The new Whitfield Bill - “Prevent All Soring Tactics Act of 2013” is up and you can go to popvox and support or oppose this bill. These politicians need to hear what we think on this issue!
I am not telling anyone to support or oppose but please let you feelings be known.
Done. The American Paint Horse Association, the American Morgan Horse Association, and the Pinto Horse Association of America now support this amendment. Add in the AAEP, AVMA, USEF, FOSH, and so many other groups. The number of groups opposing soring is ever increasing.
Where’s the text of the bill, SouthernOakFarm? Says it’s not available.
Text is not yet available. I won’t comment on something until I read it, but I will keep checking back.
This is what the AHC has up:
On April 11, 2013, Congressmen Ed Whitfield (R-KY) introduced the Prevent All Soring Tactics Act of 2013. The bill is intended to strengthen the Horse Protection Act (HPA) to prevent soring. The HPA was enacted in 1970 to prohibit the showing, exhibiting, transporting or sale at auction of a horse that has been sored.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which enforces the HPA, deems soring to involve the use of action devices, chemicals, pads, wedges or practices like trimming a horse’s hoof to expose sensitive tissue, to cause pain in the horse’s forelegs and produce an accentuated show gait for competition. According to the USDA, soring has been primarily used with Tennessee Walking Horses, Racking Horses, and Spotted Saddle Horses and continues despite the existence of a federal ban for over forty years.
“Far too often, those involved in showing the Tennessee Walking Horses have turned a blind eye to abusive trainers, or when they do take action, the penalties are so minor, it does nothing to prevent these barbaric acts,” stated Whitfield. “This amendment does not cost the federal government any additional money and is essential in helping to put an end to the practice of soring by abusive trainers.”
The horse show industry has been living with the HPA for over 40 years. However, the trigger for USDA enforcement of the Act is the showing, exhibition, auction or transport of a sore horse. For this reason USDA has focused its efforts on those segments of the show community that involve breeds and activities that are most frequently involved in soring. If a breed, discipline, or activity is not soring its horses to exaggerate their gaits, then as a practical matter the Act has likely not adversely affected them and the bill to amend the Act, if passed, will not affect them any more than current law.
The bill would amend the HPA to prohibit a Tennessee Walking Horse, a Racking Horse, or a Spotted Saddle Horse from being shown, exhibited, or auctioned with an action device, or a weighted shoe, pad, wedge, hoof band or other device or material if it is constructed to artificially alter the gait of the horse and is not strictly protective or therapeutic. These new prohibitions would not apply to other breeds and would not prohibit the use of therapeutic pads, or bell boots or quarter boots that are used as protective devices.
The legislation would also increase fines and penalties for violations for soring, including the potential for a lifetime ban for repeat offenders.
The bill would create a new licensing process for horse show inspectors, eliminating the current program that uses industry-affiliated designated qualified persons (DQPs). This program has received criticism because these DQPs are often not independent of the industry they are inspecting. USDA would be required to train, license and appoint the new independent inspectors for shows and other HPA-regulated activities that wish to hire an inspector. Licensed or accredited veterinarians would be given preference for these positions. The decision to hire an inspector, however, would still be up to the show, sale or auction. It would not be made mandatory. Shows or sales that employ DQPs now would begin using USDA-selected inspectors. Shows or sales that choose not to use DQPs now would not be required to use them should the bill pass.
The Bill has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
“The AHC supports this legislation, as does the American Association of Equine Practitioners, the American Paint Horse Association, the American Morgan Horse Association, the Pinto Horse Association of America, the American Veterinary Medical Association and other groups,” said Jay Hickey, president of the American Horse Council… “The bill focuses on the problem it is intended to solve and does not adversely affect other segments of the show industry that are not soring horses and have no history of soring horses. The AHC will be involved in the Congressional process and will immediately oppose any efforts, amendments, or attempts to broaden the Act or its enforcement that would adversely or unnecessarily affect any breeds, disciplines, or horses that have no history of soring.”
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AHC Membership
Yes ! I forgot to mention the American Horse Council on the list of groups determined to end soring!
Statement from AVMA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
4/12/2013
Major Veterinary Groups Urge Passage of Legislation to End Abusive Soring of Horses
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) joined together today in support of the Prevent All Soring Tactics Act (PAST), H.R. 1518. The bill seeks to eliminate the abusive act of soring horses by improving the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s enforcement capabilities and strengthening penalties against violators, among other provisions.
Soring is the intentional infliction of pain in Tennessee Walking Horses, Spotted Saddle Horses, and Racking Horses to produce a high-stepping, unnatural gait. Despite being illegal for more than 40 years, insufficiencies in funding and other resources needed for enforcement at the federal level have contributed to a culture of corruption where this abusive, unethical practice remains prevalent in shows and auctions in certain pockets of the country.
“Soring of horses is an inhumane practice that veterinarians are, unfortunately, still seeing. It has crippling physical and mental effects on horses,” said Dr. Douglas Aspros, veterinarian and AVMA president. “It’s sad when winning a show takes precedence over the health and welfare of the horse. As veterinarians, we simply can’t stand by and allow horses to be abused. We encourage Congress to quickly pass H.R. 1518 and put an end to the inhumane and unethical practice of soring, once and for all.”
