The Approaching Equine Crisis...

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The horse owning public is being asked to email their MP's by welfare charities asking for support in dealing with what could become a ‘horse crisis’ in England and Wales.
The charities are under immense pressure due to the increasing number of horses and ponies needing their help. There are 2,800 equines in rehoming centres, which are now at capacity, and it is estimated that a further 6,000 horses are at risk in England and Wales. There is real concern that should there be another harsh winter, they will be physically unable to cope with the number of horses needing urgent care.
World Horse Welfare, the RSPCA, Redwings, The Blue Cross, The British Horse Society and HorseWorld are working together with the support of the National Equine Welfare Council (NEWC) to try and overcome this crisis, and have produced a report showing the problem and their proposed solutions.

See: http://campaign.publicaffairsbriefing.co.uk/home.aspx?cid=defb0b88-91af-4aab-a047-f6aff6db6c97
 
We all know who breeds with no care as to what happens to the horses, same idiots who tether the youngstock then expects the local horseowners, charities and police to make sure the horses dont die of thirst or get killed on the roads. Trouble is they know we DO care!
Your never going to stop folks with that kind of attitude breeding.
 
competitiondiva said:
Solution, stop willy nilly breeding..... (Easier said than done I know!!!)
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Cortez said:
..........and euthanize more which have no futures.
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Learn from the Irish.
Licence more abattoirs.
Re-establish links with the Continent for horse meat.
Remove the relevant page from the passports which allows any owner, at any time, to prevent the horse which they are to sell, from entering the human food chain.

In short, re-establish the commercial value of the horse, in carcass form. It's do-able, but even though the charities will privately admit to the sense of it, few have the courage to go against the flow, as they all compete with each other for their share of the huge donations market.

We need a large dose of common sense.

Alec.
 
Alec Swan said:
Learn from the Irish.

Remove the relevant page from the passports which allows any owner, at any time, to prevent the horse which they are to sell, from entering the human food chain.



Alec.
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Surely this would limit the drugs we would be able to give our horses and I would be against that happening. I want my horses to have the best drugs available if they need them.
 
I agree with all that Alec wrote except for the removal of the food chain page.

I'd also go as far as to say that any horse (including all ages, sizes, breeds, types and any equine species just to be clear) with a medical problem of any sort which needs treating and is given to the charities or welfare officers or police, is put down straight away, no questions asked, just done. It's about time people smelt the roses.

Another thing that would help stop a lot of this nonsense is the way people have gone overboard for tatty gypsy cobs, the Dartmoor Hill Pony and so on; the more demand, the more you'll see in dire circumstances.
 
I would like to stop all live animal export for meat but would be happy to see horse meat sold openly and properly as it is on the continent.I would eat horse meat to be honest.Funnily enough though, we camped at a small Halflinger stud in Austria which also had a nice restaurant used a lot by the locals.They quite happily told me that their excess colts went to italy for slaughter for m,eat BUT on their restaurant menu the horse meat dishes were labelled as strictly meat from New Zealand only.! What was that about?
 
the crisis is not limited to equines, i think all animal rescues should support PTS and possibly provide it as a service (via a vet/huntsman) with reduced rates for those who really cannot afford it. it would be cheaper that keeping all these animals until they are possibly re-homed. this would apply to elderly/loved pets or those that cannot enter the food chain.
more slaughter houses, lets be honest how many neglected and tethered ponies are likely to have had medication?
ban live export for meat.
sell meat for human consumption in the uk/or failing that produce it as a low cost pet food for raw feeding.
a national data base linked to id chip numbers that all animals that owners have signed to have medication for enter so they can be kept out of the food chain-a vet tried to convince me to sign the section in my youngsters passport, why would i sign it until i need to?
i also think all animals with any behavioural issues should be PTS by larger rescues, they must be such a strain on their resources and prolonged time in large/busy kennels surrounded by stressed out dogs is not good for any dog
 
I too have long been an advocate of more horses from neglectful situations going into the food chain. On the whole, it's a healthy alternative low-fat meat. As long as any animal intended for consumption is given a good life - and a good death - then who could object?
Let's not forget there are plenty of people in the world dying because they don't have access to a Tesco value horse burger (other makes are available).

I'm also a major supporter of a proper licensing system for every dog and every horse; all would be micro chipped, any not would be immediately euthanased.
Lets say £100 per dog and a couplee of hundred per horse.

This money could then fund local authoritiy dog and horse wardens and holding kennels / stabling with any money from Potters / slaughterers going back into the pot.

Whilst local authority dog wardens have taken over the handling of stray dogs from police forces, they do not currently offer an out of hours service in any of the areas I'm familiar with. Nor is it right that we should look to charities to mop up every waif and stray.

The police, of course, have neither the resources nor the expertise to be much cop (pardon the pun!).

Imagine a world without fly grazers and no more staffies or strays leaching the funds from charities..

I know it all sounds like la la land but I'm sure if enough interested parties sat around the same table then we could achieve a more workable solution all round.

For colossal failure to the welfare of the horse, we only need to look across the Atlantic to the United States. Since abolition of horse slaughtering facilities the poor creatures are dragged half way across the continent to Mexico or Canada with precious little in the way of consideration.
Alternately they are killed in horrifying ways to fulfil the cultural demands for horse meat in certain areas - YouTube is full of these gut-wrenching scenes.

So Alex - I'm with you on this one.
Do we still only have 3 licensed horse slaughterers in the country?
They have to form part of the way forward to what this thread quite rightly describes as an approaching crisis.
 
We are not breeding to sell in 2013 or 2014, we have raised our stud fee instead of dropping it like many have to attract any business they can!, so only people who can afford to breed to keep the foal can, and we will not be breeding to sell for least two years this was a sensible approach to the current over production of all types of horses and ponies
 
I was recently talking to a group of freinds on this subject. we were also dicussing our own private situatations. i was amazed that most of them said they would not PTS their horses if they could no longer afford to keep them. ( I am lucky in that we have our own land ) but joined in as things can change rapidly sometimes and io may one day be in the position of not having the land. I said i would PTS all of mine that i could not realistically move on to a good home. They were appalled at my 'Awful' thoughts!!! I kept saying in defence of my answer 'but what would you do if you couldnt afford to keep them and couldnt sell or give away?' No one had an answer but they still kept spouting 'But i couldnt PTS a heathy animal!'
i gave up in the end.....
 
As has been found out even UK abbatoirs are not very good at handling horses or complying with their requirements humanely. For that reason I am against the use of abbatoirs until they put their houses in order & allow CCTV. Perhaps people should stop looking for a profit from elderly/infirm/no future horses & accept PTS by the Vet or hunt.
 
My horse my choice, none of them will be entering the food chain thanks
The indiscriminate breeding by many to make a quick buck out of lame or dodgy horses is what needs to stop, i am bloody sick of hearing oh shes out for a year at least, take a foal from her :mad: this horse has fantastic breeding, but will never be put in foal as theres enough out there already
 
eahotson said:
I would like to stop all live animal export for meat but would be happy to see horse meat sold openly and properly as it is on the continent.I would eat horse meat to be honest.Funnily enough though, we camped at a small Halflinger stud in Austria which also had a nice restaurant used a lot by the locals.They quite happily told me that their excess colts went to italy for slaughter for m,eat BUT on their restaurant menu the horse meat dishes were labelled as strictly meat from New Zealand only.! What was that about?
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So that explains why you can't buy a Haflinger for love nor money here !
 
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