This is only a fraction of this article (I realize its a bit long but your time is well spent with it)... Its being pre-published here, before I send it to the media because I want to get some of you updated... Blackburn Sides With Animal Abusers (For a detailed explanation of horse soring & the entire bill as written scroll to the bottom of this article). Horse soring became public knowledge with the arrest of Jackie McConnell in Collierville, Tennessee earlier this year (2013).. The investigation leading to McConnell’s arrest was graphic and quickly spread throughout social media. Shortly after that case, other arrests were made in different parts of Tennessee and Kentucky while the public began to get outraged. All fingers were pointing to the Tennessee Walking Horse industry and the questions came in faster than they could be answered: How long has this been going on? Why is society tolerating it? How many people are doing this? What’s the basic motivation? Why isn’t anyone stopping it? Well – there were many people trying to stop it. It just wasn’t on the national news everyday. HSUS has been leading the opposition and doing everything in their power to get cases investigated, get new legislation passed and regulate this extremely corrupt and disheartening industry. A few months after the soring cases along came the TN Ag Gag bill, which passed through TN House and Senate and showed up on Governor Haslam’s desk. In short - the bill would limit all animal abuse investigations to three days and make prosecuting an abuser virtually impossible. The bright spot of the Ag Gag bill was that it republished the horse soring cases to be used as an example of a proper animal abuse investigation which can often take months and has to show a repeated pattern of abuse. A one-time offence is not enough to get someone behind bars. Hundreds of thousands of animal rights advocates showed up in Nashville, contacted the Governor on social media, called him, wrote to him, signed petitions and basically pleaded with Haslam to veto the Ag Gag bill. After asking for legal advice from Attorney General Bob Cooper who said the bill was unconstitutional Haslam did just that and the animal rights crowd could finally get their sigh of relief. Further addressing the soring issue - Today we have a federal bill HB1518 on the floor of our US Congress, which was written by Kentucky Republican Rep. Ed Whitfield and co-sponsored by hundreds of congressmen and women. At a time when its nearly impossible to get 2 members of congress to agree on ANYTHING --- a record-breaking 223 members of Congress (all parties, all genders, all religious beliefs, all skin-pigments, all nationalities, all ages) from every state in the country and 25 percent of the entire Senate have stepped up to co-sponsor the PAST (Prevent All Soring Tactics) Act (HB1518/SB1406) HB1518 details all methods of soring, stiffens fines and penalties, makes the issue a federal offence and puts government oversight on the entire industry. Once again HSUS has been pushing for this bill and once again they can be found behind the firing lines. The bill will reform and strengthen an outdated Horse Protection Act introduced in 1970 and meant to end the abusive practices within the TN Walking Horse industry. The problem is: since 1970 abusers have learned new methods to get around the laws. All efforts to self-police the industry have failed and soring has drastically increased since the bill was introduced. ===================== Key reforms in the PAST Act: - Prohibits the use in the Tennessee walking horse, Racking horse and Spotted Saddle horse breeds of “action devices”—chains strapped to a horse’s lower front legs, which agitate and strike the flesh already injured by caustic chemicals, causing the horse to lift his/her front legs higher off the ground in reaction to the pain. -Prohibits the use in the same three named breeds of “stacks” or “performance packages”—tall, heavy stacks of material nailed to a horse’s hoof to lift his/her feet higher and strike the ground hard at an abnormal angle. The stacks are also often used to hide hard sharp objects inserted into the tender part of a horse’s hoof to increase the pressure and pain, creating the desired gait. -Prohibits the actual soring of a horse for the purpose of showing or selling the horse, as well as the act of directing another to sore a horse for these purposes. -Strengthens penalties to establish a more meaningful deterrent. The current Horse Protection Act’s misdemeanor criminal penalties would be raised to felony-level, providing up to three years’ jail time for each violation, and potential fines would be doubled. A third violation could trigger permanent disqualification from participating in any horse show, exhibition, sale or auction. -Mandates that USDA, rather than industry organizations, assign licensed inspectors to horse shows when requested by show management—a reform that will create consistent, rigorous inspections and enforcement of penalties for violations. ====================== During the second week of November the bill went before the Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee hearing………. The hearing begins with Janice Jan Schakowsky of Illinois showing a video detailing exactly what horse soring is. After watching this extremely disturbing video Tennessee’s 7th District Rep Marsha Blackburn states that soring is already illegal and there’s a 0-tolerance policy in Tennessee. Blackburn asks, “Why is additional legislation necessary for an industry that’s 98% compliant?” Compliant = Agrees to self-regulate and self-police. While the industry had agreed to self-regulate via the Horse Protection Act in 1970 - it has failed and animal rights groups around the world state that 76% of all TN Walking Horses are being sored. Recent random testing by HSUS has shown that percentage is actually much higher and nearly ALL TN Walking Horses are being sored. Marsha then uses her standard diversion tactic of changing the subject to the Thoroughbred racing industry and points to the abuse in that industry. (We’re getting to that one, Marsha. Thanks for the information). …. To be continued and published tonight ….
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 00:24:53 +0000
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