Happy Easter From Children 4 Horses

Happy Easter Everyone!  ~Declan

Colt Born at Louisa Horse Preservation Captures Attention Worldwide

This little mustang named "Nation" is so cute and looks just like his mom! Nation is believed to be one of "Cloud's" grandsons.  ~Declan

Colt Born at Louisa Horse Preservation Captures Attention Worldwide

Posted: Mar 27, 2013 4:40 PM EDT Updated: Mar 27, 2013 6:01 PM EDT As posted on NBC29.com

NBC29 WVIR Charlottesville, VA News, Sports and Weather

A newborn horse in Louisa County is drawing attention from around the world. Thousands of people tuned into a live stream Tuesday morning to watch its birth at Legacy Mustang Preservation.

The colt is believed to be the great grandson of Cloud - a stallion who has been featured in award-winning films. Now, this newborn is filling the shoes of his famous relative.

    

Kelly, the colt's mother, bonded with her newborn for the first time on Wednesday. More than 8,000 people across 23 different countries enjoyed watching their first moments together via live stream. Some have been following the live stream since October, waiting for the colt's birth.

"People are like, oh it's like, thank you for bringing us into your barn," said Jamie Dodson, founder of Legacy Mustang Preservation.

   

The Legacy Mustang Preservation is proud to care for the famous colt. The nonprofit traveled to Wyoming to save his mother, Kelly, who could have ended up in a holding facility.

Dodson says the new baby can carry on his family's role as an ambassador for wild horses.

"What he represents to us is being able to spread the word that they're amazing, amazing creatures that are gentle and kind if treated gentle and kind," Dodson.

This mustang is said to be related to the famous horse, Cloud. Cloud is the only mustang whose life has been documented so closely – in films, books, and a PBS nature series.

 

The new colt is only 1 day old, but a documentary crew is already heading to the preservation this week to capture his first moments.

The newborn colt has been named ‘Cloud's National Legacy' - they will call him ‘Nation' for short.

Ottawa Refuses To Say Whether Drug-Trainted Horse Meat Entered Food Chain

Some truth about horse slaughter and where the horses really come from.  Horse slaughter is about food production, not humane treatment of horses.  The majority - 92% - of horses are between 5-7 and are of good health, they are NOT starving, abandoned horses and they weren't raised for slaughter either.  They came off tracks, they were a riding camp horse someone didn't want to keep over the winter, some one's pony/horse they out grew, they were even simply stolen.  EVERY horse is at risk of slaughter!!  ~Declan

Saturday, March 30, 2013

9:48 AM EDT
As posted on TheStar.com

Star investigation: Ottawa refuses to say whether drug-tainted horse meat entered food chain

The Star traces a former Stronach racehorse’s life from birth to the slaughterhouse and makes an unsettling discovery: serious flaws in Canada’s food inspection system are putting our health at risk when it comes to horses destined for the food chain.

A Star investigation has found that Canada’s food inspection system has serious flaws when dealing with the thousands of racehorses sent to slaughter every year that end up on tables in Europe, Asia and even Toronto.

By: Mary Ormsby Feature reporter, Dale Brazao News, Published on Fri Mar 29 2013

Backstreet Bully was unloaded from a trailer after dawn and led by his halter into an abattoir in rural Quebec. Once owned and raced by Magna’s Frank Stronach, the chestnut thoroughbred was to be slaughtered then packaged for human food.

That same January morning earlier this year, frantic phone calls from the Stronach group tried to save Backstreet Bully’s life — and protect the public from eating toxic meat.

A Star investigation has found that Canada’s food inspection system has serious flaws when dealing with the steady stream of racehorses sent to slaughter every year. During his life, Backstreet Bully, like many competitive horses, was given powerful performance-enhancing drugs that are potentially deadly in meat eaten by humans.

Two of these, nitrofurazone and one nicknamed “bute” (phenylbutazone), had been administered to Backstreet Bully dozens of times but the shoddy paperwork and poor oversight allowed by Canada’s food watchdog cleared him for human consumption in a market that includes Quebec, Europe and some Toronto restaurants.

