Horsemeat ban in Italy could be on the cards

It is a well known fact that the Italians like their horsemeat, so much so that they are now the largest consumer of horsemeat in Europe. To meet demand, over 200,000 horses are slaughtered in Italy each year with a high percentage being imported from mainly Poland, Romania and France. Things could all be about to change though as politicians from all parties are considering banning the  slaughter of horses for human consumption.

Francesca Martini, a minster with the Italian health ministry and a member of the ruling Right-wing coalition, has put forward the bill, arguing that the “dignity of horses should be respected”. The motion is already on the desk of the Italian parliament’s culture commission and has won considerably cross party support with opposition centre-Left MPs also backing it.

Also Backing the ban is Italy’s agriculture minister Luca Zaia who says horses should not be eaten and instead “considered just like cats and dogs”. The proposal has been warmly welcomed by the Italian federation for equine sports and animal cruelty charities who said it was “legislation that had been long overdue”.

The proposals have caused uproar in communities where horsemeat is popular who claim that eating horsemeat is part of their culture and right. There are also concerns that should the ban occur while there is still a high demand for horsemeat, that the trade will be driven underground resulting in a black market, as has happened in the Miami area of the US recently.

Let us hear your views on this topical subject…

Unwanted Horses in America

The link below is to a superbly informative and unbiased article written by Veterinarian Tom Lenz about the problems faced by the horse population in America. Excluding the feral horses, in many ways it echoes problems faced by the horse everywhere. Indeed, it is similar to the UK in as much horses are shipped out of the country to slaughter.

Food for thought.

This quoted paragraph here highlights one of the facts that the average horse owner seems unwilling to accept;
Observational studies conducted in 2001 reveal that “riding” horses make up 74% of the horses processed for meat as opposed to draft or other horse types.

Backed up with this information;
US Department of Agriculture (USDA) export records on US horses shipped to Canadian processing plants in 2002-2005 reveal 70% were western type horses, 11% were English or Thoroughbred type horses, 3.6% were draft type horses, and the rest included various breeds or types of horses or mules.

This suggests that horse owners need to become more responsible about what to do with their individual horses that they no longer want. It’s not just other people’s horses that go for slaughter, it could easily be the horse you sold because it didn’t fit your ambitions or got too old to compete ……… it is up to the individual owner to take responsibility for their horse’s future.

A horse should not be just a commodity.

We have some big ears needing adoptive homes

This gorgeous 9 month old male donkey,Vinnie, will be available for adoption following his castration this month. He will need a guardian who has the experience to educate him as he grows up, but he is very sweet natured and has been handled since birth.

Check out if your MEP has signed….

This blog has easily accesible lists of all the MEP’s who have signed, or not signed, Written Declaration 54/2009.

Please help circulate it as it makes it simpler to see who still need lobbying.

http://whichmeps.wordpress.com/

Deadline fast approaching for MEP’s to sign….

There are now just 11 days left until the extended deadline (Feb 11th)  for MEP’s to sign Written Declaration 54/2009, calling for a review of the legislation governing the long distance transport of horses to slaughter.

Please take a look at the list below to see how supportive MEP’s have been in your country;

France 20 signatures 28% of MEPs have signed
Slovenia 6 signatures 85% of MEPs have signed
UK 61 signatures 85% of MEPs have signed
Finland 9 signatures 69% of MEPs have signed
Sweden 12 signatures 67% of MEPs have signed
Czech Republic 12 signatures 55% of MEPs have signed
Denmark 7 signatures 53% of MEPs have signed
Belgium 11 signatures 50% of MEPs have signed
Cyprus 3 signatures 50% of MEPs have signed
Lithuania 6 signatures 50% of MEPs have signed
Luxembourg 3 signatures 50% of MEPs have signed
Poland 23 signatures 46% of MEPs have signed
Netherlands 10 signatures 40% of MEPs have signed
Italy 28 signatures 39% of MEPs have signed
Latvia 3 signatures 38% of MEPs have signed
Romania 11 signatures 38% of MEPs have signed
Austria 6 signatures 35% of MEPs have signed
Greece 7 signatures 32% of MEPs have signed
Ireland 3 signatures 25% of MEPs have signed
Malta 1 signatures 20% of MEPs have signed
Germany 19 signatures 19% of MEPs have signed
Estonia 1 signatures 17% of MEPs have signed
Slovakia 2 signatures 15% of MEPs have signed
Hungary 3 signatures 14% of MEPs have signed
Portugal 3 signatures 14% of MEPs have signed
Spain 4 signatures 8% of MEPs have signed
Bulgaria 1 signature 6% of MEPs have signed

