Passports Can we make them work?

[madalicedj]

Im sure I am not the only one who can find fault with the passport system. Horses that are sold with none, duplicates, incorrect ones heck papers ripped out. We are told we cannot enter clubs without them etc yet when we try to remove our horse from yard say the police can not assist if anyone trys to stop us!
Seriously are they only a profiteering scheme that was poorly thought out?
Where do we start in bringing in a fail safe system to register movements and history of all horses.
An enforced national/international register.
They did it with cattle after foot and mouth, We do it with our cars, cant we find something for horses? to help put an end to such dishonestly and protect ourselves but the creatures we claim to love.
Answers on a postcard pls

 

[joeanne]

There ar lots of things wrong with the passport system as it is. 1st there needs to be only a couple of places you can get a passport. Allowing the gyspy cob society etc to be passport issuers was a huge mistake. Pet ID is another IMO should be banned. Perhaps weatherbys, bhs and recognised breed societies (WCPS etc) only.
2nd needs to be an awareness by all law enforcement of what a passport is, and what its for. The fact that some horse owners are confused says it all. If we can get to grips with it, how on earth is a "non-horsey" person supposed to "get it"
DEFRA....the body responsible for passports in the 1st place need to sort themselves out. Dont make laws we have to abide by, and ignore them yourself!
The travelling community still do not passport their animals, so until forced to do so (and lets face it you cant pin them down for 5 mins so its not going to happen!) there will be no accurate register in the uk.

 

[Cuffey]

The system should have been in line with cattle passports at the start but I think some of the pony breed societies fought to stop that but the cattle also have breed societies which seem to still thrive.
I doubt in times of cut backs the system will change but hopefully will get tightened.

I was told last night of a PIO which still issued a passport even though the owners vet forgot to sign the paperwork

Some of the passports are still produced on ordinary computer print paper rather than difficult to copy watermarked paper.

We all know 'dead' horses passports are being re-used and one for sale recently on ebay just highlighted that fact

There will be many owners who have never checked if their horses details are on NED and and that they are correct--a long way to go yet before we can trust the system.

 

[hairycob]

And if you do check your horses details on NED & they are incorrect/missing it's ruddy impossible to get it sorted. As soon as NED online was available I checked my 3 horses passports - 1 was correct, 1 was on & incorrect, 1 was missing. Notified NED on line of the error & the missing one - never sorted. And as for the whole Gypsy Cob Society fiasco - words fail me.

 

[Pebbles]

Although it is a criminal offence to sell a horse with a false passport I now know from experience the police have absolutely no idea of how the current passport laws work and when making a complaint they went off to find out more and came back to me to tell me a horse can have two names, a stable name and a passport name!! I said err yes I know that........................... but that is different from selling a horse with another completely new passport when the seller is already holding the first and only correct one! At this point I was told to deal with trading standards - this lack of awareness is not going to help enforce the existing passport laws, even lax as they currently are?

 

[jinglejoys]

There ar lots of things wrong with the passport system as it is. 1st there needs to be only a couple of places you can get a passport. Allowing the gyspy cob society etc to be passport issuers was a huge mistake. Pet ID is another IMO should be banned. Perhaps weatherbys, bhs and recognised breed societies (WCPS etc) only.
2nd needs to be an awareness by all law enforcement of what a passport is, and what its for. The fact that some horse owners are confused says it all. If we can get to grips with it, how on earth is a "non-horsey" person supposed to "get it"
DEFRA....the body responsible for passports in the 1st place need to sort themselves out. Dont make laws we have to abide by, and ignore them yourself!
The travelling community still do not passport their animals, so until forced to do so (and lets face it you cant pin them down for 5 mins so its not going to happen!) there will be no accurate register in the uk.

Agree with most of what you've said although I think there should only be ONE place to get passports from as in cattle and Photo's not that silly line drawing.My Sarah-lee(hinny)was done by a vet and most of her charecteristic marks were ignored(including the 7" scar down her side)
I think the Passport should be with the owner.
The passports were not ment to stop stealing they were ment so DEATHRA could trace our equines and shoot them if a horse desease got into the country
Micrichips are useless so should be backed up with a freeze brand so Joe Public(police)can read it
Why do you not like Pet ID? As Iwas thinking of going through them for mine and would like to know the Pro's and cons?
Also registering the with Breed societies wouldn't work as not all of us have pure stock

 

[Cuffey]

greymare
Passport legislation is the responsibilty of Animal Health in Trading Standards hence why Police do not understand it.
Remember the whole thing is about safe horse meat not about ownership etc

 

[madalicedj]

Sigh Not looking good then is it. I think there needs to be one main place to issue. Watermarks etc also. But its more complex than I know how to deal with.

 

[Pebbles]

greymare
Passport legislation is the responsibilty of Animal Health in Trading Standards hence why Police do not understand it.
Remember the whole thing is about safe horse meat not about ownership etc

Thank you Cuffey

 

[Guinness]

Not just for the meat trade, if passports worked and NED was accurate it could potentially be a really useful resource for the prevention and control of infectious equine diseases-something that will affect us all. It sounds like the industry is starting to work towards sorting this system out:


http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/397/297250.html

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/397/302192.html

 

[foxtrotter]

A vet suggested to me that horse passports are a first step towards taxing all equines - a bit like a dog licence ???

 

[madalicedj]

I can see that yup.
I dont think it is too unrealistic that riders will be required to have insurance to ride on roads. Kinda makes sense if you think about it. Not that I want to be paying out any more money but if we insure our horses and cover vet expenses is so unreasonable to think we should pay to use roads and be insured incase the horse damages a car regardless of whos fault it is?
Oh crikes we will need road tax too lol

 

[jinglejoys]

Not just for the meat trade, if passports worked and NED was accurate it could potentially be a really useful resource for the prevention and control of infectious equine diseases-something that will affect us all. It sounds like the industry is starting to work towards sorting this system out:


http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/397/297250.html

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/397/302192.html

Yep and we all remember how they controlled Foot and Mouth don't we!?

 

[Maesfen]

And will cyclists get themselves insured, not likely and there are more of them than of us? How about caravans and trailers too?