SCHAUMBURG, Ill., Aug. 26, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The
American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the American
Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) hand delivered a joint
letter to the Secretary of Agriculture Tom
Vilsack today. The organizations urge the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) to move forward with proposed
amendments to the Horse Protection Act (HPA) and deny requests from
certain factions within affected industries to extend the comment
period beyond the current September
26 deadline.
The proposed rule contains regulations that could end the
practice of soring which involves deliberately causing pain to
artificially exaggerate the leg motion of a horse's gait. The
practice is commonly used on "big lick" Tennessee Walking Horses,
but other gaited horses may also suffer from this practice.
The AVMA and AAEP have been strongly committed to ending the
practice of soring for more than 40 years.
"These requests from the industry are intended only to stall
implementation of the rule," said Dr. Ron
DeHaven, Executive Vice President and CEO of the American
Veterinary Medical Association. "A 60 day delay would ensure that
the rule would not be implemented during the current administration
and cause further delay in the implementation of long-overdue
changes leading to the diminished welfare of more horses."
Attempts at a legislative solution to this problem have achieved
wide bipartisan support but have been thwarted before reaching the
floor for a vote.
The proposed rule would address the issue of soring through
amendments to the Horse Protection Act. Two significant changes
are:
- USDA-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) would
assume responsibility for training, screening and licensing horse
inspectors. Instead of allowing horse industry organizations to
handle these responsibilities, which can be ineffective due to
conflicts of interest, inspectors would be veterinarians and
veterinary technicians required to follow USDA rules and standards
of conduct.
- USDA-APHIS would ban the use of all action devices, pads, and
foreign substances at horse shows, exhibitions, sales, and
auctions. This would align the HPA regulations with existing
equestrian standards set forth by the U.S. Equestrian
Federation.
The proposed rule is available for public comment at
http://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=APHIS-2011-0009.
Comments can be submitted through September
26.
In addition, APHIS will be hosting a series of meetings where
the public can provide additional comments and feedback. Future
meetings are scheduled for:
- Tuesday, Sept. 6, in Riverdale, Md.
- Wednesday, Sept. 15, a call-in
virtual public meeting.
To register or learn more about the public meetings, visit
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalwelfare/horse-protection-amendments.
AVMA currently endorses the American Association of Equine
Practitioners (AAEP) policy on "The Practice of Soring." In
addition, the AVMA has policy on the abolition of action devices
and performance packages.
To learn more about soring, visit the AVMA's resources on the
subject at avma.org/soring.
For more information, or to schedule an interview, contact
Sharon Granskog, AVMA media
relations, at 847-285-6619 (office), 847-280-1273 (cell), or
sgranskog@avma.org.
The AVMA, founded in 1863, is one of the oldest and largest
veterinary medical organizations in the world, with more than
88,000 member veterinarians worldwide engaged in a wide variety of
professional activities and dedicated to the art and science of
veterinary medicine.
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SOURCE American Veterinary Medical Association