HAPPA's heritage museum is officially opened to the public

Burnley Express

HAPPA have officially opened their museum in memory of Mrs Pam Wood and tells the story of Founder Mona Huskie, who fought tirelessly to prevent the illegal export of horses from the UK to the continent for slaughter.  The timeline takes you back to 1937 and walks through the decades, explaining the economic climate at the time and the problems faced as a consequence.   The twentieth century saw the gradual decline of horsepower, with horse traffic banned on many streets in London, with the motor vehicle replacing horsepower, especially following the Second World war.  Horses were phased out as businesses gradually mechanised their transport fleets.  Horses were sold to make way for motor-vans,  4,000 railway horses were sold ending their days in a slaughter’s yard, selling to the highest bidder, encouraging, and fuelling a black-market trade in horsemeat.

Transcript

00:00We've got a timeline dating back from 1937. We've got a little bit about our founder,

00:04the history, and it just explores the economy at the time back in 1937 and all the issues in

00:11relating into the transport of horses. So understanding that, they can learn about the

00:17history in general, particularly after the war when draft horses were being shipped to the

00:25continent for the value of a draft horse back then was £60 to £70 when indeed a weekly wage

00:32was only £4.16. So you can understand why farmers and particularly all like the horses that did the

00:40deliveries were obviously transported to the continent to slaughter because of the economy

00:45really. And every picture tells a story and some of these pictures and images are what our founder

00:51took. So they're a living testament to her and it's a fantastic tribute. We've got lots of footage

00:57that we can play on the TV screen of days gone by so you know you wouldn't be surprised if you've

01:04got a history with HAPA to actually see yourself featured on the TV and some of our interesting

01:10rescues from the 90s in particular we had the Gisborne 16 that everybody knows about. So it's

01:16just to learn and see the bigger picture and obviously to tell the story of the rescue, the

01:22rehabilitation and the rehoming that's all undertaken at the charity. It's a tribute to

01:28our organisation and in particular to our founder Mona Husky who originally founded the charity in

01:331937 to stop the export of live horses travelling to the continent for slaughter. We're open every

01:40day 11am to 4pm, seven days a week. Obviously closed Christmas Day and Bank, well we're open Bank

01:45holidays and yet the museum is open to the public to browse and obviously to come and learn all about

01:50the history and the heritage and the story, particularly the HAPA story, but also the

01:56evolution of Equine Welfare.

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