“You can’t kill that horse,” Stacie Clark, who works for the Stronach farm, recalled pleading with an abattoir official. It wasn’t just small amounts of these drugs that had once been given to the horse: 21 doses of nitrofurazone, which has been linked to cancer in humans, and at least 23 doses of bute, a drug linked to bone marrow disease.

According to Canada’s Food and Drugs Act, horses should not be sold for food if they have been given nitrofurazone at any point in their lives. Backstreet Bully had been given many other drugs that could also pose a serious risk to humans.

“Racehorses are walking pharmacies,” said Dr. Nicholas Dodman, a veterinarian at Tufts University in Massachusetts who has studied the issue extensively. “Do you really want to be eating a piece of meat that has the rabies vaccine in it?”

The Star found a host of problems in Canada’s food protection system related to horses. From one document to the next, the Star discovered confusion over which drugs are considered safe, how quickly a toxic drug leaves a horse’s body, and whether any trust can be placed in the system that regulates horses sold for meat.

In a Thursday email to the Star, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it is working with the horse industry to “develop measures to enhance equine traceability.”

When Clark, from Stronach’s Adena Springs farm in Aurora, made her rescue attempt, she was already too late. Backstreet Bully was dead, shot in the head while imprisoned in a cramped abattoir stall. Canadian officials have refused to tell the Star if the horse’s meat entered the food chain.

As part of an investigation into the number of racehorses sent to slaughter as cash-strapped Ontario racetracks close, the Star has traced the life and death of Backstreet Bully, using interviews, government documents and veterinary records.

If not for a clue on his leather halter — a brass plate engraved with the name Backstreet Bully — the fate of the playful animal with “tons of puppy dog personality” might not have been discovered. The horse’s identification paper was falsified, the Star has learned, and is now private property of the slaughterhouse, which refused to produce it.

The Star obtained Backstreet Bully’s veterinary records from when he was under Stronach’s care, which show that in addition to bute and nitrofurazone, he had been given numerous other risky substances, such as the anabolic steroid stanozolol.

Most problematic, though, were the 21 applications of nitrofurazone, a topical ointment used to treat skin infections. In Europe, nitrofurazone was banned for use in food-producing animals in 1995 because it was linked to cancer in humans.

Canadian officials gave a conflicting and confusing response about nitrofurazone: the drug cannot ever be administered to a horse that will be eaten by humans, but the horse’s medical history must only show it has not had the drug for six months before it is slaughtered.

Canada is a major international supplier of horse meat. Some 82,000 horses — most coming from the United States where slaughter was banned in 2006 — were killed in federally inspected facilities across the country last year, and about 14,000 metric tonnes of meat exported annually, mostly to Europe and Japan. Canadians consume another 300 tonnes of horse meat each year, mainly in Quebec.

Like most competitive horses, Backstreet Bully was not raised to be eaten.

Born into North America’s premier thoroughbred racing stables in 2004, the early hope was that the leggy chestnut baby — foaled at Stronach’s Kentucky farm — would become another of Stronach’s celebrated Queen’s Plate or Breeders’ Cup champions. Lack of speed ended that hope.

Backstreet Bully ran only three times at Ontario’s Fort Erie racetrack in 2008, collecting a victory and two top-10 finishes for $5,333 in winnings. But retirement didn’t dampen his sunny disposition.

“He was so funny, he was such a cutie,” said Stacie Clark, a former jockey and television commentator who runs Stronach’s racehorse retirement program in Aurora.

Stronach launched North America’s first in-house “after care” program for racehorses in 2004, offering his horses for sale so they can go on to a second career. Thoroughbreds are athletic and have other potential such as show jumpers, pleasure riders or companion animals.

Sarah Irving of Grandview Farm, a competitive riding stable in Oro, Ont., visited Adena Springs in the fall of 2008 looking for a gentle teaching horse for her younger students. She settled on Backstreet Bully.

“He was such a sweetheart,” said Irving. She bought Backstreet Bully for $1,050 on Oct. 21, 2008. Irving recalled giving Bully powdered bute in his food whenever he had soreness or inflammation.

