World Horse Welfare Chief Executive Roly Owers tells the tale of the crisis in the horse world in charity’s 2013 Christmas message.
In what has been an extraordinary year for horses, the horse meat scandal brought horses to the forefront of the political agenda, media headlines and public consciousness – and the attention enabled World Horse Welfare to shine a spotlight on the real problems in the horse world.
Roly starts by saying: “What has struck me most as I look back over 2013 is how so many of these negative headlines, we have been able to turn into forces for good.
“As grim as the horsemeat scandal was it opened the public’s eyes to the murky trade that charities like World Horse Welfare know only too well. The fact is that horses are largely unregulated, untraceable and so overbred that they are available to purchase for next to nothing, indeed sometimes it is difficult to give a horse away.”
