World Horse Welfare Confirms Centres Closed Until 2021
World Horse Welfare has announced that after careful consideration, it has reluctantly decided to keep its Visitor Centres closed to the public until February (half-term) 2021. This decision affects all four of its Rescue and Rehoming Centres in Norfolk, Somerset, Lancashire and Aberdeenshire.
Roly Owers, CEO of the charity said: “We so very much want to be able to welcome everyone back, but we need to put the safety of our staff and the public first. While we love having visitors on site, without doubt this adds additional risk in terms of keeping our Centres ‘Covid-secure’. The protective measures we would need to put in place would also inevitably involve taking valuable time from the yard and Visitor Centre staff to ensure measures were being followed. As we have recently been able to start rehoming our horses again, our yard staff are busy once more with rehabilitation work. The charity’s priority over the coming months has to be the rehabilitation and rehoming of our horses, as each horse ehomed makes a space available for another animal in need. With all four farms currently at full capacity, making space available for the large number of welfare cases expected later in the year is vital.”
Another challenge is that the measures needed to ensure social distancing and high levels of biosecurity would limit the number of visitors that could be welcomed at any one time and, when balanced against the additional costs, would make opening far less viable.
Zoe Clifford, of Penny Farm in Lancashire said: “We are really missing our visitors, many of whom we ordinarily see so regularly they feel more like family. We know that our farm and our horses have a place in people’s hearts as well as the local community, but we have to put the safety of our staff and our visitors first. We will be keeping in touch with everyone through social media and our Facebook page will post updates along with letting people know about virtual events we will be holding.”
“We are certainly looking forward to welcoming everyone back to the farm, and there will be celebrations when we do, but in the meantime our focus is on rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming as many horses as possible.”
World Horse Welfare will continue to keep everyone informed of the latest information on its website (at www.worldhorsewelfare.org) where supporters are also able to sign up for a free e-newsletter. Regular updates can be found on the charity’s main Facebook page (search for @WorldHorseWelfare) and on each centre’s own Facebook pages, where the progress of some of the rescued horses can also be followed.