Less than a year later, Irving gave Backstreet Bully free to the family of one of her students, confident he was going to a good home with Chris and Karen White at their farm in Apto, near Elmvale, Ont.

Backstreet Bully remained with the Whites for three years, up until three months ago, when the couple decided the horse was not being ridden enough and wanted to find him a home with more grazing pasture. In a tearful interview, Karen White said it was a difficult decision to send their beloved Backstreet Bully away.

They contacted Glen Priest, a veteran Wyebridge horse dealer who said he buys and sells about 3,000 horses in Ontario a year, and asked him to find Backstreet Bully a home with large, grassy fields. Priest arrived at the Whites’ farm on the morning of Jan. 7 this year and said he knew a woman with such a place in nearby Coldwater.

The Whites, who confirmed that Backstreet Bully was given three applications of bute in June 2011, sold the horse to Priest for $100 on the understanding that if the woman in Coldwater didn’t want him, Backstreet Bully would be returned to them. Priest promised to do just that.

Instead, after the unnamed Coldwater woman refused to buy the horse for $150 — he wanted the extra $50 for gas costs — he housed the animal overnight in his barn.

The next morning, Jan. 8, Priest trucked Backstreet Bully to the Ontario Livestock Exchange in St. Jacobs, near Waterloo, where he joined dozens of unwanted horses at the weekly auction.

Priest signed the federal government’s mandatory Equine Information Document — a type of horse passport that must accompany all horses destined for slaughter — and stated that as owner, he had “uninterrupted possession, care and control” of Backstreet Bully for the past six months.

In fact, he had owned him for about 24 hours.

In signing the passport, Priest also attested that Backstreet Bully had been drug free for the past six months and had not been given any “not permitted” substances listed on the government’s website.

Critics of the passport system say the form is confusing and open to misinterpretation or outright fraud.

Priest, who has been in the horse business for more than 40 years, said he rescues and sells horses to good homes. He told the Star he falsely claimed he’d owned Backstreet Bully for six months because “everybody does” this on the horse documents.

Calling himself “the last resort” for people who no longer want their horses, Priest said Backstreet Bully was a bone rack who looked 15, not 9 years old, and that he was doing the Whites a favour by taking the gelding to auction.

Priest said he has sold dozens of horses at auctions over the years without any problem.

“The only mistake I made was the halter shouldn’t have went with that horse. That’s where it all leaked out,” Priest told the Star.

The federal government relies heavily on the accuracy of the passports, which have been in existence since 2010 and are the first line of defence in keeping tainted horse meat from the human food chain. The government does not require owners selling a horse for meat to provide additional medical history such as veterinary records.

Dr. Martin Appelt, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s national veterinary program manager, acknowledged the government relies on an honour system and hopes that the documents are “a reflection of the truth.”

But it’s far from a foolproof system: last year, tainted horse meat from Canada, bound for Belgium, was found to contain traces of two controversial drugs, bute and clenbuterol, the latter on the list of drugs in Canada that are never to be given to animals sold for human food.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency began testing horse meat for bute in 2002. In detecting prohibited veterinary drug residues in meat, there is an overall compliance rate of 96 to 98 per cent, according to an agency spokesperson. Testing is random though a horse or its carcass will be tested if there are red flags or concerns.

The European Union takes a tough stance on many veterinary drugs in human food, including bute and nitrofurazone, for its homegrown horses. Yet the EU will accept Canadian-processed horse meat if the animals’ documents say they were drug free for six months at the time of slaughter.

There is little research on the depletion rate of bute in horses and what level, if any, is safe for consumption.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency does not monitor provincial auction houses. It has inspectors at the four abattoirs where horses are killed then processed as human food. Two abattoirs are in Quebec, two in Alberta.

Backstreet Bully was sent to Les Viandes de la Petite Nation in Saint-André-Avellin, Que., a 90-minute drive northwest of Montreal. It is the same slaughterhouse that processed the two tainted meat samples bound for Belgium last year.

