Harness Racing Victoria (HRV) today unveiled an updated Animal Welfare Framework document to provide an industry guide to ensuring best practices are maintained and adhered to in the pivotal horse welfare space.
HRV Integrity General Manager Brent Fisher said while his unit had several objectives, none was more important than ensuring the industry always maintained highest standards in horse welfare.
“We all have to work together to ensure we’re continuing to lead the way in this space,” he said.
“I want to thank my team for their work in developing this document, also those involved from the industry in what has been an extensive consultation process, and New Zealand Racing’s Martin Burns and Professor Emeritus David Mellor for their guidance.”
In 2017, HRV released its Animal Welfare Framework, which provided licensed industry participants a detailed model to ensure all involved in the sport understood their responsibilities in upholding the highest level of horse welfare expectations.
Today’s updated Animal Welfare Framework captures the extensive learnings from recent studies and guidelines overseen by Burns and Professor Mellor.
Chief among those is adopting the Five Domains Model of animal welfare – focusing on:
- Mental of Affective State
- Pleasure of chewing or grazing for long periods of time
- Good physical health
- Comfortable physical environment
- Calm, confident and secure
- Engaging, social and playful
- Nutrition
- Water
- Balanced and varied diet
- Physical Environmental
- Physical environment (comfortable and pleasant)
- Health
- Healthy and fit
- Injuries appropriately treated
- Veterinary attention and advice obtained when required
- Behaviour
- Able to express natural and rewarding behaviours
- Social interaction with other horses/animals and people
“We are strong advocates for the Five Domains model,” Fisher said.
“It promotes optimal provisions and ultimately reduces negative experiences in horses whenever they can be avoided.
“As an industry it is on all of us to meet these standards and work to improve the welfare of our horses, not just during racing but post-racing.
“If horses are happy, healthy and properly looked after during their racing career, this obviously assists in transitioning the horse to a life once they have retired from the racetrack.”
Extensive explanations of the Five Domains are detailed in the Animal Welfare Framework and HRV will shortly unveil an updated online education program for participants to ensure understanding and compliance.
“We need to promote this throughout the industry so we can continue to work together to maintain high standards across the board,” Fisher said.