Animal welfare charities have welcomed Princess Anne’s suggestion that
horse welfare could be improved by putting horsemeat on sale in UK
supermarkets.
She claimed owners might take better care of their horses if they
believed they could sell them for meat.
The Princess Royal made her remarks in a speech to the charity World
Horse Welfare, of which she is president.
It comes as charities warn of a horse welfare “crisis”, with 7,000 at
risk of abandonment and neglect this winter.
They said a fuller debate was needed.
‘Real market’: Earlier this year the discovery of horse DNA in
processed food products on sale at UK and Irish Republic supermarkets
sparked a major scandal.
It resulted in a series of product recalls and threw the spotlight on
the food industry’s supply chain, testing procedures and food
labelling.
In the speech, on Thursday, Princess Anne suggested British attitudes
towards eating horsemeat may have to change.
“Should we be considering a real market for horsemeat and would that
reduce the number of welfare cases, if there was a real value in the
horsemeat sector?” said the former eventing champion.
“I chuck that out for what it’s worth because I think it needs a debate.”
Jeanette Allen, head of the Horse Trust, who attended the speech, said
the princess raised an interesting point.
“Farming is something we find culturally acceptable in this country
but it just so happens that as a culture we haven’t embraced horses
being part of that livestock – but other cultures have,” she said.
Butchers in France offer cuts of horsemeat similar to those offered in
the UK for beef
“It’s an interesting question and once we’ve had the debate we may
well decide as a culture that we’re still not interested in doing that
but that doesn’t mean the question isn’t interesting to ask.”
She said there were about 7,000 horses in the UK “at risk of suffering
some serious neglect over this coming winter”.
The value of those animals commercially was as little as £5-£10, she said.
When asked if she would eat horsemeat, Ms Allen said she was
“personally squeamish about it, although I am a meat-eater”.
“I have no rationality for that at all… What I care about in the
meat I choose to eat is the welfare standard of the farming process
and the abattoir process before it reaches my table,” she added.
‘Neglected and abused’
Jenny MacGregor, chairwoman of the Society for the Welfare of Horses
and Ponies, said the princess was “brave” for starting the debate
because it was likely to prove controversial.
She said she believed the prospect of horsemeat becoming a staple in
Britain was “realistic” – and even essential given the number of cases
of neglect and abuse UK charities were seeing each day.
If the value of horses was raised, with the meat market in mind,
owners would take better care of their animals, she said.
“Princess Anne has come up with something practical which, in the long
run, will be of great value,” she said.
Roly Owers, of World Horse Welfare, said the charity’s view was that
while a horse or pony was alive, it should be treated with care and
compassion.
“That is the core issue… We are in the grip of a UK equine crisis
and we need to look at all options of solving that,” he said.
He warned that owners who chose to put their animal into the human
food chain should “not be castigated for it”. About 10,000 horses from
the UK went into the human food chain last year, he said.
The RSPCA said it welcomed any debate into the “growing problems”
surrounding horse welfare which it had “very grave concerns” about.
“Our centres, and those of other charities, are overflowing with
horses which have been abandoned, neglected and abused and we are
struggling to keep up with the demands for our help,” a spokeswoman
said.
The charity said the killing of horses for meat was “an emotive
subject”, a sentiment the RSPCA had sympathy with.
But it said its primary concern was that they were cared for and that
they were slaughtered in a humane way. – BBC News
