Princess Anne says we SHOULD be eating horse meat... for the sake of animal welfare Royal spoke at World Horse Welfare charity conference Said owners may take better care of horses when alive if they thought they'd later sell them for meat Princess Anne has suggested people in Britain should consider eating horse meat as it would help to improve the welfare of the animals. Speaking at the annual conference of the World Horse Welfare charity in London yesterday, the former eventing champion said owners might take better care of their horses when they were alive if they thought they could later sell them for meat. Her comments come after the scandal in January when it emerged horse meat was present in products from a number of UK supermarkets including Asda, Tesco and Iceland. Above, the royal with a horse, Annie, she rehomed last month Rescue centres have seen a rise of up to 40 per cent in admissions since it was revealed in January that some supermarket food labelled as beef contained horse. Experts say there are owners who let their horses breed indiscriminately then become overwhelmed with the numbers produced. But whereas the unwanted horses might once have gone to the meat trade, now their owners abandon them rather than pay up to £100 a week to care for and feed them. It was later revealed that horses from countries such as Romania were being slaughtered after suffering appalling cruelty and then shipped into the UK as beef products. The Princess Royal, who is president of the charity, told the Daily Telegraph: 'Our attitudes to the horse meat trade and the value of horse meat may have to change.' Animal charities around the country have warned of a horse welfare crisis, with around 7,000 of them at risk of neglect and abandonment. The royal cited Poland as an example of a country that does properly care for the animals - adding that it was only when they were destined for consumption and transported alive in trucks that they suffered neglect. And in some cases, they entered the British food chain. She said: 'If that is true then, and they value their horses and they look after them well because they are in the horse meat trade, should we be considering a real market for horse meat and would that reduce the number of welfare cases? We have to understand if value has a part to play in how we reduce welfare cases... if it has real financial value then you look a little bit further ahead in the way you look after your animals. Following the horse meat fiasco, questions were raised over the merits of eating horse in Britain. Former eventing champion Anne (seen here in 1987) said owners might take better care of their horses when they were alive if they thought they could later sell them for meat Some countries, such as France, China and Italy, already eat large amounts of it. The princess added that part of the problem was how the public had been misled. She said that retailers should have corrected the labels on the products before putting them back on the shelves. The purpose of the annual conference at the Royal Geographical Society was to debate the future of horses over the next 100 years. Princess Anne rehomed 14-year-old Welsh Cob Annie after spotting her on an official visit to the World Horse Welfare charity in Somerset Last month, Princess Anne rehomed a 14-year-old horse called Annie after spotting her on an official visit to the World Horse Welfare charity in Somerset. She had been considering buying a horse to hack around (lightly ride) on her Gloucestershire estate, Gatcombe Park. The Welsh Cob is now helping the princess herd sheep and hack her 200 acres of woodland. It marks a dramatic change in fortunes for Annie, who came to the charity three years ago when her owners were no longer able to care for her. 'She's perfect for me,' said Anne. 'She's 14 and she's not wanting to be too ambitious and I don't want to be very ambitious either. She will be a really useful nanny - I have young stock. The princess added: 'She fits in really well and as far as I'm concerned I was really glad they didn't find someone else for her. She is just the size of horse that I could do with now. Living here and going across the farm I like to get off relatively easily and needed a horse that was reasonably reliable when it comes to rural activities. Princess Anne first met Annie during a tour of the charity's stables in Kingsdon, Somerset. 'She had a very good reputation and it seemed silly for me to go off and get something else,' she said. I hope Annie enjoys it here with me. We will be doing some hacking and she will be helping me herd the sheep and cattle.