Princess Anne: Eating horsemeat 'might improve animal welfare' Princess Anne has suggested that British attitudes to eating horsemeat might have to change to improve the standards of care for the animals. Her comments come in the wake of the horsemeat scandal and as charities warn of a horse welfare crisis, with 7,000 at risk of abandonment and neglect. During a speech to the annual conference of the charity World Horse Welfare, of which she is president, the Princess Royal claimed that owners might take better care of their horses if they believed they could sell them for meat.