World Horse Welfares chief executive Roly Owers has welcomed the UK governments new animal welfare strategy, in particular its measures around the live export of horses from Britain to Europe for slaughter. We welcome the governments animal welfare strategy, and in particular their commitment to explore further measures to prevent live export of horses from Britain to slaughter, said Roly. It is still far too easy for horses to be exported under the guise of riding or breeding but go straight to a meat market, so its urgent and vital that we get the right measures in place to put a stop to this.Earlier this year, 20 horses who have been called the Trafficked20 were discovered inside a transporter after it was stopped for inspection at Dover port and officials discovered a foal on the floor unable to stand up.It came 12 months after a group of 26 equines known as the Dover 26 were found crammed on to a transporter in Dover, awaiting export to Europe. Described as frightened and vulnerable young colts, fillies, mares and geldings, many of them had health issues and only 19 of them had the necessary paperwork for the journey. Four were in such poor health they had to be put down.Also this year, Your Horse reported on the three-year-old ex-racehorse who suffered a fractured skull and severe wounds after being trampled by other horses in an overloaded lorry bound for slaughter.They were the fortunate few, with many of these smuggled horses ending up in slaughterhouses in Europe after enduring unnecessarily long journeys, said a statement from World Horse Welfare. Licensing regulationsRoly said the charity also welcomes other aspects of the governments strategy, including the recognition of the impact of transport on the welfare of animals and the importance of welfare-friendly journey times, as well as the impact of temperatures and space allowances. We applaud the Governments commitment to working with both the horse sector and enforcement bodies to develop appropriate measures, he said.We are pleased to see the Government commit to working with local authorities to improve enforcement of the current licensing regulations for premises where equines are kept, to ensure greater consistency and effectiveness.We are hopeful that improvements in enforcement will be made before the outcome of the proposed consultation on licensing of rescue and rehoming centres and look forward to working with the Government, via the National Equine Welfare Council and British Horse Council, to ensure that any new licensing requirements are both proportionate and enforceable.One omissionHowever, Roly noted that there is one omission in the new animal welfare strategy.Given its acknowledgment of the importance of being evidence-led, we urge the Government to update the Code of Practice for the keeping of horses, ponies, donkeys and their hybrids (mules and hinnies) in England, since the current Code was issued in 2013 and last updated in 2017, he said. Updating the code, as is currently being done in Scotland, would enable the welfare of all equines in England to be better protected, supporting the Governments stated aims of educating animal owners and carers on best practices and promoting innovation in animal care and welfare standards. We would be pleased to support Defra and work with the sector to achieve this.Main image of the Dover 26 World Horse WelfareRelated contentGovernment publishes new animal welfare strategy including ban on trail huntingOutrage as 20 horses discovered being fraudulently transported out of UKEx-racehorse is trampled and suffers fractured skull in overloaded lorry while on way to slaughterHorses smuggled out of Dover highlight sickening threat to vulnerable animalsThe post Charity chief welcomes governments new animal welfare strategy appeared first on Your Horse.