The Inception

Since 2006, there have been increasing numbers of French horses, ponies and donkeys imported into the UK supposedly being 'rescued' from the French abattoirs.
Several UK forum sites sprang up and jumped on the bandwagon. Unfortunately it soon became apparent that the sites were hiding simple horse trading under the guise of 'rescue'. Emotional blackmail was commonplace to encourage soft-hearted horse lovers to purchase these animals. Phrases frequently used include;
'Save these horses from the dreadful three day journeys to Italy';
'Don't let this baby go on the Bad Lorry';
'Save this boy from the dinner plate'
and similar entreaties. All sites used the well documented 3 to 5 day trips to Italy from the Eastern Bloc as something to 'save' the French horses from, when the reality is from the NW of France to the furthest slaughterhouse in Southern Italy would take less than 24 hours, the maximum legal journey time under current EU regulations. Notwithstanding the financial aspect of such a journey would make it commercially unviable and highly unlikely.

The 'rescue' sites mostly buy from dealers, not 'fattening' farms. The breeders and 'fat' farms raise and fatten horses in much the same way as cattle. The young meat horses on the sites are the smaller poorer examples of the breed who will have been rejected by the commercial meat farmers because of their lack of size. These commercial breeders and farmers know their market, and breed accordingly. However, now a new more lucrative market has emerged from the 'rescue sites', it is worth their effort to supply more horses, as higher prices are commanded from these sites than from the abattoir. Taking a horse out of the meat chain at an inflated price does not reduce the numbers that go to slaughter, it simply encourages more production, and more horses facing slaughter.

As a rule, the meat youngsters are totally unhandled, unpredictable and in the case of the heavier breeds, very powerful. It is a recipe for disaster for them to go into the inexperienced hands that make up the majority of the UK forum purchasers.

The horses on the sites in dealers' yards are the bottom end of the market. Invariably lame, sick or aged, these horses and ponies are kept short term in groupage on the dealing yards/farms. The dealer collects unwanted local animals from their owners. If they cannot be sold to someone else in the interim, the ones that have no prospect of a future will eventually go to the abattoir. Riding schools frequently offload onto these farms, and the sound/safe animals will probably find French homes the same way dealers animals in the UK do. Because of the culture here in France, horses go to the abattoir where in the UK these same horses would be put down at home, by a vet or a knacker. There is more information on that here; http://equinerescuefrance.wordpress.com/2008/09/27/the-facts-of-life-and-death-in-france/

Increasingly, the dealers have cottoned onto the fact that there are English people who will pay more than meat money if their heartstrings are tugged, so they use someone to put the equines on the French sites where the English sites source their horses. Many of these horses are in no immediate danger of going to slaughter, it is a myth perpetrated by the sites, both English and French, to try and force a sale of these animals.

Those that are likely to go to the abattoir are frequently misrepresented. The photographs taken by these dealers/agents on the French websites often are done in such a way as to hide the illness/deformities. Their ages are frequently lied about, describing a horse or pony as early to mid teens when in fact these animals are often late twenties or older.

Some of the 'rescue' tales make for grim reading. One old pony died in transit. Another old mare went down so often on the journey that she was very ill and in need of intensive veterinary treatment on arrival. One foal was so deformed that it was euthanased with days of arrival. Two have been euthanased as a result of strangles present on importation. One was euthanased after being forced to endure several operations on twisted limbs.

A small proportion of 'rescued' horses are lucky and find a good, lifelong home, but as the sites prey on less experienced owners, many of these unfortunate animals disappoint by failing to live up to expectation, and are sold or passed on to disappear into an already overpopulated UK equine market roundabout.

Currently, many of these horses come into the UK under the cover of the Tripartite Agreement, which is outdated and open to abuse. http://www.inagforequines.org/tripartite.htm

Our aims are to prevent the never ending tales of misery and suffering endured by these equines by pushing for changes to the regulations and tightening up their implementation.