On Jan. 8, Backstreet Bully was walked through the St. Jacobs sales ring, looking healthy and weighing in at 1,200 pounds, according to thoroughbred owner Mindy Lovell of Cumberland, Ont., who was there that day.

Lovell runs Transitions Thoroughbreds, a non-profit racehorse rescue operation that has saved dozens of horses from slaughter. She’d made herself known that morning to an auction employee, who in turn alerted her to a chestnut thoroughbred in one of the pens.

Lovell tried to bid on the gelding but claims the auctioneer ignored her waving wildly at him. She lost out to a Quebec man named Jonathan Lalonde, who Lovell said purchased Backstreet Bully for 26 cents a pound — about $300. Lalonde is one of a number of people who supply horses to slaughterhouses and are referred to by some as “kill buyers.”

Lalonde said “it’s not really my problem” when informed Priest had falsely signed the horse passport, adding it’s the responsibility of horse owners to ensure their animals are drug free when he buys them.

Lovell said she tried to buy Backstreet Bully from Lalonde. He refused, telling her the horse was “meat only.” Lalonde told the Star he refused because he was respecting the wishes of the owner, Priest, that Backstreet Bully be sold for meat.

Upset, Lovell drove home. She knew the horse’s name. She’d read it on his halter nameplate and wondered about his history. In the early hours of Jan. 9, a computer search revealed Backstreet Bully was once a Stronach horse. She phoned her friend Stacie Clark at Adena Springs around 7:30 a.m.

Clark said that in a phone call just after 8 a.m., she offered to fax the slaughterhouse manager Backstreet Bully’s full drug history, but the offer was rejected. About an hour later, during another call, Clark was told the horse was dead.

Her insistence that the former racehorse had been given bute prompted slaughterhouse staff to conduct a post-mortem drug test.

The slaughterhouse would not reveal the test results, saying it was private information.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency would not talk to the Star about the Backstreet Bully case.

An email obtained by the Star from Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Gerry Ritz to a woman concerned about Backstreet Bully’s fate stated the test was negative for bute. The email does not say if the dead horse was tested for nitrofurazone or other drugs.

What happened to Backstreet Bully’s carcass is a closely guarded secret. Neither the government nor the slaughterhouse owner will say whether the horse’s meat became someone’s dinner somewhere in the world.

Slaughterhouse owner Jordan Harpur refused to answer any questions from the Star regarding how the drug tests were conducted or whether Backstreet Bully’s carcass was released for meat. Harpur also refused to provide Backstreet Bully’s passport.

“Unfortunately, for competitive reasons, we wouldn’t be sharing those documents,” Harpur said.

Mary Ormsby can be reached at mormsby@thestar.ca or 416-869-4373 .

Dale Brazao can be reached at dbrazao@thestar.ca or 416-869-4433 .

Oklahoma Governor Fallin Signs Horse Slaughter Bill - Will Become Law Nov.1st

IT'S A SAD SAD DAY FOR OKLAHOMA!!  PLEASE CALL YOUR LEGISLATORS AND ASK THEM TO COSPONSOR AND SUPPORT THE SAFE ACT H.R.1094/S.541.  WE HAVE GOT TO STOP THIS!!  

Find your Representatives and their contact information by using these links:

US HOUSE CONTACT INFORMATION

US SENATE CONTACT INFORMATION

~DECLAN

Fallin signs horse slaughter bill, will become law Nov. 1

Oklahoma does not allow horsemeat processing

Published  4:18 PM CDT Mar 29, 2013  on KOCO.com

OKLAHOMA CITY —A controversial horse slaughter bill was signed by Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin.

House Bill 1999, a bill ending the prohibition on horse meat processing for export in Oklahoma, was signed Friday. Forty-six states, not including Oklahoma, currently allow horsemeat processing.

Fallin released the following statement:

"In Oklahoma -- as in other states -- abuse is tragically common among horses that are reaching the end of their natural lives. Many horses are abandoned or left to starve to death. Others are shipped out of the country, many to Mexico, where they are processed in potentially inhumane conditions that are not regulated by the U.S. government.

