HORSE, pony and donkey owners could be fined up to £5,000 or jailed for a month if they don’t get a passport for their animals by June next year.

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will oversee the introduction of the new legislation which is on its way through Parliament to comply with a European Union directive.

The aim of the passport is to protect the human food chain by ensuring that all horses, ponies and donkeys are issued with identification documents which contain details of veterinary drugs.

It is to protect those who eat horsemeat on the continent, such as Belgium and France, from consuming animals not meant for consumption, which have been administered with drugs.

The passports cost between £20 and £30, and DEFRA says a consultation found widespread support for them in the horse industry.

Judith Buckley runs a livery and competition training yard at Hill Farm, Ings, and has reservations about the effectiveness of the new law and how it would be policed among the travelling community.

She said: “The way they have brought it in has confused a lot of people. This is all because we are in Europe and it is a European directive to control the quality of horsemeat going into Europe.

“We don’t eat horses so people are very much against it and feel it is totally unnecessary, but at the end of the day there has to be some control.” Mrs Buckley advised that those who kept “a pony at the bottom of the garden” to apply in groups to get a discount and to get in touch with recognised clubs such as Oxenholme Pony Club and the Lakes Pony Club for advice.

Anne Wilson, of Larkrigg Riding School at Natland, said those that had thoroughbreds, competition horses or Welsh ponies, already had passports.

She said: “People have said to me it is unnecessary but if it is going to be law, it is going to be law. In the long term it will probably be a good thing because people won’t breed a lot of rubbish.”