ERF and WSPA, our 2nd year together…

ERF are delighted to be part of the Member Society network of  WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals). WSPA review all memberships on an annual basis and have very kindly waived the membership fee for ERF for this coming year. The network is an international force that influences local decision makers and governments alike focussing on positive changes for animals worldwide.

The WSPA Member Society Network is the largest international alliance of animal welfare organisations in the world, with more than 900 member societies in over 150 countries.

ERF are very proud to be associated with WSPA and would like to publically thank them for their all their support and assistance over the past year.

Disaster in Waiting

Two horses in Wiltshire in the UK have recently tested positive for EIA. They have been destroyed, and another 50 horses are currently under observation. They are believed to belong to dealers who keep their horses in large barns, and have a continual flow of horses through private customers and the sale rings. The potential for spread is alarming.

This is a Notifiable Disease, with compulsory slaughter for any equine testing positive. The DEFRA website has more information about the procedures in the UK. Unfortunately, there is no obligation for an insurance company to pay out under such circumstances, and the DEFRA compensation is a princely £1 per animal.

Horses are allowed to travel freely between France Ireland and the UK under an agreement called the TPA. Although effective when set up in the 1970s, many of the stipulations in the agreement are no longer relevant.

INAGs (ERF’s sister site in the UK), has uncovered evidence of meat horses (with breed passports) travelling freely from Europe, including Rumania where EIA is endemic, to the UK. The EU borders are not policed, and horses going to slaughter are not required to have health checks, or a Coggin’s test. These horses are travelled to France to be transported across the channel under the TPA, and then sold on as riding horses in the UK.

We would like to ask you to read and sign this petition, in the hope that DEFRA will listen, and change the rulings to help prevent diseases such as this becoming a disaster similar to Foot & Mouth.

PETITION

Lily & Marcy leave for their new home….

Yesterday we bid farewell to our 2 beautiful Trotter mares as they headed off to their new home in the Dordogne. Lee and Eunice have become the girls new Guardians and we are sure they are going to be treated like princesses with them!

The girls settled in to their new home straight away

Lily & Marcy came to us at the beginning of December with terribly neglected feet – you can see what they looked like here. Hoof neglect is such a major problem we face here in France which causes such unnecessary suffering.

These girls deserve every happiness and we look forward to reporting on their progress in the near future.

Please be vigilant and check for ticks

It has been brought to our attention that there has been 3 cases of Piroplasmosis in the last few days around the Confolens (dept.16) area. Whilst we don’t want to scare monger people, it’s always worth checking your equines for ticks frequently and knowing the tell tale signs of Piroplasmosis.The ticks that have been the culprits recently have apparently been very small and can easily be missed.

Please refer to our earlier posts on Piroplasmosis for more details on the disease;

http://equinerescuefrance.wordpress.com/2008/02/24/the-ticks-have-landed/

http://equinerescuefrance.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/equine-piroplasmosis-learn-to-spot-the-signs/

Equine Infectious Anaemia hits UK soil!

It was only a matter of time before EIA worked its way into the UK…

And now it has, via 2 horses imported in from Romania via Belgium on 22nd December. Defra has confirmed that these horses will be destroyed after testing positive during random post-import testing. 50 more equines at the same yard, reportedly a dealer who regularly imports equine under the guise of  for ‘breeding purposes’, are also under surveillance.

