Equine
Sundance Kid Rides in to Help Horses
When your business is horse slaughter, you don’t attract many fans. It’s a transactional business, with ruthlessness and profit driving the enterprise. The people who work with you aren’t idealists or even hobbyists, but hired guns – people who lobby or file lawsuits or send . . .
New Interior Secretary Can Turn Around Broken Wild Horse Program
Those of you who regularly watch our good friend Jane Velez-Mitchell’s show on HLN may have seen me last night in a brief segment talking about a potentially dangerous situation for 1,800 captive wild horses at a Bureau of Land Management facility near Reno, Nev., where . . .
A Reckoning of Sorts for Disgraced Walking Horse Trainer
HSUS undercover investigations have triggered a number of milestones in animal protection over the years – the first criminal prosecution of slaughterhouse workers, the largest meat recall in U.S. history, major corporate policy changes on gestation crates, shutdowns of rogue slaughter plants and stronger federal . . .
Problems with USDA Oversight at Slaughter Plants
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mike McGraw of the Kansas City Star wrote a front-page story this past weekend about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s failure to consistently enforce federal animal welfare laws at slaughter plants, particularly for pigs. In addition to recounting details of a recent . . .
USDA Approves Horse Slaughter, Despite Overwhelming Opposition
Today, in a mystifying and infuriating decision, the U.S. Department of Agriculture granted an inspection permit to a discredited horse slaughter plant operator in New Mexico, bringing the nation closer to its first horse slaughter operation since federal courts and state lawmakers shuttered the last . . .
Miracle Horse Returns Favor
Two years ago, I wrote about a foal named “Moonstruck,” a colt who survived against all odds. While pregnant with Moonstruck, his mother, Catori, was crammed aboard a cattle trailer, bound for slaughter in Mexico, when the driver fell asleep at the wheel. The truck careened off the . . .
NRC Gets It Right in Panning BLM Wild Horse Program
For years The HSUS has been pressing the Bureau of Land Management to reform its broken wild horse management program. In March 2011, we’d hoped that the BLM had turned a corner and that long-awaited changes in the agency’s failed management paradigm were imminent when . . .
Ag-Gag, Horse Soring, Animal Care Expo Converge in Tennessee
I am in Nashville today for the official opening of Animal Care Expo, which will host 2,000 people from all across the country and from 40 nations. It’s the animal welfare movement’s leading training, education and inspiration conference, and I am so pleased that The . . .
Tennessee Walking Horse Barn Raided, Trainer Charged
The more light that’s shed on the “Big Lick” faction of the Tennessee walking horse industry, the clearer it becomes that Congress must upgrade the original language in the Horse Protection Act to deter the criminal abuse that is inflicted on the horses involved, and . . .
Federal Legislation Introduced to Crack Down on Horse Soring
There’s been so much public condemnation of horse abusers since The HSUS released its jarring undercover video last year showing Hall of Fame Tennessee walking horse trainer Jackie McConnell and his stewards intentionally injuring horses in order to create the “Big Lick” gait that wins . . .
Horse Slaughter Controversy Won’t Quit
The issue of horse slaughter is playing out at the highest levels of government – both as a matter of policy and the actual mechanics of overseeing the industry and its effects. Presented with a half dozen applications for horse slaughter plants his agency will . . .
Horse Meat Talk Back: Daily Deception and Callous Cruelty
Today, Taco Bell became the latest European food retailer to be linked to the horse meat scandal. It has now affected some of the biggest brand names in food, and touched a dozen countries. With Europe still roiled by the controversy, I did not expect to . . .
