Recital 5

(5)Investigations carried out by Member States have revealed that the identification document is the target of significant fraud. The main risk represents the illegal reintroduction into the food chain of equidae previously excluded from slaughter for human consumption and treated with medicinal products not authorised for food producing animals. Following the adoption of Commission Decision 2000/68/EC ⁴ , thousands of equidae have been irreversibly excluded from slaughter for human consumption. The lack of alternatives to the life-long keeping of redundant and unwanted equidae, which have been excluded from slaughter for human consumption, has led to neglect and abandonment with serious animal health and welfare consequences. This situation has been exacerbated by the current economic situation, which makes in many cases the keeping of equidae at the end of their productive life unaffordable. In certain Member States, the problems have reached such proportions that competent authorities have launched programmes for the slaughter of redundant equidae outside the food chain.