ERF were so concerned by the increasing number of  ‘rescued equines’ being imported into the UK from Europe, and the associated risk of infectious diseases, that they helped form a sister group last year called INAG for Equines. Together with INAG’s, ERF have been warning Defra that the present Tripartite Agreement (which allows equines to travel between France,Ireland and the UK without health checks)  was putting the UK horse population at great risk.

Last April we reported the EIA outbreak in France causing horses in the Var region to be quarantined and those that tested positive were then euthanized.

For more information on EIA visit the Defra website.

URGENT – DEADLINE 21st JANUARY 2010

Every year, 100,000 horses are transported across Europe for slaughter.
These cruel and barbaric journeys have to be stopped. There is no reason for this live transport to continue when horses can be slaughtered at source and transported as carcasses.
It is totally unneccessary for horses to leave France alive to be slaughtered in other EU countries. In France alone there are 111 abattoirs approved to slaughter horses.

It is extremely urgent we contact our MEPs before the 21st January to ask them to sign the Written Declaration 54/2009.

If more than half of all MEPs sign this before 21st January 2010, we will be one step closer to ending these brutal and hugely inappropriate journeys.

If less than half of the MEPs support the Declaration it will fail, weakening the case for new laws ending the long-distance transportation of horses to slaughter in the European Union.

Please take a few minutes to write to your MEPs so we can end these needless long haul journeys of horses to slaughter. We have downloadable copies of the letter in both French and English.

It’s so simple………in the link below go to your region, find the MEPs for your area, click on the email address, copy and paste the relevant language document from the Word Documents below, sign as yourself, and SEND!

Please do this, your effort could be the difference that changes an opinion, and the future for these horses.

To find your MEP in Europe, go to this LINK, click on your country and then your region.

MEP letter French

MEP letter UK

Owner devastated over stolen ponies-please help

We have been contacted by the owner of 2 miniature horses who were stolen of the night of 29/12/09.  Bailey and Tinkerbell were bought 4 weeks ago as a way of getting back into horses after a riding accident left their owner paralysed from the chest down and in a wheelchair. They were the ideal size for him to groom and take for walks and he was planning on showing them this year.

Their owner, as you can imagine, is completely distraught about losing, what he calls, two very much loved family members.Please keep your eyes peeled for them in France as well as the UK and any info at all is greatly appreciated.

There is also a Facebook page which has been set up with more photos on here.

If you have any info contact:

SURREY POLICE on 0845 125 2222 (Incident Ref No/ SL0910444)
HORSE PATROL 0844 477 6364 http://www.horsepatrol.co.uk/
SAFE (Surrey Action For Equine) 01420 487625 http://www.s-a-f-e.org.uk/

Are you coping with this cold snap?

Some breeds of horse will be coping better with the cold weather than others. Our friend Gazza has no problems being a rotund Norwegian Fjord, and isn’t letting a bit of snow get in the way of his grazing (obviously he’s the one with his head down)!

Have a look at our older blog postings on how to deal with equines and cold weather, or if you have any concerns about equines you think are genuinely suffering in this weather, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

http://equinerescuefrance.wordpress.com/2008/12/03/winter-care-for-your-equine/

http://equinerescuefrance.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/its-freezingbut-is-my-horse-cold-too/

Missing horse – Charente

Missing from Etagnac area, Charente (16).

Dun Henson gelding rising 4 yrs, approx 15hh. More info here.

Please contact 0545317556 if you have any info on him, or contact us.

Happy Birthday wishes for horses everywhere….

Regardless of their actual birth date,the official administrative birthday for horses is tomorrow, January 1st. This date originally came about to make it easier to define age groups in racing  for Thoroughbred horses. Nowadays, January 1st is marked as the horses official birthday in most Northern Hemisphere countries including France (in the Southern Hemisphere it is 1st August).

