Ending horse slaughter in the UK

That this House is alarmed by the revelations of an undercover investigation by Animal Aid, which featured on BBC Panorama, showing the slaughter of unwanted equines; is shocked that thousands of hoses and ponies are killed for their meat every year in the UK and Ireland; notes that there are no restrictions on horse production or breeding in the UK or Ireland and that most horses are speculatively bred for profit; understands that this leads to a surplus of unwanted equines; calls on the Government to take pro-active steps to require all horse breeding societies to set tangible annual limits on the numbers of equines bred and to make it a requirement that all breeders are responsible for each animal they produce both in welfare and financial terms; and further calls on the Government to collect, analyse and make public the number of equines from all breed societies slaughtered each year so that the annual limits may be reduced further if the situation shows no sign of improvement.