Horse — UK legal framework: Animal Welfare Act 2006 duty of care, Horse Passport (England) Regulations 2004/2009, microchipping (UK DEFRA code)
Source: UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), “Code of practice for the welfare of horses, ponies, donkeys and their hybrids” (December 2017), gov.uk. Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0 — verbatim quotation permitted with attribution; C1 substring-verified against pdf-raw/horse-welfare/horses_welfare_code_2018.txt.
This topic covers the UK legal framework for keeping equines: the Animal Welfare Act 2006 duty of care (the Code is used by courts to judge welfare offences), the legal requirement for every horse, pony, donkey and mule in England to have a valid passport, and the microchipping rules attached to passport applications.
Claims
It is your responsibility to fully understand your horse’s welfare needs and what the law requires you to do to meet those needs. Breach of a provision of the Code is not an offence in itself, but if proceedings are brought against you for a welfare offence the Court will look at whether or not you have complied with the Code in deciding whether you have committed an offence.Since 2004 it has been a legal requirement (the Horse Passport (England) Regulations 2004) for all horses and ponies (and other forms of equidae) in England to have a valid passport identifying the animal and the current registered owner.These regulations were updated in 2009, requiring all foals born after the 1st July 2009 and older horses not previously identified to be microchipped when a passport is applied for. For foals, all applications must be submitted by the end of the year of their birth or within six months of birth, whichever is later.The passport must accompany the horse during all movements with a few exceptions, most notably when moved on foot or in an emergency situation, but must be produced without undue delay by the keeper if required.One of the purposes of horse passports is to record when a horse receives certain medications which may have negative consequences for human health if your animal enters the food chain at the end of its life. It is therefore essential that the passport is available whenever your vet treats your horse so he/she can record if any of these medicines are given.Horse passports should be easily accessible, as required in law, otherwise some treatments may not be available.