What Can Be Done To Improve Equine Welfare in France?

AmyMay

AmyMay

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The Law in France is such that it is expensive and inpractical to have your horse put down in the surroundings of your own home - and so many, many old, diseased or permanetly lame horses do end up in sad situations. Low end dealers or dealers who buy specifically for the value of the flesh. For the most part, these are the horses that end up on the 'Rescue' sites.

One of the things 'we' established quite quickly was that with the combined efforts of all those people involved in the 'rescue' sites, plus those of us concerned about the import of these poor animals, lobbying the European Parliament - we could actually start to set the ball rolling to try and implement some sort of change in French policy.

This has not really gone much further as an idea yet. But there was the feeling that the combined efforts of 'all' of us could result in a pretty powerful lobbying committee.

According to the 'Rescue' sites they have several hundred members each.

It took less than that to get hunting banned in the UK. So what power us all???
 
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I just can't think of a greater force for good, quite honestly.

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Neither can I - Is this not something that all organisations could pull together on?? Or I am just being naive?
 
I really think we could bellissimo. Because despite the fact that we have different views on some things - essentially we all agree that equine welfare is paramount.

I would love to see us pulling together for this one thing........
 
At some point soon (this year) certain sections of the UK equine industry will be meeting to discuss the way forward and what needs to be done re TPA. This was emailed to me from one of these sections.
 
It's not just the TPA though FL, it is the fact that as AM says in the OP, it is impractical and expensive to have french horses put down, the old and infirm then end up at the sales/low end dealers to be sold on for meat, or worse, this is nothing to do with the TPA (which does need looking at btw)
 
Yes, those meetings will certainly be interesting - as will the proposals of the ceasation of the TPA in favour of more stricter regs. And this will certainly help protect the uk herd.

But it would be good to try and push forward with EU regulations as far as French reforms are concerned.
 
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I really think we could bellissimo. Because despite the fact that we have different views on some things - essentially we all agree that equine welfare is paramount.

I would love to see us pulling together for this one thing........

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So would I but is that just a dream........
 
Any change would have to come from Euro Parliament and be enforceable in all Euro countries - let's face it, a group of people from the UK are NOT going to encourage the French to do anything
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I would suggest therefore that the next step is doorstepping the relevant MEPs
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Can someone explain how the law make it expensive? Is it the disposal or the actual putting to sleep that is expensive?

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I am not 100% sure about the rules and regulations in France but I do know things are very different to the UK - perhaps somebody from the likes of ERF would know?

I will go and do a bit of research
 
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Can someone explain how the law make it expensive? Is it the disposal or the actual putting to sleep that is expensive?

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They have no hunts to dispatch the horse, as here in the UK, and so no means of disposal that way. If the horse is put down at home it is via an injection - and then the carcass has to be stored until it can be collected for them by an offical 'collector'. This can be upward of a week. Vet's are not allowed to shoot a horse. The whole process is expensive and inpractical, as well as grim (having to have the carcass lying around for so long).

So, the answer is that these horses go to dealers for destruction via slaughter houses..........

And then end up on 'rescue' sites.
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(Some of them, at least).
 
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Any change would have to come from Euro Parliament and be enforceable in all Euro countries - let's face it, a group of people from the UK are NOT going to encourage the French to do anything
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I would suggest therefore that the next step is doorstepping the relevant MEPs
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I do think you have a point - getting the French to change would not be an easy task
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Any change would have to come from Euro Parliament and be enforceable in all Euro countries - let's face it, a group of people from the UK are NOT going to encourage the French to do anything
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I would suggest therefore that the next step is doorstepping the relevant MEPs
smile.gif


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Yes, as I said in my OP - it would have to be through the European Parliament.
 
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Can someone explain how the law make it expensive? Is it the disposal or the actual putting to sleep that is expensive?

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The answer is both, PS.

Here is a link to a blog article on the bones of how it works in France.

ERF blog

You can see we allow opposing comments at the end!!
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France needs to have it's own slaughter houses so that equines owned by Joe Public can be disposed of cheaply and easily, and so that the Meat horses can be humanely destroyed and shipped on the hook, rather than travelling live to other distant countries.
how the hell you get France to change anything is anybodys guess.
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France have lots of slaughter houses - meat horses are humanely destroyed, and they are not shipped to distant countries.

That is not the issue Donklet.
 
slightly off the point but where does this meat end up? If the animals are aged, poorly, diseased etc they are not fit for human consumption. Where does the meat go?

ETS France has the same food safety legislation as any other EU country.
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Well then where are all these animals that are not fit for human consumption ending up? Anyone any idea of what happens to them? I am not trying to stir up a hornets nest but am just wondering cos I know one of the arguements against "rescuing" these meat horses is because they can bring disease into the UK but if they are meat horses, they can't be diseased. Also, if they are specially bred for meat then they are not going to be handled etc. Not exactly perfect riding horses. I presume they go for animal feed etc but they can't be slaughtered in the same places as animals for human consumption. So are there special human consumption slaughter houses and non human consumption slaughter houses? I didn't think only animals specifically bred for meat went for meat. I though a lot of TBs in france ended up on the table (although how that happens I don't know cos once you give bute they are never meant to enter the food chain).
 
Thre are many things that need doing to improve welfare, not just in France but many of the countries in Europe.
To start with you need a decent welfare organisation in France and other countries. They need to be campaigning tirelessly to improve things and people need to be lobbying goverment, much the same as here.
 
We have to look at the whole EU including ourselves--we cannot be complacent, there is much cruelty here in UK.
We have to accept, be it distasteful for most of us, that there is a market for horsemeat and that market will be filled.
How you persuade French owners (or those in UK) of permanently lame/elderly riding horses they can no longer afford to care for, to take their horses to abattoir themselves or get transporters to set up to collect for local abattoir I dont know--although that does happen in UK.
This passing of horses on down the slippery slope is the biggest evil.
In the scheme of things (and people will shoot me down) is it not wasteful to put down a horse with drugs rendering that meat unuseable even for pet food unless that horse has already been receiving medication.
Two of my horses fed hounds
We have seen horses kept in appalling conditions from Spindles Farm to ''French Safe Haven''
Owners must become responsible for what they breed and what they own.
If any of you listened to the Radio4 programme on Spindles Farm the Prof would have owners licenced
The people interviewed taking their own horses to Potters were being responsible.
 
moocow I would imagine it depends on what the disease is, if it is nothing transmissable to other animals or not noticeable on the carcass (assuming presence of meat inspectors etc) I suspect that much of the disease people are concerned about importing would not impact on the horses ability to be slaughtered for meat.

(I don't know this, I am guessing!)
 
although this link is to a manual for developing countries, it shows that diseased etc animals are slaughtered but that doesnt mean that they will enter the food chain. I presume that the same criteria applies to all animals (including equine) in the western hemisphere.
It is actually very interesting reading!
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/t0756e/T0756E02.htm
M.
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Good Moaning, I'm suprised the French have any room left to eat horse meat after filling up on frogs legs snails onions and gallons of wine, then theres the time, having sex all day riding bikes with onions hanging off, oh and someone must be busy making all those stripey tops, must be time consuming and tiring plus all the time blockading motorways and ports, suprised they have the time to have horses.
 
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