AVMA and AAEP urge strong enforcement of Horse Protection Act at Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration
Excerpted from a story in the Sacramento Bee.
SCHAUMBURG, Ill., Aug. 23, 2012 — The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) urge veterinarians, owners, trainers, riders, event spectators, media and the public to redouble their efforts to identify and report sored horses at this year’s Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration in Shelbyville, Tenn. This includes reporting suspected soring activity in barns and training facilities in the Shelbyville area.
The AVMA and AAEP are urging vigilance because of concerns that sored horses will be participating at the Celebration.
For more than 40 years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has worked diligently to enforce the Horse Protection Act (HPA), which prohibits soring. The USDA recently took another step toward ending soring by instituting mandatory penalties for violators.
SHOW, a horse industry organization (HIO) that will be inspecting horses during this year’s Celebration, is one of three HIOs for which the USDA is pursuing decertification, citing failure to comply with USDA mandatory penalties.
For more information, please read the full article here.