New vision to help break the equine crisis cycle

The science behind human behaviour is thought to hold the answer to improving equine welfare in the long term

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HUMAN behavioural science could be key to unlocking the causes of – and solutions to – the UK’s equine welfare crisis.

The RSPCA is working with community interest company Human Behaviour Change for Life (HBCL), which focuses on understanding human behaviour and using that to action change, to help identify the causes behind the excessive numbers of horses in the UK.

“It’s really important to have a high degree of confidence that we have identified the true drivers of the equine crisis cycle,” explained RSPCA senior scientific manager for equines Mark Kennedy, as part of a HBCL presentation at the 2023 Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF) discussion forum.

“Then we can take that information and, working with HBCL, develop a programme to address these key drivers at source along with a monitoring and evaluation framework.