Foals of most (but not all) breeds of horse born here in France are traditionally named starting with a different sequential letter each year. The letter for 2010 is ‘A‘, so if you have foals due this year you may want to take a look here at some horses names beginning with A for some inspiration!

Have you remembered to get your new calendar or diary for the coming year? If not, then please take a look at the calendar section on our Amazon Store where we have added lots of beautiful calendars and diaries.

Our last blog post of 2009 and we’d like to wish everyone a very

Happy New Year!

Christmas wishes to all our supporters………

Christmas is upon us once again and another year has nearly passed. 2009 has been a busy and productive year for all of us here at ERF. Many welfare cases have been investigated and thankfully many resolved. We have rehomed numerous horses, ponies and donkeys into the most wonderful forever homes and would like to take this opportunity to thank all these Guardians for opening up their homes and hearts to these very special animals.

Here’s hoping that 2010 will be a year for improvements to animal welfare all over the world, but in particular for us, we hope that equine welfare standards and education in France will be raised to an acceptable level.

Please keep up your much valued support for ERF, we need as many voices as possible joining us to

‘give equines in France a second chance!’

ERF supporter brings us some Christmas cheer

Kind hearted horse owner Naomi gave us a wonderful Christmas present this week when she came up with the generous idea of donating the money she would usually spend on sending Christmas cards to ERF. We are immensely grateful to Naomi who has always offered such wonderful support to our association in the past.

From all of us and the horses..Thank You!

Lily and Marcy….2 weeks on

Our 2 beautiful Trotters have now been with us for 2 weeks, and what a change we have seen in them already. Today they came in for a groom (which they adore!) a trim up and probably their first ever taste of being rugged up. The weather is set to turn bitterly cold this next week and as we are trying to keep weight on the girls we thought they’d benefit from being rugged up. They are moving so much better on their feet now and seeing them play about in the field together like a couple of youngsters is truly heartwarming. These girls have such wonderful kind temperaments and are sure to make whoever adopts them extremely happy.

Power of the internet finds abandoned donkey

An injured donkey abandoned near to the Dead Sea in Jordan has been rescued by British  charity SPANA after a plea for help was made on its Facebook page. The donkey was spotted by a member of the public on November 25, who then contacted SPANA through it’s Facebook page.

SPANA’s headquarters in London immediately alerted its office in Amman, Jordan and a team headed off to look for the donkey, although with fairly sketchy details about its location. Amazingly, 3 days later this lucky 14 yr old donkey was found by them and taken back to the safety of it’s Jordan Valley refuge.

The internet and social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Myspace really have opened up new channels in which charities and animal welfare groups can communicate with the general public to  spread news and alerts.

If you are on Facebook please come and join our ERF Page, Tweet us on Twitter or add us as a friend on Myspace!

A bad year for Atypical Myopathy-learn to spot the signs

Equine ATYPICAL MYOPATHY (Myopathie Atypique in French) is a frequently fatal condition affecting grazing horses in autumn and/or spring. The clinical signs of this myopathy seem to appear after typical climatic conditions with global warming also being blamed for the increase in cases recently.

At the beginning of December there were 300 reported cases in Europe, over 80 of these being within France and 27 in the UK.

Clinical signs of Atypical Myopathy (in order of frequency):

- Weakness
- Horse found laying on the grass (or dead)
- Difficulty to get up
- Dark coloured urine
- Stiffness
- Red or purple mucus membranes
- Depressed
- Muscle tremors
- Difficulty to stay standing
- Difficulty or inability to walk
- Increased heart rate
- Difficulty to breath
- Sweating
- Hypothermia
- Colic
- Horse that still wants to eat

Horses most at risk are young horses less than 3 years old (especially horses of 18 months) and older horses. Horses in poor bodily condition,unvaccinated and unwormed horses, and horses not in work are also more at risk.

There is an excellent website here on Atypical Myopathy (which is written in French and English), that also gives some preventative advice.

Read a recent French article on the disease here

British Equine Veterinary Association  alert

News report by Rossdales & Partners Vets