Lexington, KY - Regardless which side of the fence you reside on when it comes to involvement with animals, it's hard to argue the point that treating all of them in a humane way should be a given - whether it's a dog or cat, or a barn full of horses or cows.
That's the mission of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS,) according to its president, Wayne Pacelle, who was in town recently. He, along with Keith Dane, HSUS director of equine protection, and State Director Pam Rogers, was here to meet with local members and discuss some of the legislative initiatives the organization has slated for Kentucky's upcoming General Assembly.
With the budget taking center stage in Frankfort these days, much of the session will be filled with money talk, but Pacelle is confident their agenda is sound and hopes to gain ground on some key issues.
"We are going to try and update the law against cockfighting, which is one of the weakest cockfighting statutes in the country. Then we're going to introduce a bill, and hope to pass it, to have a state ban on soring of Tennessee Walking Horses. Soring is a practice that causes them to exaggerate their gate and injures the feet and lower part of the leg, and the practice has become a culture for some competitors," he said.
Pacelle added that another legislative priority for Kentucky is to upgrade the state anti-cruelty law, which has been rated the weakest in the nation.
The organization has fought these issues across the country. Earlier this month, John Goodwin, HSUS manager of animal fighting issues, released a statement concerning the indictment of 21 people in South Carolina for cockfighting.
"We commend the U.S. Attorney's office for investigating this case, bringing these charges and shutting down two cockfighting rings. Local authorities throughout South Carolina have raided many cockfights during recent years, but the anemic penalties in the state law have proven to be no deterrent," said Godwin. "The federal animal fighting violations carry felony penalties and should serve as a very strong message to those who engage in these cruel and vicious fights.
But the federal government cannot be expected to investigate every cockfighting pit in South Carolina. We call on the state legislature to finally enact felony penalties for cockfighting, just as 39 other states have already done."
The issue of soring was addressed nearly 40 years ago with the passage of the Horse Protection Act, but with too few funds to have enough USDA veterinarians at events, the practice has continued through the years.
"The horse has a beautiful gate, which is very close to what nature intended, what they were born to do and bred to do," said Dane, who is a horse owner himself and judge in many walking horse competitions.
He also said that most people with Tennessee Walking horses don't abuse them, but there is no way to train a horse to do the high, unnatural gate many Tennessee Walkers exhibit without the practice of soring.
"It is a very reasonable agenda," said Pacelle of the group's legislative initiatives. "We're talking about two activities that are already illegal and better enforcement of the laws. Soring is already illegal; we just want to make sure that the law is properly enforced. Cockfighting is illegal, but the statute is very weak and you have major cockfight pits operating throughout Kentucky, some with arena-style seating. And animal cruelty everybody accepts as wrong, but the statute has flaws that are inhibiting proper enforcement. We think this is an unbelievably modest agenda."
Pacelle also said that while it is reasonable to think that issues such as these should be acceptable by all groups, many hamper the enforcement because they are profiting from the activities, or other legitimate groups just simply do not help, being distrustful because of other larger animal welfare concerns.
Even without the help of some of those legitimate groups, the organization has plans to move forward with their agenda.
"We're going to reach out to the horse community on this soring issue here in Kentucky," said Dane. "It's considered the Horse Capital of the World, the World Equestrian Games are coming next year, and if Kentucky acknowledges that it has a welfare problem and it has failed to act, how is that going to look on a world stage and to the rest of the equestrian community across the globe? It's really important, with this issue being highlighted in the press so much in the last year, that Kentucky take affirmative action to clean it up and show the world it cares about its horses."
Of course in this state, it is the Thoroughbred industry that most often gets the spotlight when it comes to horses, and Pacelle said the organization has some concerns there as well.
"We are by no means an anti-horseracing organization, but we have concerns about how the business is being operated," he said. "I would say the biggest overarching concern is that regulation is highly balkanized, with 32 state racing commissions. This is a national industry. There should be a national racing regulatory body that can harmonize a set of regulations so that everyone can play by the rules. That would have to do with the application of steroids, drugs administered within a day or two of the race, how old horses can be when they are racing, breeding issues and a number of other issues. But everything is related to the absence of a national regulatory authority."
Pacelle added that another topic of concern with the Thoroughbred industry lies in its role in adding to the issue of horse slaughter once a horse is no longer able to race. Often, he said, unwanted horses are sold at auctions where they are bound for slaughter facilities in Mexico and Canada and transported to those facilities many times in inhumane conditions.
"When we look at the horse racing industry, we want them to be part of the solution - not part of the problem," said Pacelle. "We are concerned about how different sectors of that industry are handling that issue."
He also noted that the quarter horse industry is probably the biggest culprit when it comes to getting rid of these animals in unsatisfactory ways.
Dane said there are great examples in the Thoroughbred industry, throughout the state and elsewhere, of people stepping up to take responsibility.
"There are still too many people involved in the industry that are not doing the right thing by horses," he said. "They have profited handsomely throughout the horse's career, but there needs to be more horse rescue, and more supported horse rescue."
Dane cited the fact that in some other states, tracks are taking a small portion of purses and donating that money to a fund to help rehabilitate horses through rescue operations.
"People have a responsibility that if they own an animal, they have to provide a lifetime of care, and if they can't, they should get the animal to a rescue group, adopt them to another home or they should humanely euthanize the animal," said Pacelle.
Pacelle reaffirmed that the HSUS is not against animal agriculture by any means, saying theirs is not an anti-meat campaign but an anti-abuse campaign.