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The Equine Food Chain
Should I voluntarily exclude my equine from the food chain?
Should I voluntarily exclude my equine from the food chain?

Making a decision on excluding your horse from the equine food chain is a personal choice.

Lauren Ball avatar
Written by Lauren Ball
Updated over a week ago

This is a personal choice. Many people choose to exclude for moral or ethical reasons however, voluntarily excluding your equine does have several benefits:

  1. If and when your equine needs treatment the attending vet can check the food chain status via the National ChipChecker – especially if no documents are present as is often the case in an emergency. If your equine is already excluded from the food chain, the vet will be able to administer ‘Controlled Drugs’ without cause for concern over affecting the equine’s food chain status. Controlled drugs are often a cheaper alternative to the drugs that allow the equine to remain ‘Included’ in the food chain.  

  2. Cases of theft of equines have been reported in which the equines were in the food chain as these equines reach a higher price at slaughter. However, if the equine is ‘Excluded’ on the National ChipChecker, then it is less likely to be stolen for this reason.  

  3. Excluding your equine and notifying the relevant Passport Issuing Organisation will mean that your equine will remain ‘Excluded’ no matter how many times it is bought and sold in the future.

Please note: once an equine is ‘Excluded’ there is no going back.

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This information is provided by Equine Register for the purposes of basic information sharing and guidance. However, any information provided cannot and must not be relied upon and independent opinion should be sought. 

 

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