IN JULY 2004 the horse-owning population of this country will be expected to have purchased a passport for every horse, pony, donkey, mule and even zebra.

This is so that this government can comply with a Brussels directive, that calls for every UK equine to have a passport to determine whether or not it contains any drugs that might contaminate the 'food chain.'

The British loathing of the thought of our equines being transported live on nightmare journeys to European slaughter houses, would fill any animal lover with dread, and yet this government is not only actively attempting to reintroduce the live export of equines, it is willing to do it behind closed doors.

Thanks largely to BSE, there is a huge shortfall in the European horse meat market, which the EU thinks British equines could fill. This government does not come right out and tell the truth about what it intends to do, it would rather introduce a passport scheme, which it says will stamp out horse theft.

What rubbish. We are not easily fooled, we all know the real reason for this law.

Those who are beyond the law will continue to steal horses. They will continue to sell horses full of drugs to the unsuspecting and through auctions and to the meat men who will keep quiet for profit.

No honest horse owner would sell on a sick, old, or too young equine. But we are being forced into a situation where this might have to happen. We are sick and tired of the way that our laws are being eroded to fit in with countries that are less mindful of the feelings of the less fortunate. It is up to every animal lover in this country to use their voice before it is too late.

We owe it to our horses and ponies to ensure that we do not go back to the old days when our equines had to suffer and die at the hands of those who doled out death with less care than if they were stepping on a bug.

This government has been lobbied by the Europeans to allow the re-introduction of live exports to take place. But the government knew that we would not allow this to happen.

There would have been a much easier way of registering the equine population, but the government would not listen to those who could make a better plan work. It was that we all have our horses microchipped!

PENELOPE DICKINSON, Broadhead Road, Edgworth.