As part of ongoing work to change the laws surrounding the transportation of horses to slaughter, World Horse Welfare has presented its latest dossier of evidence to the European Commission.
More than 80,000 horses make these journeys each year, often covering thousands of miles andseveral countries, and the charity has documented scientific evidence of their suffering.
The charity has been campaigning for changes in the law so that a maximum journey limit of 9-12 hours is adopted.
Jo White and Roly Owers from the charity travelled to Brussels last week (Wednesday 26 October) to present the dossier.
“Our dossiers of evidence outline the problems we have seen during our field investigations and use compelling scientific evidence to underpin the call for change in the regulation,” said Jo White.
“The evidence we have collected demonstrates that long-distance transportation of horses across Europe intended for slaughter causes suffering and is unnecessary. The simple and practical solution of a short, maximum journey limit would not only reduce the current suffering but would also reduce the unacceptable disease risk that the trade creates. We keenly await the publishing of the European Commission’s report.”
World Horse Welfare carries out regular field investigations into the trade and says it has considerable evidence showing that current journey times and transportation practices lead to unnecessary suffering – as well as posing an EU-wide disease threat.
For more information visit www.worldhorsewelfare.org/help-tomorrow/transport_action
