Animal category: Equines

Assemblée nationale : réponse à la question n°4154 : Contrôle des conditions d’abattage des animaux dans les abattoirs

Question: Mr Karim Benbrahim (Loire-Atlantique (1st district) - Socialistes et apparentés). Answer: Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty

Published in 2025

Answer from the French Government to a question from a member of the National Assembly on abattoir monitoring and controls. The Ministry states that the work to control slaughtering conditions by government-appointed agents amounts to the equivalent of more than 1,200 full-time posts. Additionally, a national inspection force is brought in for complex cases, which can impose sanctions up to and including closure  in the event of serious failings.

Document types: Regulation/Certification

Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Equines, Ovines, Porcines, Poultry

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European Parliament: Answer to Question E-000939/2025: Legislative initiatives and minimum standards for the use of horses in sport

Question: Niels Fuglsang (S&D), Thomas Waitz (Greens/EFA), Sebastian Everding (The Left). Answer: Mr Várhelyi on behalf of the European Commission

Published in 2025

Answer from the European Commission to a parliamentary question on animal welfare in equestrian sports, asking whether it intends to introduce legislation to penalize the ill-treatment of horses in sport. The Commission considers this to be a matter for national legislation. At this juncture, it has no plans to extend Directive 98/58/EC to equines used in sport.

Document types: Regulation/Certification

Animal categories: Equines

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Characterisation of facial expressions and behaviours of horses in response to positive and negative emotional anticipation using network analysis

Romane Phelipon, Léa Bertrand, Plotine Jardat, Fabrice Reigner, Kate Lewis, Jérôme Micheletta, Léa Lansade

Published in 2025

Study using network analysis to identify specific behaviors and facial expressions in horses based on their anticipation of a positive or negative experience. These indicators can be used to better assess the emotional state and welfare of equines.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Equines

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Animal welfare during transport: Update on the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2005

European Parliamentary Research Service

Published in 2025

European Parliament study assessing the implementation of Regulation (EC) No. 1/2005 on animal transport, revealing  continued compliance problems, particularly for vulnerable animals. It recommends that regulatory definitions should be clarified, while inspections and data recording should be harmonised to improve the effectiveness of the legislation.

Document types: Regulation/Certification

Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Equines, Ovines, Porcines, Poultry

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Using deep learning models to decode emotional states in horses

Phelipon, R., Lansade, L. & Razzaq, M.

Published in 2025

Study using machine learning models to predict the emotions of ridden horses on the basis of image analysis, comparing different cropping and training methods for convolutional neural network models. The results showed that cropped images of heads were sufficient to provide very good prediction levels (87% accuracy), and that the features used by the model for interpretation were similar to those used by experts.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Equines

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L’enrichissement du milieu de vie

Céline Tallet and Violaine Colson

Published in 2025

Article on environmental enrichment in captive animals. Conditions in captivity restrict the satisfaction of animals' physiological and ethological needs. Lack of stimulation and stressful practices can be detrimental to their welfare and affect the quality of scientific research carried out on these animals.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories:Cattle, Goats, Equines, Sheep, Fish, Pigs, Rodents, Poultry

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Assemblée nationale : réponse écrite à la question n°3103 : Soutenir le droit à l’abattage à la ferme

Question: Mr Jean-Philippe Tanguy (Somme (4th district) - Rassemblement National). Answer: French Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty.

Published in 2025

Following the loss of local abbatoirs; call by a Deputy for the expansion of the practise of on-farm slaughter, which is less stressful for animals and better adapted to local conditions. In response; the government refers to the European health framework, and expresses its support for mobile abattoir projects that comply with the rules: It has also launched a plan to strengthen local abattoir networks.

Document types: Regulation/Certification

Animal categories:Cattle, Goats, Equines, Sheep

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Face readers

Christa Lesté-Lasserre

Published in 2025

Article reviewing the multiple potential benefits of AI for the analysis of animals' facial expressions and detection of signs of pain or complex emotions, in which it sometimes performs better than human experts. Researchers are developing algorithms capable of interpreting the emotional states of dogs, cats, horses and primates using deep learning and annotated image databases. However, scientists remain wary of the lack of transparency in the decisions made by AI, and are seeking to combine facial analysis with other indicators to refine the assessment of animal welfare.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories:Canine, Equine, Feline

Keywords:Animal-based measurement, Pain, Identification, Wellfare indicators

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Application of the horse grimace scale in horses with dental disease: Preliminary findings

Amelia E. Sidwell, Marco Duz, Bradley Hill, Sarah Freeman, Sam L. Hole

Published in 2025

Scientific article investigating whether use of a pain scale based on facial expression is an objective and reliable method of assessing dental pain in horses. It concludes that tools designed to identify acute pain lack reliability if used to assess chronic pain, such as dental pain. A more dental-specific ethogram is needed to accurately identify dental pain in horses.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Equines

Key words:Animal-based measurement, Pain, Behavioral disorders

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EFSA Opinion - Welfare of horses during killing for purposes other than slaughter

EFSA Panel on Animal Health and Welfare

Published in 2025

New EFSA Opinion on the welfare of horses during killing for purposes other than human consumption, whether indivudally or on a large scale. The Opinion details three phases: pre-stunning, stunning and bleeding. It identifies potential hazards and describes stunning and killing methods (captive bolt, firearm, lethal injection). Potential risks, preventive measures and animal welfare measurement criteria are described, along with practices deemed unacceptable on welfare.

Document Types: Opinions

Animal categories: Equines

Keywords:Animal-based measurement, Anxiety, Consciousness, Pain, Brain integration, Fear, Stress

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