We are launching Make A Noise because of the shocking realities of this trade. Read on to find out more.

Rules and regulations

In January 2007, the European Commission updated legislation and produced a new document: EU Regulation (EC) No 1/2005 on the protection of animals during transport.

During the drafting process World Horse Welfare and other welfare organisations, suggested ways in which it could be improved. Several important changes relating to horses were introduced, which include:

• Unbroken or unhandled horses are now not permitted to be transported for more than eight hours (a journey of more than eight hours is classified as ‘long distance’)
• Horses undertaking long distance journeys must travel in individual compartments on the lorry

Furthermore, the Regulation states that:

• Horses must be fed and watered after eight hours of travelling
• • Horses must be rested off the lorry for 24 hours after every 24 hours of travelling
• All animals must be fit for travel and transport should not cause them additional suffering

Our field trip in August highlighted the fact that this Regulation is regularly ignored. Jo White, Director of Campaigns and Communications, and Campaigns Officer’s Emma Seel and Caroline Heard, were able to collate up to date footage to add to World Horse Welfare’s dossier of evidence, which will be presented the European Commission.

During the course of one week they witnessed the shocking reality of the trade eight months after the laws were updated:

• NO lorries with individual partitions. Horses were travelling in mixed groups of six, seven and eight, meaning a lorry designed to carry around 16 horses was carrying up to 30. World Horse Welfare has had more extreme reports from welfare organisations based in Spain who see dangerous levels of overstocking regularly.
• Lack of partitions caused fighting, which lead to injuries – especially to smaller horses. Click on Emma’s 1st Field Trip to read Caroline’s account of a yearling blinded by the conditions it was forced to travel in.
• Few lorries were stopping to feed and water horses after eight hours meaning most horses were unloaded from lorries in an extremely dehydrated state – so much so you can actually see the skin wrinkling.
• Lorries were also failing to stop and rest the horses off the lorry after 24 hours of travelling time. As a result horses could be staying on the lorry for up to four days.

MOST importantly, we must get journey times back onto the political agenda:

• Horses that had travelled for six hours under the legal limit were collapsing due to extreme exhaustion. This is why we must get journey limits back on the political agenda

For a copy of Defra’s ‘Welfare of Animals During Transport – advice for transporters of horses, ponies and other domestic equines’ please e-mail: campaigns@worldhorsewelfare.org or telephone 0845 955 6000 quoting reference: PB12544C

Italy drives demand

Italy is the biggest importer of live horses for slaughter, with 84% of horses travelling through Europe for slaughter heading there. Journeys sometimes take more than 100 hours; horses are permitted to stay on the lorry for 24 hours without rest, but poor enforcement means this is often exceeded. The horses travel in extreme weather conditions, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees centigrade and plummeting to minus 30.

Source countries: the dark secret of Britain’s favourite holiday destination

A worrying new trend has emerged in Europe’s horsemeat trade. Despite the decrease in numbers of horses travelling long distances to slaughter, one exporting country has steadily increased the numbers of horses it transports to Italy for human consumption. Britain’s favourite holiday destination, Spain, has emerged as one of the three biggest exporters of horses for slaughter to Italy. Whilst numbers are progressively decreasing from Poland and Romania (although they still remain the two major suppliers, Poland being the largest with over 20,000 horses leaving for slaughter), live exports from Spain have been on the increase since the mid-nineties. According to recent research carried out by Emma Leckie on behalf of World Horse Welfare, (visit worldhorsewelfare.org to read a summary) over 10,500 horses were transported for slaughter from Spain to Italy in 2006. During the research, which is her fourth report for World Horse Welfare and was completed in June, Emma found that transporters taking horses on journeys that last more than 24 hours actually lose money if they adhere to the new EU Regulation 1/2005. Jo White, Director of Campaigns and Communications for World Horse Welfare comments: “Emma’s research confirms that enforcement of these new laws is completely inadequate. We know that illegal journeys are still taking place, where transporters are not stopping at feeding and watering stations and failing to install partitions so that they can pack more horses into lorries. These actions are direct contraventions of the new Regulation and horses are needlessly suffering to increase profits. Emma’s report backs up what we are seeing in our field research.” “We hope the findings of this research will add new impetus to the argument that the trade should be ‘on the hook’ rather than ‘on the hoof’” explains Emma. “Researching this industry is harrowing since every statistic represents a horse that has been subjected to a stressful journey, only to be slaughtered at the end of it. The economics of this trade clearly demonstrate the advantages of abolishing live transport and reverting to a carcase only industry.”

What has your support helped us to achieve?

The good news is that your support has helped World Horse Welfare and other welfare charities to achieve a significant drop in the number of horses being transported to slaughter in Europe. In 2001 there were 165,000 horses involved in long distance transportation. With your help, this number has dropped by more than a third, to less than 100,000. The pressure you helped us put on the EU with your letters asking them to improve conditions for horses travelling to slaughter made them understand the importance the issues raised. As a result the EU Commission consulted World Horse Welfare on the new laws dictating the conditions under which animals are transported and included some of our recommendations.

What happens next?

World Horse Welfare is currently compiling evidence ready to present to the European Commission in 2009 for the review period (2009-2013). During this review period we will constantly be lobbying the EU Commission for our recommendations to be implemented. It is essential that we get journey times back on the agenda in 2009 so that we don’t miss this vital opportunity.

World Horse Welfare has a window of opportunity that will take us closer than ever to ending the long distance transport of horses to slaughter in Europe. Today, we need you to commit to join us and Make A Noise so please click on Become a Campaigner and register your support. You, our loyal supporters, your friends, family and work colleagues can become an active part of our campaign to end the long distance transport of horses to slaughter.