Specifically, H.R. 1518:
Makes the actual act of soring, or directing another person to cause a horse to become sore, illegal, whereas the original Horse Protection Act only banned showing, transporting, or auctioning a horse that was sore, not the actual practice;
Prohibits the use of action devices (e.g., boot, collar, chain, roller, or other device that encircles or is placed upon the lower extremity of the leg of a horse) on any limb of Tennessee Walking Horses, Spotted Saddle Horses, or Racking Horses at horse shows, exhibitions, sales or auctions and bans weighted shoes, pads, wedges, hoof bands, or other devices that are not used for protective or therapeutic purposes;
Increases civil and criminal penalties for violations, and creates a penalty structure that requires horses to be disqualified for increasing periods of time based on the number of violations;
Allows for permanent disqualification from the show ring after three or more violations; and
Requires the USDA (rather than the current structure of horse industry self-regulation) to license, train, assign and oversee inspectors to enforce the Horse Protection Act.
“Soring is one of the most significant equine welfare issues in the United States,” said AAEP President Dr. Ann Dwyer. “Federal legislation is the only action that will end this decades-long abuse of horses, and we urge all within the veterinary and horse-owning communities to join us in supporting this bill’s passage.”
For more information on the AVMA and AAEP’s efforts to end soring, visit the AVMA’s Soring Resource Web page.
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The American Association of Equine Practitioners, headquartered in Lexington, Ky., was founded in 1954 as a non-profit organization dedicated to the health and welfare of the horse. Currently, the AAEP reaches more than 5 million horse owners through its nearly 10,000 members worldwide and is actively involved in ethics issues, practice management, research and continuing education in the equine veterinary profession and horse industry.
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The AVMA, founded in 1863, is one of the oldest and largest veterinary medical organizations in the world, with more than 84,000 member veterinarians worldwide engaged in a wide variety of professional activities and dedicated to the art and science of veterinary medicine.
Beyond wonderful!
I hope everyone takes heed:
"Federal legislation is the only action that will end this decades-long abuse of horses, and we urge all within the veterinary and horse-owning communities to join us in supporting this bill’s passage.”
My only problem with the Act as described is the Feds trying to make the act of soring a Federal criminal offense. Beyond the first question of Constitutionality you’ve got the same problem that TN has, to wit: you’ve got to identify, beyond a reasonable doubt, the person who either applied the unlawful devices/substance and/or directed their application. Unless you’re willing to get into the sorts of things used in mob investigations (hidden cameras, wiretaps, paid informants, etc.) that evidence will be very difficult and expensive to gather. If you follow the KISS principle and just do the rest you accomplish the same goal without adding both cost and complexity to the problem.
The reason cost is an issue is that under Federal practice bills are run through an OMB process that puts a price tag on enforcement. I don’t know how many OMB folks have ever worked in stables or barns but they’ll still put a number on it. Under congressional practice if you want to spend new dollars on a project you must either show a compelling need (meaning we’ll borrow the money) or get it from somewhere else. In a time when the Feds are running the mindless “sequester” keeping a high-dollar provision like Federalizing animal cruelty could damn the entire effort.
I know that many want a “pound of flesh” in these matters but that didn’t work out for Shylock and it won’t work out here, either.
Stay with the easy, public stuff.
G.
[QUOTE=hurleycane;6930629]
Salycidic Acid
Reducine
Martins (707, Corona etc)
Cut Heal (1tsp)
MTG (can be used to thin if too thick)[/INDENT][/INDENT][/QUOTE]
yes a very good mix but hardly secret or used just in walkers…it also makes nasty old granulated wire cuts better…the key is the saran wrap to hold the damp against the skin to prevent the hard yucky scabbing…minus the acne med it also is pretty good for fresh cuts…
Tamara
… to remove pastern scars on a stacked Tennessee Walker…
The usual maximum recommended strength of salacydic acid for human use is 2%. I wonder what strength the lickers use ? Enough to make a horse lay down in pain ? Enough to cause a chemical colic ?
In the case I noted above - the intention of the recipe was to remove the scars caused by whatever they had done to the horses pasterns to get him to high step. It was not intended as a soring agent.
But indeed the products are a “peel” and the post says the horse will need time off. I thought a couple of things in that scar removal post were very interesting. Like one of the first things to do was to stop using the chains or use a light chain. IMO chains - specially the heavy chains - combined with the “grease” caused these folks a lot of the hair rubbing, pastern irritation and subsequent scarring on these horses. Saddlebreds I knew had chains and NEVER had scars to peel and worry with.
And the other interesting and important point was the poster noted the excess pads that wedge too high may be part of the scarring pastern problem. Ever see how a horse that is either wedged up high or has a dropped pastern will have wrinkled folded skin on the back of the pastern? Well, that folded skin will more likely become irritated by the rubbing greased chain than a smooth skinned pastern would.