"Unfortunately, the 2006 federal ban on horse processing plants has made this situation worse. After the implementation of that ban, the Government Accountability Office reported a 60 percent increase in abused, neglected and starved horses. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has also noted that over 166,000 horses were sent to Canada and Mexico for processing just in 2012.  These animals traveled long distances, in potentially inhumane circumstances, only to meet their end in foreign processing plants that do not face the same level of regulation or scrutiny that American plants would.

"Those of us who care about the well being of horses – and we all should – cannot be satisfied with a status quo that encourages abuse and neglect, or that rewards the potentially inhumane slaughter of animals in foreign countries.

"For that reason, I have today signed HB 1999, which would allow the humane, regulated processing of horses. This bill strictly prohibits selling horse meat for human consumption in Oklahoma.

"My thanks go out to the many horse owners, farmers and ranchers, animal lovers and concerned citizens who have contacted me regarding this issue. I appreciate the willingness of so many individuals and groups to get involved and engage their elected officials.  My office diligently worked to ensure input from all sides of the issue was carefully considered during the consideration of this bill.  I appreciate and support the efforts of those who have expressed a desire to donate land, money and resources to provide for abandoned horses.  I believe the direction pursued by the Oklahoma Legislature, in a bill supported by both Democrats and Republicans and passed by large margins, is both practical and humane."

"There are currently no processing facilities in the state.  Should there ever be a processing facility planned, my administration will work with the Department of Agriculture to ensure it is run appropriately, follows all state and local laws, and is not a burden or hazard to the community.  It’s important to note cities, counties and municipalities still have the ability to express their opposition to processing facilities by blocking their construction and operation at the local level."

HB 1999 goes into effect on November 1. It was sponsored by Rep. Skye McNeil in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and Sen. Eddie Fields in the Senate.  The bill passed 82-14 in the House and 32-14 in the Senate.

Animals "talk" to us all the time, we just need to be willing to listen.  ~Declan

Published: March 27, 2013 Updated: March 28, 2013 9:02 a.m. As posted on the Orange County Register

Animal psychic talks to animals (and says they talk back)

Actress at first thought the field was a little weird or hokey, but then learned by doing.

By LORI BASHEDA / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Where do you go after you've been written off "The Young and the Restless" by bathtub electrocution?

What's next after you've starred in the Stray Cats' "Sexy and 17" MTV music video, dancing on TV screens across the nation.

A rockin' career as an animal psychic, that's what.

Yeah, yeah, she knows: To some folks it might sound a little La-La Land L.A.

She says as much right in her book, "Straight from the Horse's Mouth: How to Talk to Animals and Get Answers" (Crown Books).

"I thought ... as some of you may think now," Amelia Kinkade writes of her foray into the world of animal communication, "that the psychic business is either a hokey sideshow act or a solemn mystical affair full of incense-burning Gypsies and weird witches with crystal balls."

But then she met a psychic named Gladys who talked to Kinkade's cat, Rodney. Rodney told Gladys he was jealous of Kinkade's boyfriend and wasn't going to behave unless he got a girlfriend of his own. Kinkade brought home a rescued feline. And Rodney stopped terrorizing the neighbors every day with his caterwauling.

Intrigued, Kinkade found a flier the psychic had given her for an animal communication workshop. Again, the naysayers fought with the rational side of her brain.

But she went anyway.

When it came time to ask a dog in the class what his favorite food was, a picture of spaghetti and meatballs popped into her head. After the others in the class guessed more traditional dog favorites, like bones, she meekly confessed her vision.

Bingo! the dog's owner shouted.

The next thing she knew she was talking to the queen's horses at Buckingham Palace and Barbara Walters' dog on "The View."

Well, not exactly the next thing, but pretty soon.

Things took off in 1996 after she was listed in "The 100 Top Psychics in America" (Pocket Books). Soon she was hitting the talk show circuit, telling "Extra" host Leeza Gibbons that her dog's favorite toy was a rubber chicken. (It was.)

You can watch the videos for yourself on YouTube.

On Saturday, Kinkade was at Sycamore Stables in San Juan Capistrano chatting up some horses.

