Petition for Amendment to the Tripartite Agreement

The Tripartite Agreement which allows free movement of horses between the UK, France and Ireland was originally set up to make the movement of competition and breeding horses between the two counties easier.

The following categories of horse were included under this umbrella:

1. Wetherbys passported (to cover breeding & racing)
2. FEI passported (to cover competition horses)
3. Breed Society passported (to cover breeding stock)

In the era of it’s conception, the TPA could be monitored efficiently due to the limited number of relevant horses. The vehicle capability was poor by today’s standards, and cross channel travel was slow, laborious, and expensive and therefore unprofitable for unscrupulous dealers or those at the lower end of the market. However we are now in an era where cross channel travel is fast, and efficient, thus it has become far more cost effective. It has never been so easy to transport a horse from other European countries and potentially abusing the TPA by going via France over to the UK - and the huge increase in horse movement renders it virtually impossible to police effectively.

We have some thoughts on the possible changes that may be effective without ostracising the major sporting and breeding industries on our website.

The current outbreak of EIA might have been contained - it might not.

We believe that whether EIA is restricted to these two horses in one area or becomes a UK wide disaster for horse owners, is very much dependant on how DEFRA handle this from now on. We owe it to our horses to do everything in out power to force DEFRA to overhaul their system and prevent a repeat of the foot and mouth debacle.

Please show your support by signing this petition requesting changes to the TPA -

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/TPAchanges/