Trading Standards visiting yards to check passports

aran

aran

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Hello

Just wondered how many of you have ever had someone come to the yard to check that all the passports are in order.
We have someone coming to the yard next week to check them all - I hadn't heard of it happening before.
What was it like?
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I'm not sure why they are coming. YM just said that they are coming next week to check all the passports. I wondered if this is something that they just do or if someone has asked them to check us out - all very odd.
I wonder if they will know what the passports should contain and if they will match horse to passport. Some of the horses have changed since their passports were issued (colour etc) and most aren't called the name that their passport has on it - so it could be fun!
 
id be really suspisous of this if i were you. id get a telephone number for trading standards out of the phone book and call them up to make sure its all officail.

but then i have a suspisous mind
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ps and i cant spell
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[ QUOTE ]
id be really suspisous of this if i were you. id get a telephone number for trading standards out of the phone book and call them up to make sure its all officail.

but then i have a suspisous mind
grin.gif
grin.gif


ps and i cant spell
blush.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Agree with you--with my Horsewatch hat on, make sure the person is legitimate, sure they must have ID these days
My local TS have a jacket/fleece with logo but contacting Animal Health/Welfare at TS would be good move.
Never had passports checked but not on a yard and dont think my local authority have man power to do that.
Know they do stop horse transporters in some areas.
 
Are you a dealer yard? Or am I missing the point of what Trading Standards do?
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I can't work out what they would have to do with Horse Passports?
 
as to horses not matching passports- vet did my mates horses passport and they never did markings just micro chip number and colour name and sex/age
 
Can you get a few more details out of your YM? It sounds a bit suspicious to me as well, actually.

The person who is coming will know that all the horses will be in, with their passports....can YOU see the potential for mischief in that one, because i can!
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
id be really suspisous of this if i were you. id get a telephone number for trading standards out of the phone book and call them up to make sure its all officail.

but then i have a suspisous mind
grin.gif
grin.gif


ps and i cant spell
blush.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Agree with you--with my Horsewatch hat on, make sure the person is legitimate, sure they must have ID these days
My local TS have a jacket/fleece with logo but contacting Animal Health/Welfare at TS would be good move.
Never had passports checked but not on a yard and dont think my local authority have man power to do that.
Know they do stop horse transporters in some areas.

[/ QUOTE ]


im glad im not the only one thinking this is odd. id always check things like this with a telephone number that id found and not been given.
 
I agree with everyone that says check this out!! It sounds like a potential scam to me, especially with the amount of horse theft going on at the moment. Unless the yard is in the business of selling on horses, or you have all bought horses very recently from dealers etc I don't know why trading standards would want to care!
 
Also, I wouldn't expect them to give notice for their arrival.

As like anywhere else, you'd temporarily move out, the horses that don't have passports or correct ones wouldn't you?
 
Ha id love to see them do my boy, they would betrying to catch him all day & id have them on cruelty charges (causing un-nesseserry fear & stress to an animal) he hass clearly been abused in his past and is so very mentally fragile being handled.
 
Are you sure its trading standards?? We had DEFRA out last month to check all the horses on the yards passports. They gave our YO prior notice so he could get all the passports together for the inspector to see at once. The visit was def legitimate as our YO is a farmer and he already knew the DEFRA bloke.
 
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Ha id love to see them do my boy, they would betrying to catch him all day & id have them on cruelty charges (causing un-nesseserry fear & stress to an animal) he hass clearly been abused in his past and is so very mentally fragile being handled.

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If the visit was legitimate, then the horse would be required to be in or at least in an area where it can be checked against the passport.
 
I would contact H&H to follow this up as a news item, I cant think what it has to do with trading standers if the horses are private, maybe DEFRA, and I would also like to know why they want to check passports and what authority they have before they arrived
 
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Alarm bells here too, Defra possibly (though I can't think why) but TSO? Why?
If I were thinking of nicking some horses and wanted to make sure all their passports were accessible, however ...