She was invited by Gabi Gross, a veterinarian who began working in conservative medicine 25 years ago, traveling internationally with performance sports horses (her most famous client was Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Jack Van Berg). These days Dana Point is her home base. She runs Equolution, a nutrition-based counseling practice, focusing on "mind, body and spirit" of horse and rider.

Gross attended one of Kinkade's animal communication workshops in Anaheim.

Kinkade arrived at the stables looking like she could still be on TV: stylish and trim with wavy blond hair, snow-white teeth, matching purple eye shadow and nail polish, and rubber floral-print cowgirl boots.

She has a slight twang left over from her childhood. Kinkade left Texas for Hollywood at 18 to live with her aunt, Rue McClanahan, who played Blanche on "The Golden Girls," and take a crack at acting. Her most famous role was the bloodthirsty Angela in the '80s cult horror film series "Night of the Demons."

Debbie Williams was waiting for Kinkade with her horse, Luke. Kinkade stood outside Luke's stall and reported to Debbie that he said it's been a journey of grief.

He had a girlfriend, Kinkade reported, and they tried to have a baby, but it didn't happen and then they took her away, breaking his heart, and after that his intestinal troubles began.

Williams was shocked.

Indeed there had been a young mare they were trying to breed him with about six years ago but it came to nothing and she was shipped away. After that he began to have colic.

Kinkade said the horse also told her that he liked someone named Carol.

"And Carol likes him," Williams said.

Is there a Timothy, Tabitha or Kimberly? Kinkade asked.

There wasn't.

Williams had one question: "Does he feel I spend a sufficient amount of time with him?"

Kinkade said the horse told her that he missed Debbie at night and wished she would get a cot in the stall.

Williams laughed.

"I literally have to push him back in" the stall every night when she leaves, she said. "And I've told my husband I should put a cot in the stall."

A few stalls down, Kinkade met Evelyn Nichka.

She wanted to know why her horse, Tracker, was skittish on the trails. Kinkade told her he wants to follow a lead horse. He also wants more massages.

"I haven't had a massage in years," Nichka laughed. "He gets one a month."

"Well he wants one a week," Kinkade said.

The price for such intelligence: $300 a reading. Kinkade said it doesn't have to cost a dime, though.

"Everyone can learn to do this. The same as if you can learn to play the piano or learn Japanese or downhill ski."

She teaches workshops, explaining how it works.

"I silence myself so completely I don't have a thought. I don't have an emotion. I'm just gonna listen."

The animals, she says, talk by showing her pictures.

"It's learning how to function as a radio that can pick up frequencies from other beings," she said. "There isn't an animal out there that doesn't want to talk to us."

So what does she say to people who think this is bunk?

She tells the story of a country radio DJ who asked her on air who his dog's favorite person was. Kinkade mind-melded with his dog and then proclaimed: Aunt Beatrice!

Hot damn. He told his listening audience that he had brought Kinkade on the show to make fun of her and now wanted to apologize.

Kinkade is teaching an animal communication workshop at Glen Ivy Hot Springs on April 12. She is also looking for pet guinea pigs, both figuratively and literally (if you happen to have a pet guinea pig).

She asked if she could borrow my rabbit for her students to test their telepathy. I told her she could, but if Bun Bun starts piping up about wanting a boyfriend, the session's over.

For more: ameliakinkade.com

SoonerPoll’s Bill Shapard Writes Open Letter To Governor Fallin Over Horse Slaughter Poll Results

Thank you Mr. Shapard, for your letter to Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin.  ~Declan 

SoonerPoll’s Bill Shapard writes open letter to Governor Fallin over horse slaughter poll results

ON MAR 26, 13 • BY BILL SHAPARD • As posted on Sonnerpoll.com

Dear Governor Fallin,

I write to you today to share with you results of our most recent polling regarding legislation to repeal the ban on horse slaughter in Oklahoma.

Given the rather fast pace this legislation has made its way through the legislature, my intent is to make sure that the collective voice of the voting public is heard and taken into consideration on this issue.

