It’s a while since we had time to attend a market, and as Chénérailles was needing looked, at we went.

We were surprised to see big lorries from all over France for such a small market – Haute-Saône, Deux-Sèvres, Aude, Cantal, Vienne, Savoie and the Ardèche, and all commercial meat dealers. There appeared to be Portuguese dealers there, as well as an Italian looking dealer at the weighing area.

We think there must be some early moving of horses, as a lot of the pens that had been occupied looked empty. A large lorry moving heavy horses had the Savoie plate, and was collecting from the area with the weigh pen, so it’s not too much of guess these would be heading for Italy, as the lorry was carrying Italian coachwork labels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The market pens were full of the usual horrors of unwanted horses and ponies. Lots of the equines were still hanging onto their winter coats, which given the temperatures we’ve had indicated lack of food over the winter. Only a lucky few had access to hay, and although water was freely available, there was none in any of the pens despite the heat of the day.

We saw everything from lame (but being ridden ) Iberian type horses, to tiny little coloureds and minis, very like the Dartmoors we saw at Maurs.

There were a heavily pregnant Baudet donkey, a heavily pregnant coloured pony in fair condition, and a mare with a young foal at foot who was clearly overwhelmed, and hiding beneath his resigned mother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So many equines with very poor feet, especially donkeys, and the ubiquitous travel wounds acquired by the rough handling and throwing together of strange horses in transit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was no sign of any market welfare controls, or veterinary surgeons, so these issues will need to be addressed through official complaints.

These young heavies were waiting to be loaded into one of the big commercial lorries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On taking a closer look, we saw the closest yearling had cut his head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At ERF we understand that horses are part of the food chain. But they are NOT protected the same way other animals are, there is no legal requirement to record their movements as happens with other food species. Riding horses crossover into the meat chain when unwanted, and can be ferried all over Europe passing from dealer to dealer until finally they end up at an abattoir.

Please help us to continue to monitor and report and take action where we can.