November 19, 2009

World Horse Welfare President, HRH The Princess Royal has spoken of her admiration for the scope and breadth of the charity's work to help horses.

The Princess Royal addressed an audience of more than 150 supporters, politicians and industry experts at World Horse Welfare's annual conference held at the Royal Geographical Society in London last week.

The Princess Royal said it was a 'great comfort' that the charity had been able to achieve so much in such a difficult financial climate and that it was 'testament to supporters' and World Horse Welfare's ability in being able to 'prove that they can make a difference.'

The conference opened with a moving and inspiring film summarising the enormous amount that the charity has done so far in 2009. Chairman Christopher Hall followed and commented on how this reflected the overriding theme of the conference and their general belief that no-one does more to help horses all over the world, but that none of this would be possible without continued support.

Chief Executive Roly Owers then introduced the groundbreaking Stamp Out Suffering (SOS) research into horse welfare and introduced Dr Tim Parkin from Glasgow University who has been a significant figure in this work. Tim explained the key findings, which included the shocking statistics in relation to horse obesity and the public perceptions of related welfare implications. More than 2000 members of the public were questioned and over half of respondents either could not recognise an overweight horse or if they did, had no idea of the dire health or welfare implications to the animal. This compares to over three quarters of the people surveyed who believed a horse being underweight was a threat.

World Horse Welfare's Field Officer for North-East Scotland, Doug Howie, gave a very emotive presentation about the shocking realities of his day to day work in the UK as he described a case he was involved in May this year. A number of semi-feral horses were found living in a boggy field in Aberdeenshire and the gruesome remains of around 15 more were found in a nearby barn. This case, which is currently ongoing, was just one example of more than 1500 that the charity's Field Officers have been involved with this year.

A forum then took place with expert panellists - HRH The Princess Royal, equestrian sports commentator Mike Tucker, Richard Benyon MP (Shadow Defra Minister), Professor Sandy Trees (President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons) and broadcaster and writer Nick Luck. They answered a range of welfare related questions from the importance of horses in the developing world, to tackling the problem of overweight horses in the UK.

World Horse Welfare's campaigns department then gave an overview on the latest developments in the charity's transportation campaign, describing the shocking observations made during this year's field investigations, as well as discussing successes over the past 12 months. They were joined by leading researcher Dr David Marlin who outlined the concerning findings from the recent scientific research project, which illustrated the detrimental impact of these journeys and conditions of the horses involved. The team explained that the campaign to end the long-distance transportation of horses to slaughter in Europe had entered a critical stage, with a Written Declaration needing urgent MEP signatures; they asked supporters to press their local MEPs to sign.

Finally it was the turn of the charity's international training team who highlighted the real benefits that they provide to both horses and people. Romanian in-country co-ordinator and former farriery student Catalin Urasche explained how World Horse Welfare had helped him to earn an income as a farrier and improve the lives of many horses. Catalin was followed by Antonia Ling, a final year student at the Royal Veterinary College. Antonia received a World Horse Welfare undergraduate bursary this year, which enabled her to investigate the debilitating respiratory disease strangles in Lesotho.

"The annual conference is our opportunity to showcase the enormous amount of work that World Horse Welfare does to help horses," said World Horse Welfare Chief Executive Roly Owers.

"I am very proud of our many achievements, but we can only do what we do with the support of the public, as we receive no government funding. In these difficult financial times we have to manage our funds with great care and we need support and help more than ever if we are expand our work to help horses."