ILPH Welcomes Introduction of Horse Passports

The International League for the Protection of Horses welcomes the Government's
announcement that all equines in England and Wales will be required to have a
passport.

The new legislation, which DEFRA hopes will be in force by 31 December 2003, is
designed to bring us into line with EU legislation and countries such as Germany, The
Netherlands and France who already have it in place.

David Mountford, ILPH Director of Operations comments, "Whilst complete
registration of all equines is a laudable aim, its considered implementation will be the
key to any chance of success across the entire equine sector.

"In welfare terms we hope that the need for every equine to have a passport will have
a significant effect on indiscriminate breeding and over production."

Alongside the proposed passport legislation DEFRA has asked the British
Equestrian Federation (BEF) to arrange and chair a Planning Committee so that
horse organisations already issuing passports can be consulted about the possibility
of establishing a new National Equine Database

"As one of the organisations invited to sit on the Planning and sub Committees,
continues David Mountford "we will have a voice in the process. We will do our best
to ensure that the planning and implementation of this proposal gives due regard to
equine welfare."

As HRH The Princess Royal said in her summing up at the ILPH Seminar in
November last year, "If we can get around the problem that a horse has an identity in
this country which is with it forever and you can trace where it's been, what it's done,
and who its owners are, that must be an advantage in terms of preventing abuse."

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