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Welfare
Report for BHS Hampshire Meeting on 15th
October 2008
Organisation of BHS Hants County Welfare Representatives (CRW)
Team
Areas covered:
East & North
Hants Anne Vestey
Claire Pragnell
Southampton &
South East Becky Gardiner
Tasha Collard
New Forest &
Waterside Jacquie Trim
Patty Burrows
These areas are rough guides only, reflecting CWRs
location. Crossovers are expected should a CWR be unavailable at
a specific time. Where possible, the CWRs will work in pairs.
The coordinator of the Welfare Team is Patty Burrows and the
team will meet bi-monthly to discuss current issues and how the
objectives for the year are progressing.
Work to Date (since end July 2008)
9 welfare cases have been reported and dealt with, 3 of
which are still ongoing.
The Team is also working on establishing contact and
working relationships with local authorities, police, other
equine welfare organisations, Verderers/Agisters, vets, farriers
etc.
A current local concern has arisen in the New Forest that
we would like to make you aware of and request your support in:
The National
Park Authority (NPA) has produced a consultation document of
their long-term vision for the New Forest. It affects all those
who live, work or enjoy leisure activities within the New Forest
such as dog walk or horse riding.
For the equine community it has far reaching consequences
from an animal welfare perspective. The main aspects of the plan
seem to be centred around the change of agricultural land to
recreational use and the need for planning permission if any of
the following are used:
·
the subdivision of a former single field into multiple pony
paddocks;
·
the existence of maneges, stables and field shelters (‘portable’
or otherwise);
·
other on site equine equipment, such as horse jumps and
schooling rings;
·
corrals for tacking up horses (normally by the field gate);
·
regular supplementary feeding; and
·
horses being regularly ‘rugged’ throughout the winter
However, the key component of this is that each equine,
regardless of size, must have 1 hectare (2.4 acres approx) to
even consider applying for planning permission to change the use
of the land – this is more than double the BHS recommendation!
There is a general consensus that permission will be not be
granted and horses will therefore have to be removed from the
land.
There are a number of groups that are strongly opposed to the
plan and the BHS is one of those that have made its objections
known in writing to the NPA on grounds of Welfare and Access.
Copies of the BHS’ 3-page letter to the NPA are available –
please ask your Welfare Representatives or have a look on the
Forest Uprising website (see below).
Forest Uprising is a group of local horse owners who have come
together to call attention to this issue. They have been very
successful locally through the press, radio and TV, but as the
BHS has officially raised its concerns about this consultation
document, we need your support in this matter.
We would ask BHS members to have a look at the NPA document and
the BHS response and raise your concerns with the NPA in writing
and write to your local MPs about this. If the consultation goes
through as it stands, it will also be rolled out to other
National Parks like Dartmoor and Exmoor in due course and could
likely be picked up by local councils as well – this is not just
a localized issue … it affects all horse owners!
The BHS Welfare representatives are concerned, as are many other
groups, about the potential welfare issues that will arise if
this plan is implemented.
The NPA document can be viewed at
www.newforestnpa.gov.uk/horseleaflet2.pdf
For information on the activity of the newly formed Forest
Uprising Group:
www.forestuprising.org.uk
Objectives for the next 12 Months (Oct 2008 – Oct 2009)
Apart from responding to welfare call-outs and the ongoing
establishing of contacts as mentioned above, the Welfare Team as
identified the following objectives for the next 12 months:
1.
Target equine
welfare at local riding club shows and encourage riding clubs /
pony clubs to run their shows under the BHS Guidelines For The
Welfare Of Horses And Ponies At Events. Contact will be made
with both BHS and non-BHS riding and pony clubs.
2.
Raising of
welfare issues, equine management and promoting BHS membership
in the area through establishing strong contacts as laid out
above as well as looking into email/website based publications
like Hampshire Rider etc., posters with guidelines for tack
shops and contacting organisations like the Beaulieu Countryside
Education Trust.
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