Originally from: lina
                        
--- John Youles <...> wrote:

DEFRA WARNS THAT DEADLINE IS RUNNING OUT FOR HORSE
PASSPORTS

09:00 – 24 October 2003

Defra has published a leaflet to remind horse owners
that there are only 14
weeks left in which to apply for horse passports,
which become mandatory from
January 1, 2004. The leaflet entitled What Does This
Mean For You? outlines the
importance of getting passports, and answers key
questions about the application
process.

Owners must ensure that all their horses, ponies and
donkeys have valid
passports. The deadline for applications is December
31, 2003, and from January
1, 2004 it will be illegal to sell an equine without
a passport.

There are more than 70 organisations with the
authority to issue horse
passports, and costs vary. A complete list is
available from the Defra website.

Approximately 75 per cent of equine veterinary
medicines used in the UK have not
been approved for horses destined for human
consumption, and passports are
designed to ensure that horses treated with these
medicines never enter the
human food chain.

There are no figures yet available to suggest what
percentage of the UK's
estimated 750,000 to 1 million equines now have
passports.

A department spokwesman said: "Defra does not
currently have statistics to show
how many owners have thus far made applications.
With so many outlets having the
authority to issue horse passports, it is difficult
to co-ordinate exact figures
at this stage."

Failure to obtain a passport before the deadline
could result in a £5,000 fine
or one month's imprisonment. "Ultimately, owners
without horse passports after
the end of the year are at risk of prosecution,"
added the spokesman. "We are
continuing to raise awareness of the issue in order
to minimise the number of
cases where such action would have to be
considered."

Copies of the leaflet can be downloaded from Defra's
website at
www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/tracing/horses_index.htm

Defra is opening its doors to more organisations to
issue passports as the
December deadline looms. There are now 70 listed by
Defra as eligible to issue
horse passports (PIOs). Among the new PIOs is the
Pleasure Horse Society (PHS),
which is offering a free passport to owners of
horses with unknown breeding when
they join the society.

Rather than being a breed society as such, the PHS
is a web-based "club", which
is an offshoot of insurance broker Equestrian
Direct. However, Defra maintains
that its criteria when determining which bodies may
become a PIO have not
changed. To date only studbooks and competition
organisers have been eligible.

"A studbook is defined in EU law as any book,
register, file or other medium
recording horses registered by an organisation, so
the Pleasure Horse Society
does comply with our criteria," the Defra spokesman
said.

Among the more surprising additions to the list is
Horse Passports Ltd, a
trading company of London's Southall Market, which
sells 70 horses per week.

"We are looking after our business interests," said
director Richard Steele. "If
we accept horses for sale without passports, we
could be aiding and abetting
their owners to break the law. Now, if a horse is
entered for sale without a
passport, we can issue one."

Meanwhile, freeze-marking specialist Farmkey, which
was initially turned down as
a PIO, has been told that its application would be
considered favourably and has
reapplied. Animal microchip specialist Pet-ID has
joined forces with Joydens
Riding Club of Bexley and has approval as a PIO.

And anyone concerned about the numerous gypsy horses
can rest happy in the
knowledge that these horses now have their own
society, which is approved as a
PIO – the Gypsy Cob Society, set up to "protect the
hundreds of years of Romany
bloodlines".

But the accurate recording of successful bloodlines
on a national equine
database being devised by the British Equestrian
Federation (BEF) could be put
in jeopardy by the proliferation of PIOs, warns BEF
consultant director of
breeding Graham Suggett.

"I have expressed concerns to Defra that PIOs that
are not breeding- or
performance-oriented and will not bother to record
breeding details, which are
needed to provide data for a future breeding
programme," he said.

"Many competition horses are part-bred and if we
have no details of their
origins, when their progeny are competing we will be
no further forward."

Defra is unlikely to release final details of the
passport scheme before the end
of August at the earliest, despite the fact that
owners have just a few months
to apply for a passport before the end of the year
deadline.

Fears are growing over a likely end-of-year rush, as
several major
passport-issuing organisations (PIOs) have not even
started processing
applications, pending the response on details such
as the controversial Section
IX "slaughter for human consumption" declaration.

Meanwhile, the Government's promised campaign to
raise awareness among owners
has yet to materialise.

"We can't spend any money on the campaign until the
legislation is passed, so
we're waiting for this," says Defra's Jane Morley.

"It's difficult to target horse people, but we are
thinking of trying to get to
them through tack shops and feed merchants. We're
aware that it's a massive task
and the deadline is to get people's applications in
by the end of this year."

So far, the volume of applications and inquiries
received across the 50-plus
PIOs suggests that not even a quarter of owners of
the estimated one million
equines in England – Scottish and Welsh legislation
is still in its early stages
– will have applied for a passport by 2004.

The BHS has processed just 2,000 applications so
far, and Sport Horse Breeding
of Great Britain (SHB(GB)) around 2,500.