12/12/2024
***Call to Action! ***Vague and Broad Sweeping Definitions
Starting February 1, 2025, many detrimental rules will be introduced for ALL HORSE SHOWS. Will Implicate Every Horse Owner! This includes 4-H FFa and more!
Help us STOP government overreach of the revised Horse Protection Act (HPA).
Verbiage Applies to All Horse Breeds
Please Unite with our teams! We the People Can stop this if we take immediate action.
Loose Language opens the door for them to legally take your animals if you’re noncompliant. Please sign the Petition! Time is of the essence
Animal extremist groups infiltrated the USDA to push their anti-animal agenda, and the recent amendment to the Horse Protection Act (HPA) reflects this influence. Starting February 1, 2025, many detrimental rules will be introduced for ALL HORSE SHOWS.
The HPA document is 129 pages long, and we encourage horse owners to read it thoroughly. In reference to space, we will bullet point and summarize some of the egregious and overreaching regulations that all horse owners and organizers who participate in shows, exhibitions, and sales will be subject to:
• The prohibition of any equipment, practice, or method that could make a horse sore, lame, or irritated.
• The prohibition of any application of substance that could make a horse sore or have an inflammatory reaction.
• Prohibition of any use of substances on the limbs; this includes skin and hair conditioners, fly spray, or anything else that could diminish the signs of soring.
• Persons subject to liability are “participants,” which include the following activities: direct participant, agent, transporter, instructor, coach, trainer, vendors, supporters, and sponsors.
• Mandatory rest periods during shows, exhibitions, sales, and auctions.
• Providing any and all information requested on demand.
• Application of new language which essentially requires a horse’s legs to be free from any blemishes. “ The forelimbs and hindlimbs of the horse must be free of dermatologic conditions that are indicative of soring. Examples of such dermatologic conditions include, but are not limited to, irritation, moisture, edema, swelling, redness, epidermal thickening, loss of hair (patchy or diffuse) or other evidence of inflammation. Any horse found to have one or more of the dermatologic conditions set forth herein shall be presumed to be ‘sore’”.
• Inspection and detention of horses. Such inspection, “may include, but is not limited to, visual inspection of a horse and review of records, physical examination of a horse, including touching, rubbing, palpating, and observation of vital signs, and the use of any diagnostic device or instrument, and may require the removal of any shoe or any other equipment, substance, or paraphernalia from the horse when deemed necessary by the professional conducting such inspection.”
• Horses can be detained by “Horse Protection Inspectors” for 24 hours.
• Show and event management must provide ample space on grounds for inspections and detentions to take place.
• Testing and evaluating horses at horse exhibitions, horse shows, sales, or auctions by newly hired APHIS personnel given the title “Horse Protection Inspectors.”
• Allow free and uninhibited access of APHIS inspectors to records, barns, compounds, horse trailers and vans, stables, stalls, paddocks, and all other show or exhibition grounds.
• Warm-up areas must be policed.
• Identity of each horse entered at a show, exhibition, sale, or auction must be verified.
• All horse show and exhibition records must be maintained for 90 days. Data collected ranges from judges' score sheets to owner and sponsor information and more. Copies of all records must be made available to “Horse Protection Inspectors.”
• Records must be collected and maintained for horses receiving therapeutic care, i.e., pads, special shoes, or other medications. Complete veterinary medical information must be collected, including the entire diagnosis and treatment plan as well as the cessation of date of treatment, the state license number of the veterinarian, and much more.
• Notifying APHIS 30 business days in advance of events and 15 business days in advance of any changes to the event.
• If a “Horse Protection Inspector” is unavailable on the show dates, a variance must be requested within 15 days of the start of the horse show.
• Management of any horse show, exhibition, sale, or auction that does NOT include Tennessee Walking horses must report to the APHIS regional director of the state within five days of any horse that was disqualified from being exhibited or sold because it was found to be sore.
• Requiring a quarterly and yearly report to APHIS of all horses and owners within an organization who have been disqualified at any show, exhibition, sale, or auction.
• Requirements for shipping and transporting horses.
• Subject to lameness examinations before showing, exhibiting, or entering a sale, including evaluating the horse's movement, posture, and palpation of the limbs to detect local pain and inflammation.
• Any horse winning first place in a class is required to be re-inspected.
• Horses that receive a rub or blemish while in the ring competing are subject to HPA violations.
• Prohibitions regarding holding horses for inspection – horses' reins cannot be held any closer than 18” away from the bit, nor can the bit be pulled on during an inspection.
• Prohibition of any device, method, practice, or substance that hides or masks a sore horse.
• Prohibition of devices, pads, wedges, and substances on the limbs or feet. Any boot, collar, chain, roller beads, bangles, or other device that encircles or is placed upon the lower extremity of the leg of a horse in such a manner that it can either rotate around the leg or slide up and down the lag so as to cause frictions or which can strike the hoof, coronet band or fetlock joint.
• Inspectors must be veterinarians or veterinary technicians, and farriers must be on the grounds or on call at any event, depending on the number of horses. Inspectors will be APHIS employees, titled Horse Protection Inspectors.
• Therapeutic treatment or practices applied to any horse covered under HPA are administered or overseen by qualified veterinarians only (this would include saltwater baths, cryotherapy massage, PMF, and chiropractic).
Learn more about this huge threat to our way of life here
https://www.westernjustice.info/horseprotectionact?fbclid=IwY2xjawHHGhRleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHf_NhevFvVAUD09XkDfhZ6jxYP4JUAjYODX8FPgpvmP7LWzoNDgxs5au1w_aem_OVx8vEAHjaO9V9tM57SP-A
Sign the petition here https://www.ruralamericainaction.com/petition/stop-the-horse-protection-act?fbclid=IwY2xjawHHHKZleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHeMzBc4otAeLBYvYwP0TBeBY18yMN_FGqCU7MO0QjBstmjaPlNiW09Lubw_aem_J1CTF4bTsgHTS39rfGtL_Q
Western Justice needs your help to stop the egregious government overreach of the revised Horse Protection Act (HPA).
𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐏𝐀 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞: https://www.westernjustice.info/horseprotectionact
𝐒𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞: https://www.ruralamericainaction.com/petition/stop-the-horse-protection-act