- Horses will be prevented from entering human food chain
- Changes follow BBC investigation which aired in July
Horses trained and entered to race in Britain must be signed out of the human food chain in their passports from 1 January 2022, in a significant change to the Rules of Racing. The change follows a controversial BBC investigation earlier this year which showed several horses being slaughtered in an abattoir near Swindon.
If a horse is excluded from the human food chain, it is automatically barred from use for animal feed too. As a result, the new rule will end the slaughter of British-trained thoroughbreds for their meat, and lead to more former racehorses being euthanised at home, in accordance with British Horseracing Authority (BHA) guidelines.