Def agree, call TSO and also, Horsewatch, H&H and possibly the Police!
 
I think she said Trading Standards - I'll check!
We are a DIY livery yard. The horses don't have to be in. The YM just has to be there with all the passports.
I'm sure she's checked that it is all legitimate - but I'll check with her.

It's all just a bit strange though, why check us? Not that i care - we all have our documents etc... Just odd.
 
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I think she said Trading Standards - I'll check!
We are a DIY livery yard. The horses don't have to be in. The YM just has to be there with all the passports.
I'm sure she's checked that it is all legitimate - but I'll check with her.

It's all just a bit strange though, why check us? Not that i care - we all have our documents etc... Just odd.

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If the horses don't have to be in - then what good is the visit. Surely the purpose is to check the passport against the horse it is for??
 
dont have stables to shut him in (still in progress) & if he was fenced into a smaller paddock he would just panic worse as would have nowhere to get away & would feel trapped (that is if the TB youngstere hadnt trampled the fencing down & let them all out).
i am happy to be avalible if they needed to to catch & hold him but itwould have to be at a prearranged time (have 2 very small children to sort out & a 3rd on way) they still would not be able to get to close to him though.
 
Actually it is correct - trading standards are the department who are responsible for checking passports - their animal side. and all they are doing is checking that passports exist for every horse, So 10 horses 10 passports. they are not checking whether the horse matches its passport exactly - that is down to the owner. They are not out there to catch you out - which is why they notify the yard in advance to arrange the visit. as your horses are all DIY the YM does ot have to have their passports - she just needs to have a copy of them or proof that every horse has one. it is only full and part liveries that need to keep teh passport with the horse as the horses carer must have the passport. On DIY that is deemed to be the horses daily carer not the YM.

They will be doing random checks from now on. Probably not BHS approved yards as we all have to have passports details checked at our annual inspection - but no reason why not apart from time.
 
We had them visit our livery yard last month. They sent a letter in advance, to notify us when they'd be coming and what they would be doing. It sounds above board, but you could always ask to see a copy of the letter if you're concerned. They asked that the horses were in, just so they could match the number of passports to the number of horses, they didn't really cross reference them against each horse though. A few of the passports presented weren't upto date with ownership details, addresses etc and the inspector just informed the owners what they needed to do to get them amended and told owners that they would need to re-present them in a few weeks time. To be honest, they were perfectly pleasant and I really didn't get the impression they were there to catch anyone out. We've got about 30 horses on the yard and they were probably there for about an hour and a half in total.
 
Trading standards in these areas must have a real bee in their bonnet about horses and passports. Because when you contact them about cases where there has actually been malpractice, the general response is that they will keep your letter on file but they don't have the resources to deal with it. (And I am talking about a couple of successful small claims against traders running businesses in which safety is paramount, such as gas fitters). So its strange to target a relatively trouble-free issue, about which there have been no complaints or legal actions.

I assume they are doing it because running a livery yard is a business. It might be part of a working relationship with the taxman, to crack down on taxes.
 
MY friend had a trading standards person turn up in June, he asked her for the ponies passports. It is a stud breeding welsh sec a's, as I was there I asked him did they need to come and see my horses, he did asks did I do liveries or was I did I run a stud and I said no, and he said no. I think they are looking at upping the rates
 
[ QUOTE ]
Trading standards in these areas must have a real bee in their bonnet about horses and passports. Because when you contact them about cases where there has actually been malpractice, the general response is that they will keep your letter on file but they don't have the resources to deal with it.

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My local TS is the opposite, I think. I KNOW they are following up a couple of mis-sold horse cases (dodgy dealers who have sold horses that were not as described) but I had to explain horse passports in detail to one TS officer as he didn't have a clue about them.
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I've never been asked - and I have about 60 horses here (and could probably produce about 65 passports - never got around to returning a couple where the horses have been PTS.) But I would LOVE to see them trying to match passport diagrams with horses as I have a number of white/grey horses who are described as bay or chestnut on their passports!
 
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