The Conservative’s Plans for the Horse World
James Paice MP pointed out that horse riding and racing together support directly and indirectly around a quarter of a million jobs and inject many billions of pounds into the British economy, so the industry needs to be protected and promoted. On the subject of horse passports he said that while his Party's manifesto at the last election had said that the compulsory part of issuing passports would be dropped, with the passage of time he accepted that the situation had changed and this would was no longer the policy. He accepted that passports should be for all horses and highlighted the benefits in terms of disease control. However he also recognised that many people still questioned whether passports need to remain compulsory and welcomed public opinion on the matter. He also raised concerns about the massive evasion that currently exists.
On the highly charged political issue of animal transport Mr Paice suggested that more regulations should always be the last resort. Instead existing ones should be properly enforced across Europe. In relation to animal disease he emphasised that there should be a genuine sharing of policy development from which costs are derived and that the government should meet its responsibility for border bio-security and laboratories. He also maintained that any levy must be worth the cost and effort of collection and there must be a cost benefit. He concluded that the Conservative Party would work with the horse industry to find solutions to the challenges which may occur and they would keep out of the industry's way as much as they could.
The full proceedings of the 2010 Forum can be seen here.
With Strangles Awareness Week just around the corner (5-11 May), vets are being encouraged to share a survey about the disease with their horse-owning clients.
