several incidences of horses being re-passported when out on loan has prompted the National Equine Database (NED) team to introduce measures for reducing the opportunity for this to happen.

Cases coming to light recently have involved freezemarked horses being put on loan and subsequently sold on for slaughter with new passports, causing great distress to their owners.

Under European Union legislation it is not mandatory for Passport Issuing Organisations (PIOs) to collect freezemark information and supply it to NED, although many of them do. Recent cases of re-passported horses have revolved around freezemarks associated with horses original passports either not being marked on those passports, or not supplied to NED. When the second passport issuers checked NED to see if there was already a passport for a horse with that freezemark, they did not find one.

To minimise the chances of this situation recurring, Defra is due to suggest to all PIOs that they check NED for existing freezemarks and microchips before issuing passports to adult horses. However, to strengthen the response, NED is launching an online facility for horse owners to notify NED directly of their horse's freezemark and/or microchip details. This information will clearly be marked as data which has been entered by owners, rather than supplied by PIOs, but it will mean that a warning flag is raised if a second passport is applied-for and will indicate to the PIO that further investigation might be required before a passport is issued.

"The success of this initiative relies on horse owners making sure that they have checked and entered security information for all the horses they own on to NED"?? says NED spokesman Jan Rogers, "NED is clearly the place where all horse information comes together to protect and inform the horse owning community and we are pleased to be able to work with horse owners to deliver the service they need by constantly reviewing what NED can offer".

Additional information

From July 2009 it will be mandatory for all equines to be microchipped at first registration.

The microchipping of adult horses with pre-existing passports is strongly recommended by Defra. The supplying of microchip information for such horses by PIOs to NED is also strongly recommended.

NED: www.nedonline.co.uk
Defra: www.defra.gov.uk

 

[Delta99]

Can somebody give me more info on this database, please? I own a KWPN gelding who does not appear on there with his passport name, however, he does appear with his BD name. Does that not leave this open to duplication?

Also, while I understand the need and value of this database, I do not agree that my horses' details can be displayed on the internet for the world to see, without my prior consent! Is there any way I can 'opt out' of this?

 

[JuliaFSH]

[ QUOTE ]
Can somebody give me more info on this database, please? I own a KWPN gelding who does not appear on there with his passport name, however, he does appear with his BD name. Does that not leave this open to duplication?

Also, while I understand the need and value of this database, I do not agree that my horses' details can be displayed on the internet for the world to see, without my prior consent! Is there any way I can 'opt out' of this?

[/ QUOTE ]
The website is www.nedonline.co.uk

NED is BEF/Defra partnership which was initially designed to hold passport information for Defra. The BEF managed to persuaded Defra to enlarge the remit so that it could be used as a tool for the British Equestrian Industry in a similar way to the ill fated BHD. To this end the remit was extended to include additional information such as sire and dam, and performance data from the 3 Olympic disciplines, and Weatherbys.

NED's base data comes from UK based PIOs, so foreign passported horses details do not appear UNLESS they have competed under BE, BD or BJSA rules and have registered with them. If they've registered with any of these organisations a 'performance' record will have been passed to NED. Where possible NED attempts to match passport and performance data together to form a clearer picture of breeding and performance to support both the buying public and breeders. It is a great resource and a huge step forward in consolidating equine data in the UK which ceased to be possible after the demise of the BHD.

It is a mandatory requirement for all UK PIOs to transmit their passport data to NED. All additional data (e.g. sire and dam etc) is supplied on a voluntary basis by the PIOs. Again, the 3 disciplines and Weatherbys supply performance data on a purely voluntary basis. It is a legal requirement for PIOs to supply the mandatory passport data and so there is no opt out on providing this data.

There is no data displayed on NED which is not already in the public domain via studbooks and disciplines, and obviously no person-related data is displayed.

NED is a tool which allows many disparate strands of information to be drawn together in one place, and will in the near future enable us to compete more effectively with our Continental counterparts who have been collecting and publishing such data for their own studbooks for many years.

As per the original post - NED is also heavily involved in attempting to provide a public service regarding welfare issues and beneficial developments which will be announced as and when they have been successfully implemented.

 

[Kilbricken]

Aaah that might explain why my horse has a legal passport (according to Defra) BUT not on NED. I assume her passport is authorised BUT not technically part of UK (Southern Ireland) therefore not part of NED.

I too have emailed a few times to Ned, they must be swamped....

 

[JuliaFSH]

[ QUOTE ]
Aaah that might explain why my horse has a legal passport (according to Defra) BUT not on NED. I assume her passport is authorised BUT not technically part of UK (Southern Ireland) therefore not part of NED.

I too have emailed a few times to Ned, they must be swamped....

[/ QUOTE ]

Absolutely correct - her passport is non-UK therefore not currently captured.

We are looking to work with other non-UK studbooks to gain additional data especially where this relates to horses which are actually British bred but passported by a foreign mother studbook, or where the horse has been imported and could therefore have become part of the UK breeding herd.

 

[yeeharider]

i would also like to know if you can opt out as i have not given consent nor do i want my horses details out there for all to see they have 2 horses in my name which are now deceased surely the fact that they are not recorded as dead leaves it open for duplication

 

[JuliaFSH]

Providing passport data is not optional for PIOs, therefore your horses data is automatically passed to NED. It is a legal requirement for them to do so, so there is no option to 'opt out'.

As I have said on several occasions there is no data displayed on NED that is not already in the public domain, so NED is not breaking any new ground. The difference is passport and performance data is drawn together in one place.

A deceased flag is now on NED and as long as the PIO has been formally notified by the owner (as is required), that the horse is dead, NED is able to upload and display this information. Again NED depends on owners notifying PIOs and them in turn passing that data to NED.