And keep in mind - scar rule violations are usually scars on the back of the pastern - not the front.
Just want to add that I also put the post here cause it shows all the hoops and “horsekeeping” that the stacked TWH people had to go through to compensate for their poor technique.
WOuld have been better for them to face the fact that the scarred pastern was caused by the stacks and chains. ANd it would have been much better for them to do away with the chains and stacks than to develop the many ways they did to mask the poor effects of these devices on the horse.
It is amazing to me how they will minimize these things as normal everyday household items. But some are in so deep they just do not see that what they do causes the horse and them great trouble.
Just mo O.
Back to the Bill:
I love that the new law specifically lists “bands” as a targeted illegal attachment. Just getting those off horses feet will cut a lot of abuse.:encouragement:
[QUOTE=hurleycane;6937694]
… to remove pastern scars on a stacked Tennessee Walker…[/QUOTE]
I know what what they use it for…it’s also used on any other breed of horse with unsightly scarring from jackwater wanna be owner’s who don’t know how to heal a leg after they have let wire or ropes or trailers damage them and then, out of their own sloth and stupidity, allowing scarring to occur…
it is as ancient a horse cure as a red clay poultice for heat in tendons and feet (whose ingredients as well kept secrets and I fell no desire to share here ;))
I dig that you hate big lick folks but come on…this is a healing remedy not a pain causer like mustard oil…
Tamara
In your effort to make a point that I was “hating” them for using normal everyday stuff - you miss the real point and points of the post, the original poster and my repost.
Dig? You are the one digging. And making it deeper for them - not me.
[QUOTE=hurleycane;6938449]
In your effort to make a point that I was “hating” them for using normal everyday stuff - you miss the real point and points of the post, the original poster and my repost.
Dig? You are the one digging. And making it deeper for them - not me.[/QUOTE]
apparently I used the 1960’s “dig” in the wrong place…it means “to understand”
so ok
I understand that you dislike big lick folks, however this is a standard healing remedy about as old as anything across the whole horse spectrum and you posted it to show how they soften and remove scars
ok so does everyone else that I know who has had horses more than 20 years…
hence the whole drama 15-18 years ago about banning saran wrap on the show grounds and in trailers and searching trailers for saran wrap…
tamara
Drama?
You really do miss the point.
The point is there should not be scars at all.
You do not understand me at all if you think I dislike “folks.” Stacks and chains and all that goes with justifying the use of stacks and chains on these horses is what is at issue for me.
No need to attach drama and emotion to me or the post I put up.
[QUOTE=hurleycane;6938475]
Drama?
You really do miss the point.
The point is there should not be scars at all.
You do not understand me at all if you think I dislike “folks.” Stacks and chains and all that goes with justifying the use of stacks and chains on these horses is what is at issue for me.
No need to attach drama and emotion to me or the post I put up.[/QUOTE]
Risk of injury is a part of a horse’s life, just like it is part of yours. In your zeal to punish people who sore up a horse you would deny a horse the chance to have the remnants of those actions removed.
Not every injury and/or scar on a Walker’s leg is the result of soring. They get banged up in everyday activities like TBs or WBs or mustangs. I understand you loath the Sore Lick community; so do I. But I’d not condemn a horse to a permanent injury because I thought the owner, trainer, and rider were lower than whale dung.
I understand your feelings. Your actions in this case, however, are as loathsome as those who profess to hate.
G.
[QUOTE=WalkInTheWoods;6937850]
The usual maximum recommended strength of salacydic acid for human use is 2%. I wonder what strength the lickers use ? Enough to make a horse lay down in pain ? Enough to cause a chemical colic ?[/QUOTE]
Chemical colic is the result of mixing soring chemicals with DMSO which allows the chemicals to penetrate the skin and be picked up in the bloodstream.
The use of an overstrength solution of any medication would be “off label,” but that does not necessarily equate to “hazardous.”
Again, the use of scar-removal medication is not an admission of any form of mis-, mal-, or non-feasance. Knowledge of its preparation and use is something that any good horseman might like to know.
G.
Loathesome? Zeal? You too seem to prefer to read and write with inference toward posters on the topic rather than to address the topic. I am sure you understand I feel and am free to say the inference is yours and it is being applied where none is needed.
You see IMO the important information to glean from the post was clearly set out in the post. Since it seems to fly over the head of some folks - I did take the effort to point it out in a a subsequent post.
Which I will do so in part again: the guidelines to correct the scaring and prevent the scaring proposed by the poster are clearly laid out by the poster.
In reading this - I and others who read for content see the heart of the matter is the use of the stack and chain created the problem. Not some tripping horse or calamity with a wire fence.
Back to the bill:
I am emotionally and intellectually enthused that the bill proposes the USDA and not a HIO to be solely responsible to train and license DQP’s.
This too will cure a lot of woes.
So many good things to discuss.
G - Salacydic acid BURNS the tissue off. Look it up. And yes DMSO will drive anything deep, very familiar with DMSO from my race track days. What we mixed with it was meant to accelerate healing or relieve different sources of pain, not to burn skin off and thereby cause a horse distress and agony.
