Smuggled Irish horses highlight urgent need for better protection of equines

For almost a century, our charity has been informing EU policy on horses, and now we are warning that the current transport proposals being discussed by the EU Parliament and member states need significant changes if they are to be workable for the equine sector. Furthermore, it is crucial they are underpinned by a fully digital system of equine ID that must cover all horses if they are to stop horse smugglers from operating with impunity.

As an example of the need for all horses to be covered by the new EU Regulation, we are highlighting a shipment of 20 horses from Ireland that was intercepted by Britain’s Animal Plant and Health Agency at Dover port on 6 December last year. The lorry was on its way to mainland Europe with some of these horses likely destined for slaughter.

Those on board included Irish Thoroughbreds, Connemaras and leisure ponies – alongside animals that were being moved legitimately. Many of the horses were too sick and weak to travel yet had been crammed into an unsuitable lorry which was stopped as one foal was down and unable to get back to their feet.

There were seven Irish Thoroughbreds, some in poor body and health condition, with the majority suffering from highly infectious diseases including strangles and pneumonia. Five, including former broodmare Into the Lane, had to be euthanised on health and welfare grounds.

Two had only recently left racing: Superdermo last raced in August 2024 followed by two point-two-point races in October and November. He was subsequently euthanised on health and welfare grounds at a holding site near Dover under veterinary advice.

The Expert raced at Dundalk just a little over a day before the lorry departed Ireland. He, along with another Thoroughbred, whose name was not recorded on his identification document and whose microchip appears to be missing, are now in our care with their support being funded from British racing’s Retraining of Racehorses charity.

Six other horses were also brought into our care, one of whom has two microchips. Among these horses are a pregnant mare, three unhandled youngsters and another pony who was suffering from a severe skin infection. The other seven horses on the lorry were reclaimed by their owners.

Our Chief Executive Roly Owers said:

“This case demonstrates that any horse, whether for sport, leisure or slaughter, can be subjected to long journeys in poor health and welfare conditions, and spread disease. But this lorry would not have been stopped under the current terms of the proposed EU regulations, because they were not declared for slaughter.

“We recognise that the current EU transport proposals under consideration by the European Parliament and Member States are not fit for purpose, not least because they would massively impact the sector without providing any equine health or welfare benefits. Furthermore, the current proposals would water down what is already in place, apart from for the legitimate horse meat trade, protecting many fewer horses. So, we believe the focus now should be on amending the current proposals to provide a minimum level of protection for all horses transported within the EU, regardless of type or the purpose of the journey.

“We fully support the principle of sport and racehorses being able to move easily across borders without friction if they are fully, digitally, verifiably and individually traceable, with sport organisations able to share information with authorities to verify that these are legitimate movements. The sector has made good progress with this technology, and we encourage sport to complete this important work. This is the only way to ensure only the legitimate movements for sport and breeding would be able to cross borders easily while not creating a giant loophole for unscrupulous traders to flout health and welfare laws.”

Our charity is concerned that if only horses destined for slaughter are subject to the new regulations, there will be little to no enforcement of any horse transport, giving smugglers free rein to illegally traffic horses for slaughter or fraudulent sale under the guise of exporting them for riding or breeding.

As no horse is fully and individually traceable, enforcement of any new laws will remain challenging until a fully digital system of identification and traceability across Europe is developed. Without this centralised system, we believe that journey logs are essential to trace the movements of a horse and would like these to be a requirement for journeys of more than 65 kilometres for all horses, not just those for slaughter.

Roly said:

“We recognise that many sport and racehorses are transported for training, breeding or competition in good conditions that protect their health and welfare, and we would not want additional regulatory burdens placed on their movement. But we have evidence that some sport and racehorse movements are not compliant with existing rules. While horses who are trained in Britain are required to be permanently signed out of the food chain prior to racing, no such restriction exists in other European countries. However, any racehorse who never enters, or leaves competition at the end of their career, is not as traceable. They can be easily passed from owner to owner and in the case of smuggling, may be exported for slaughter while not being declared as such and, if needed, be fraudulently reidentified to make them appear eligible for the food chain.

“This we believe is what was happening with the intercepted shipment. The fact that one of these horses had two microchips and another does not appear to have any indicates that the current system is not working, and a centralised digital system that enables scanning and logging microchip numbers before and after journeys needs to be in place.”

From a welfare perspective, we believe that the new transport regulations could offer much needed protection for horses destined for slaughter if they limit their journey to a slaughterhouse to nine hours, instead of the existing 24 hours with the option of continuing the journey after a 24-hour period of rest.

However, there are a number of provisions in the regulation which will not improve welfare and prove unduly onerous to the equine industry – such as limits on transport based on external temperatures rather than temperature within the vehicle, the requirement for loading to be supervised by a vet and also to remain resident in a country for seven days before onward movement. None of these particular provisions are workable but more importantly, none of these provisions would improve welfare. In fact, some could cause real risk to health and welfare.

We have set up a campaign to #StopHorseSmuggling with a petition for anyone wishing to support us in asking MEPs to act now. Sign the petition today.