As Oklahoma’s public opinion pollster, it is NOT my mission, directly or indirectly, to advocate for or against any particular legislation or public policy. While this particular poll was commissioned by two organizations that have taken a position on the legislation, I wrote the survey instrument with the full intent to ask a probability sample of likely voters unbiased questions and present both sides fairly.

PDF of the letter to Governor Fallin

I would also like to note that SoonerPoll.com has provided complete disclosure of the poll results, instrumentation, and a Call Disposition Report including rate calculations, some of which exceeds the minimum disclosure requirements of my profession. Our survey methods are also provided with complete transparency with the public on our website.

There has been mention in media reports of another poll conducted by an out-of-state firm with conflicting results. I would like to point out that this organization has not completely provided their results for review, or met even the minimum public disclose standards outlined by the polling industry. The results of this poll, therefore, should NOT be considered until complete disclosure is provided.

It is my hope that you will, in your capacity as governor of our fine state, carefully consider the public’s collective opinion on this legislation as you decide whether to sign this legislation or not.

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

This is a positive step in the right direction for New Mexico.  Thank you Governor Susana Martinez!  ~Declan

                                                                        New Mexico State Governor Susana Martinez (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Governor signs bill to establish horse rescue fund

By Milan Simonich

Posted:   03/27/2013 04:12:16 PM MDT

As posted on Las Cruces Sun News

SANTA FE — Shelters across New Mexico that care for abandoned horses could receive financial help through a bill that Gov. Susana Martinez signed Wednesday.

The measure creates a horse shelter rescue fund to be administered by the New Mexico Livestock Board.

New Mexico has 11 state-licensed shelters for equines, at least nine of which are active in rescue operations, said Lisa Jennings, executive director of Animal Protection of New Mexico.

Her organization lobbied for the bill, which was carried by Sen. George Munoz, D-Gallup.

Munoz says the primary financial feature of his legislation is an optional designation for personal income tax contributions for the rescue fund.

The new law also allows for gifts, grants and appropriations that would help shelters care for horses.

Jennings said approximately 350 horses live in New Mexico shelters. Many were abandoned. Others were wild animals that became sick or could not care for themselves.

Munoz said the shelter staffs stepped in, saving the horses from painful deaths.

Under his bill, the livestock board will establish rules for distribution of money from the rescue fund. Horse populations and the needs of each shelter are to guide the board in how it allocates money.

A Humane Nation - Horse Slaughter Controvery Won't Quit

Please don't give up and keep fighting to protect America's horses, both domestic and wild!  Read Wayne Pacelle's latest blog post on the issue and <CLICK HERE> for a link to ways you can help fight against horse slaughter from the HSUS.  ~Declan

March 26, 2013

Horse Slaughter Controversy Won’t Quit

As posted on Wayne Pacelle's blog  A Humane Nation

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 be called on to inspect, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said this week that there should be a “third way” to manage America’s horse population, and that we can develop a system to deal with homeless horses without sending them to slaughter. European authorities are still trying to figure out how some parties in the supply chain swapped out beef for horse, and duped consumers. They’re also trying to determine how to maintain food safety standards by allowing trade in a class of animals not originally raised for food, and in terms of the industries from which they originate, are routinely fed and injected with drugs not fit for human consumption.

In Congress, several veteran lawmakers introduced legislation two weeks ago to ban the live export of horses for slaughter for human consumption. Meanwhile, under pressure from agriculture interests, Oklahoma is poised to repeal its longstanding horse slaughter ban. That would clear the state path for a horse slaughter plant to open, but doesn’t guarantee any final approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on any particular plant.

Kathy Milani/The HSUS

The notion that the U.S. would resume horse slaughtering at a time when the global horse meat market is in turmoil raises all sorts of curious questions. Where does the financing come from? Why would anyone invest in a shadowy business enterprise like horse slaughter, with no domestic market, with congressional legislation looming to ban exports, and with the primary global market of Europe in a tail-spin over the recent horse meat scandal? It’s like investing in beach-front property right after a hurricane has slammed into the area.

