What is equine welfare? Asks Johnston Racing’s vet Neil Mechie
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By Neil Mechie
The world of equine welfare—and animal welfare in general—is a proverbial can of worms. Decisions regarding equine welfare must be made on logical scientific evidence and not be biased by emotion or fear of incorrect perceptions in the media or public eye. As with many things in life, education is the key, especially in a world where large parts of the population have very little experience or knowledge of keeping or working with animals.
The welfare of animals is protected in national legislation in the UK. The Animal Welfare Act 2006 makes owners and keepers responsible for ensuring that the welfare needs of their animals are met. These include the need:
Neil Meche
for a suitable environment (place to live)
for a suitable diet (food and water)
to exhibit normal behaviour patterns
to be housed with, or apart from, other animals (if applicable)
to be protected from pain, injury, suffering and disease
Reading these concise bullet points, one would think it quite simple to meet these needs, but issues arise when it comes to interpreting and putting this guidance into practice.
As an insight into how emotive language can change the interpretation of animal welfare requirements, below are the The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) “Five Freedoms,” which are not too dissimilar to the above but portrayed in a different light:
Freedom from hunger and thirst
Freedom from discomfort
Freedom from pain, injury or disease
Freedom to express normal behaviour
Freedom from fear and distress
The RSPCA is a charity champions animal welfare, and the use of words such as hunger, thirst, discomfort, fear and distress conjure up images of tortured animals wasting away in squalor. There is no need for this dramatic language when the preservation of welfare only actually requires common sense and compassion.
The same can be said when considering the welfare of horses, but sadly this is not the case. The biggest welfare issues facing the horse population are not, as the media would have you think, horses breaking their legs on racetracks or the travelling community mistreating horses at Appleby Fair. It is obesity and the mis-management of horses in the general population. Every day horses are being killed by a plethora of issues caused by over-feeding and poor management regimes. Laminitis, colic and numerous hormonal and metabolic diseases negatively affect the welfare of thousands of horses each year and are in a large part caused by the poor knowledge and horsemanship of their owners. It is now a large part of most equine vets’ job to educate horse owners on appropriate feeds and management regimes for their horses.
Racehorses, on the contrary, are looked after with the highest of standards as they are athletes competing at a high level.
