Should Horse Owners Have to Rely on Good Luck to Recover Their Stolen Horses?

On Monday 2 November 2009 a horse was stolen from a field in the Guildford area. The people who took her sawed through a wooden post and rail fence to get out and this happened between 3pm and 6pm in the afternoon, presumably in daylight.

The police were informed and so were the microchip company who circulated her details to all the ferry ports etc.

During the afternoon of Tuesday 3 Nov, the distraught owner received a phone call from the police to say her horse had been found in Holyhead, Wales. She was tied to a railing at the ferry port and the ferry to Ireland had gone without her.

Several things have come to light in this story:

1. A week prior the horse had a small plait in its mane when the owner went to get her in from the field and described it as very small, almost like a tangle. She disregarded it as kids messing about (her horses are out in a field with others). However, it transpires that this is how people mark horses to be stolen later. One person marks them, another then comes later and knows which one to take.

2. The ferry port at Holyhead do not check horses passports or microchips. This horse was traveling without a passport.

3. The police believe the reason this horse was left behind was because she was microchipped. Although the UK is lax about passport and microchip checking, it is apparently more common for horses to be scanned on entering Ireland. The people who take them will scan them and dump them if they find a microchip. The horse also had a large obvious scar so this may have been a contributing factor.

The police told her that horses being dumped at a ferry terminal is not uncommon and they usually turn out to be stolen. They have had horses left in a lorry on the actual ferry!

This story has a happy ending for the owner and her horse, but how many other stolen horses could have been on that ferry to Ireland?

The owner cannot give any more details because of the police investigation that is ongoing, but has given her permission for INAG to relay this story to highlight:

1. If you find your horse with a small plait in its mane or tail please do not ignore it! The plait is put their so that the thieves know which horse to steal.

2. If your horse isn’t microchipped please consider doing it. The owner of this horse describes her as ‘nothing flashy, just a normal 14.2 bay mare’ so please don’t think it couldn’t happen to you.

The government states

i) The equine passport is a way of recording the information regarding a horses medical treatment in order to reduce the risk of unsuitable horses entering the food chain (Q2, 3, 4) http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmanimal/movements/horses/horses_qa.htm).

ii) That it is illegal (except for in a few instances, Q16 http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmanimal/movements/horses/horses_qa.htm) for a horse to moved or transported without a passport except under emergency circumstances.

iii) That since February 2005 it is an offence to move their horse or pony outside the UK without a passport (Q38 http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmanimal/movements/horses/horses_qa.htm)

iiii) Failure to correctly identify animals could lead to a fine of up to £5000.

On posing the question as to the efficacy of checks at ferry ports to a number of well respected horse transporters, they replied that only very infrequently are passports requested from the transporters, especially on the UK/Ireland routes. However, they are not verified that they actually belong to the horses being transported, nor are microchips checked - merely a count done that the number of passports shown = the number of horses IF the transporter is pulled over for checking!

Given the Ton of Bricks method of applying this legislation to the average law abiding horse owner, INAG finds it incomprehensible that the Government itself can so easily and glibly flout its own rules by allowing horses through its own ports without its staff verifying that the horses are being moved legally. Or is it simply easier and cheaper to hound and make examples out of Joe Public, rather than equip all ports with the facilities, staff and equipment that would enable them to catch some REAL law breakers - the horse traffickers and horse thieves...?

Well done to the police for their efforts in recovering this poor horse and reuniting her with her owner!