Sadly, it has been brought to the attention of the CPRG that a number of HWSD affected ponies have recently been exported from Ireland to the UK, various Nordic countries and several Continental countries.
Since 2015 there has been NO EXCUSE for any HWSD ponies to have even been born. Sadly this message does not seem to have been accepted in the biggest Connemara pony breeding country in the world, Ireland. As HWSD is entirely preventable, then the breeders of such ponies have a moral and ethical responsibility to care for these ponies themselves, not sell them off to dealers and sight unseen to unsuspecting overseas buyers.
Even worse, to just compound the issue some unscrupulous individuals are now passport tampering by removing the back page of the CPBS passport where the HWSD status of the pony is placed.
These recently reported HWSD affected pony's passports have had the back page of their passports deliberately removed.
It is not known where this tampering is occurring, as the majority of these ponies have been sold through dealer yards, both in Ireland and in the country of their final destination. Either way it is inexcusable and ILLEGAL behaviour. It is bad enough as it is, that the knowledge of HWSD in the general horse owning population, vets and farriers is abysmally low. This passport tampering is a deliberate act to sucker unsuspecting buyers, nothing less, nothing more.
To add insult to injury there is also proof that HWSD affected ponies are being sold from Ireland using 'white' passports. These are effectively generic travel documents only. They have no requirement to list breed, breeding or breeder.
If you are looking to purchase a horse or pony listed as 'Connemara Type' make sure that the pony is scanned for more than one microchip. As there is no central microchip database in Ireland there is no way in which to check for duplicate registrations to one microchip. It is also really easy to have a 2nd (or even more) microchips inserted, if one is of a mind to do such a thing.
These passport breaches have been reported to the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM) as this department is responsible for administering the issuing of equine passports.
