by Cindy Mark
Horses contribute over $12 billion annually to Canada’s economy* and one-third of all those horses (309,000 to be exact) live in Alberta. Therefore, it makes sense for horse owners – and particularly those in Alberta – to keep a watchful eye on Equine Canada’s National Equine Identification and Traceability Project, or what I like to refer to simply as Equine ID.
(*According to Equine Canada statistics, activities with horses including sport, racing, recreation, and entertainment contribute $12 billion annually to Canada’s economy.)
Vel Evans, Equine ID project consultant, came to Red Deer, AB, during the Horse Breeders and Owners Conference in mid-January and provided an update on the Equine ID project for all who were willing to listen. Horses All was one of those in attendance.
In case you haven’t been listening, Equine ID is a plan that consists of creating a system wherein every horse has a unique lifetime number (UELN) and a record of the horse’s legal owner, and Equine Canada creates and maintains a central database that pools all these records to provide a means of track-back for disease control.
Every property with livestock on it will also have a unique premises number assigned by a national livestock premises registry. This program for registering livestock premises is currently underway for cattle owners in Alberta as part of the “age verification” program for Alberta beef.
Your horse’s UELN will be recorded on a computer database along with a detailed description of the horse. While all of this has yet to be seen, some form of equine identification program will eventually be put in place in Canada. Therefore, it’s important to keep informed.
One of our mandates at Horses All is exactly that: to keep you informed of important equine topics, of which Equine ID is one (we also reported on Equine ID in the October 2004, and April 2005 issues). With that in mind, we would like to start a conversation about this very topic.
Instead of rattling on about the minutiae of details within the Equine ID proposal (which would take pages upon pages), why don’t we get right down to business and ask the direct questions that need to be answered.
In talking with our readers, many of you have posed questions similar to the one below, so let’s start with it:
Q: Our family’s grade horse was born and raised on the farm. The furthest away it travels is when my daughter rides it to our neighbours, and when we go trail riding at Ya-Ha Tinda for a week over the summer. What the heck does our horse need a UELN for? And, does having one mean that I have to register with Equine Canada every time my children ride over to the neighbours?
A: First of all, your horse doesn’t need a UELN … unless your children decide to compete in an organized show, you sell the horse at auction, or you send it to slaughter.
According to Equine Canada, eventually all organizers of horse shows, gymkhanas, and every other recognized equine competition will require that all horses entered have a UELN.
Therefore, when entering a competition you will, theoretically, need to bring your horse’s UELN documentation with you. The show organizers will note from your entry form information that your horse was present at the show on specific dates.
If show organizers are equipped with Internet access then, presumably, you will be able to fill in the required show information directly onto your horse’s computerized file.
As for selling your horse, eventually auction marts will be required to sell only horse’s that have UELNs.
If you sell your horse privately and the new owner never goes anywhere except on his/her own property with that horse, then there is no need for that horse to have a UELN. Again, however, if that new owner wants to show the horse at a recognized event, sell it through an auction mart, or send it to slaughter, he/she would have to get the horse a UELN.
As for the slaughterhouse, for food safety reasons it’s becoming increasingly important to be able to track an animal’s whereabouts and realize how it came into the food chain. Thus, a horse’s UELN will be able to do just that.
In case you think it unimaginable that your lovely little mare could be part of a global pandemic, remember England’s hoof-and-mouth outbreak, the avian flu crisis in Asia, and our own BSE troubles.
There is no guarantee that our horses are immune to such disease outbreaks. In fact, the Hendra Virus reported in horses in Australia in 1996 resulted in the death of two trainers.
And, in case you didn’t know, there are three slaughter facilities in Canada certified to slaughter horsemeat for human consumption, one of which is in Alberta (the other two are in Quebec).
Approximately 12,000 tonnes of horsemeat are exported from Canada every year, mostly to markets in Europe and Japan. And, specialty butcher shops within Canada sell over 1,000 tonnes of horsemeat to Canadians every year.
Although this has all yet to be seen, representatives from various breed associations (including the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society, Standardbred Canada, the Appaloosa Horse Club of Canada and the Canadian Sport Horse Association, among others) and industry leaders (such as Chris Gould of the Canadian Warmblood Horse Breeders Association; Bill desBarres of the Appaloosa Horse Club of Canada and the Alberta Equestrian Federation; Gordon Wilson of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society; Les Burwash of the Alberta Horse Industry Branch, Alberta Agriculture; Mara Coote-Freeman, Animal Science Extension Manager at Olds College and member of the Canadian Warmblood Horse Breeders Association; Ron Black, General Manager of the Canadian Livestock Records Corporation and Registrar Canadian General Herd and Stud Book; and Marnie Somers of the Canadian Quarter Horse Association and AQHA Director, to name just a few) have been working on the project for over 15 months now.
Currently, Equine ID in Canada is voluntary, but you know there’s a “however” coming. As in: However, the United States is creating a similar system in their country that will be made mandatory by January 2008, and there’s already an equine tracking system in place in Europe that is also mandatory. So it seems that it’s only a matter of time.
If you want more information on the progress of Canada’s Equine ID, go to the Equine Canada website (www.equinecanada.ca) and under the “Breeds and Industry Division” you’ll find a link to “Info Sessions for Update on Horse ID.”