The HSUS and the ASPCA have just released a poll that reveals that 66 percent of Oklahoma voters won’t support horse slaughter legislation. Yet the state legislature, goaded by the phony arguments of horse slaughter proponents that killing horses is good for the animals, seems hell-bent on the idea. Remember though, it took a ballot measure to outlaw cockfighting in the state. There were some lawmakers aligned with the cockfighting lobby who believed it was a form of economic development they didn’t want to squander. Hell, the family of the author of the horse slaughtering bill runs a major horse auction site, and she may be able to get a piece of the economic action that results if Oklahoma becomes the new hub of the American horse slaughter industry.

And why are the cattlemen so hot on horse slaughter? Yes, I understand they take a strictly utilitarian view toward animals, and would rather sell off a horse they no longer want for $200 to a killer buyer than to pay $200 to humanely dispose of the animal. But aside from that, if the U.S. has a horse meat scandal like Europe does, you can bet that beef sales will plunge here. As was the case with “downers,” sick or injured cattle they still wanted to slaughter, big beef is an industry that’s pennywise and pound foolish.

The whole thing smells like a rotting carcass. One thing you can count on is that The HSUS will not relent in our efforts to protect horses in the U.S. and throughout the world, especially from this predatory, vile slaughtering industry.

Jennifer MaHarry's photography is beautiful.  Thank you for being a voice for wild horses Ms. MaHarry!  ~Declan

Wild horses couldn't drag her away

Culver City-based photographer Jennifer MaHarry was captivated by the spirit and beauty of the free equines and decided to use her skills to shed light on their plight. Some of her images can be seen at the G2 Gallery in Venice.

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By Liesl Bradner

March 24, 2013, 6:00 a.m. 

As posted on LA Times

For the last seven years, Culver City-based artist Jennifer MaHarry has been photographing wild horses in the West.

"Their free spirit and majestic beauty is what initially captivated me," said MaHarry, founder of Eden Creative, where she designs print ad campaigns for film. It was after visiting Wild Horses in Need, a rescue center in Ojai, that she learned of their at times inhumane treatment in captivity and decided to use her craft to shed light on their plight.

Photographed in the wilderness, at roundups, government holding facilities and horse rescue sanctuaries in Utah and California, several of her images can be seen at the G2 Gallery in Venice, with a full-scale show planned there in June.

Her breathtaking photos taken in the mountain ranges outside Salt Lake City capture the elegant creatures in their natural habitat. An intimate portrait of a bonding moment between mare and foal or a panoramic shot of a gallant steed poised against the snow-capped Onaqui Mountains masks their predicament.

In 1971, Congress passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burros Act to protect and control wild horses on public range lands, recognizing them as "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West." Since then, nearly 270,000 have been removed from public lands, including a recent roundup of mustangs in Nevada and Montana.

The livestock industry wants more grazing land for cattle and blames the horses for destroying the grass. There's no official census, but there are 20,000 to 27,000 wild horses remaining in the U.S. by some estimates.

The potential opening of a New Mexico slaughterhouse (the first for horses in the U.S. in six years), mixed with a recent scandal in Europe over horse meat turning up in beef, has equine rights activists especially concerned. 

Last year, MaHarry managed to document the roundups (or gatherings) by the Bureau of Land Management.

"It felt like I was on a secret mission," she recalled of meeting a BLM representative in the dark at a Flying J truck stop outside Tooele, Utah. "It was otherworldly. We were driving off-road for hours on bumpy terrain, passing military stations, uranium dumps and test bombing sights in this desolate, high desert wilderness." She photographed the roundups every day for a week.

Helicopters are used to attract the horses while a "Judas horse" tricks the herds into following him through jute fencing traps that funnel the animals into cramped steel pens where they are then separated by age and gender. Mares are occasionally released back into the wild after receiving infertility inoculations, while others are put up for adoption. The rest are stockpiled in government facilities. Horses that fail to be adopted can be sold, with many being sent to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada and their meat exported to Europe.

"What is happening is such a horrible disservice to these majestic creatures," said MaHarry. "They've created civilizations, they've gone to war, plowed fields, transported us and changed our conception of distance and time. Everything we asked from a horse, they've done."