What a disaster. I have absolutely nothing to contribute to the conversation but curiosity got the best of me. Is there any type of insurance that covers imports and out of the norm costs like this? I can’t imagine an insurance company would want to touch something like that with a ten foot pole but from what I can see, importing with little to no complications alone is an astronomical amount of money.
Sorry for the ignorance. We don’t exactly import in the QH world so I have zero experience there.
USA only has one manufacturer of the CFT and won’t use European version. Interesting, huh? If I ever import in the future, I’d have the horse tested with the US’ CFT before leaving Europe, and make sure the sale contract included that if anything were to go wrong in quarantine, seller assumes all expenses and pays for the horse to fly back.
Actually, my sister just bought a mare from Belgium on those terms, from a very reputable seller. My sister also owns a horse who went through this nightmare last year. After over a month in quarantine though, her gelding finally tested negative on the CFT and was allowed to come home… but the heartache and expense of it all was enough to make her write into the contract that seller would take her most recently purchased horse back if issues with USDA testing in quarantine should arise. Thankfully, none did.
There are international agreements but those generally only exist from one disease free area to another. These standards exist for a lot of things including meat. Japan wouldn’t take US beef due to mad cow for a long time.
You want these tests to be as sensitive as possible which means they will pick up every single positive. With that you get false positive. It means you can believe a negative but a positive may not be true. A specific test will miss positive but you can trust that a positive is true. A negative may not be true. So a highly contagious disease you want a sensitive not specific test. USDA would rather send a false positive back than get a false negative.
Why would any seller agree to that? If the horse passed all the tests on their end that is the end of their responsibility. They have no control over what the horse may be exposed to once the horse leaves their care, why should they be they have to pay for anything related to a horse they no longer own?
Sorry I wasn’t more thorough in my reply, I was finishing up barn chores. Yes seller agreed to assume all financial responsibility should quarantine/test results be problematic and agreed to fly the horse back to Europe at her own expense should there be an issue when in US quarantine (again, there wasn’t) …I don’t know how anyone who has gone through this kind of nightmare would risk importing again without first taking these precautions…
just hope this horse makes it back to Europe and can be sold and purchased within the country. Too many of these cases end in needless euthanasia. Have been in touch with horse flight after hearing about this case and trying to find out if anything from our case last year could help, and they have nothing but good things to say about the horse.
I think, in our case, because the seller knew my sister when she went through the ordeal importing her colt a year prior, she understood where she was coming from and what she was trying to protect against. Also, in this case, quality home and care was a high priority because it was the seller’s personal horse vs. sales horse, client’s horse, etc and seller wanted to ensure a happy outcome for the horse or the mare’s safe return back.
Congress exists for many more things than just assisting constituents, however constituent casework is one of its most important roles. A member of Congress serves ALL constituents, not just those who are impoverished.
On that note, I know plenty of people who have imported a horse that weren’t extremely wealthy, I know many trainers (aka small business owners) that import horses for resale as well as plenty of other non-affluent individuals who have imported a horse. A nurse and single mother at one of my old barns saved for years and years to import a horse, and that’s just one anecdotal story.
$1200+ a day is a tremendous financial burden, and it very well could one day be a trainer with their livelihood on the line. It sounds like there are issues with the test being used that need further looking into. In the meantime, I hope this family and this horse find an outcome that isn’t too devastating.
So many people import as it’s actually less expensive all-in than buying a similar horse that was brought along in the US. It’s unfortunate but the reality is that it’s a lot less expensive to develop a horse overseas than it is over here. The further east you go into Europe, the less expensive it becomes.
But it shouldn’t matter how wealthy or average or even poor the customer is. The USDA is funded by taxpayers, and yes, there should exist an agency that helps its people recover their assets. And there should also exist an agency that looks after the welfare of livestock. I am not sure from the information presented here if that is the case as the horse is not getting the antibiotics and veterinary care it so needs. Such a shame for all around, but mostly for the trapped horse. He’s a bit like Tom Hanks in The Terminal. Poor guy.
This x 1000. While the family is certainly not poor, I wouldn’t call them affluent either. The dad just retired after 30 years of service with the Marines, and the mom is disabled. They saved for a long time to buy this horse, and also the daughter’s grandmother pitched in as well. I don’t think it ever crossed their wildest imagination that they could run into the import problems like they did. Neither did I, nor anyone else in my barn.
They have reached out to their California representatives for help but have gotten no response.
If there’s a government agency that exists to monitor/control the import of something, then it makes absolute sense that there’s a government agency to help the public in navigating it. If you’ve ordered anything at all from Europe or China - furniture, a saddle, linens, shoes - and it had gotten stuck in customs, would you not have expected someone to be able to help you get it out? Or would you really have just thrown up your hands and said “Oh well, the gov’ment knows best!”
Horses are livestock in the eyes of the law. However, luxury item or not, no government agency should ever have absolute power to do whatever they want without question.
Failed a health quarantine, sure but whether the horse actually poses a risk to others in this country is rather debatable, considering the USDA is continuing to use a test that is proven to result in false positives regularly.
