Protect Horses From the Cruel Practice of Soring!
In 2017, the Trump administration unlawfully withdrew a 2017 Horse Protection Act rule, which had been finalized at the end of the Obama administration. Since then, we have been fighting to reinstate the rule and were hopeful we could achieve our goal under the Biden administration, but unfortunately its U.S. Department of Agriculture is moving to officially withdraw the rule.
Withdrawing the rule without efficiently moving forward with any new protections for horses would fail to achieve the HPA's purpose—ending "soring." Soring is an abusive practice where trainers purposefully inflict pain on horses' hooves and legs to create an artificial high-stepping show gait known as the "Big Lick." They use a variety of gruesome techniques—some trainers even cut the hooves down to the delicate tissue and jam in hard or sharp objects to make the pain even more excruciating whenever the horses put weight on their front legs.
The 2017 HPA rule eliminated the use of devices integral to soring and the conflict-ridden industry-run self-enforcement system that has allowed horse soring to continue for decades – the rule would return sole enforcement authority to USDA. But that rule is now on the brink of being withdrawn without any of the regulatory reforms that are urgently needed to protect horses.
We need YOU to let the USDA know you DO NOT support the withdrawal of the 2017 HPA rule without implementing new regulations that truly ban soring. No horse should have to suffer for a blue ribbon—it's past time the USDA fulfills its legal duty to end soring once and for all.
Dear Dr. Bassage,
I am writing to voice my disappointment with the decision by the Department of Agriculture's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service to withdraw the agency's 2017 final Horse Protection Act rule, leaving horses vulnerable to the horrors of soring. While I appreciate APHIS expressing its commitment to strengthen the regulations via a new HPA rule, failing to provide a timeline for promulgating the new HPA rule indefinitely perpetuates the unlawful, pre-2017 regime that fails to meet the purpose of the HPA. I urge the agency to expeditiously issue the new HPA rule to ban the use of soring devices and end the role of Horse Industry Organizations and Designated Qualified Persons in the inspection of horses at shows, exhibitions, sales, and auctions, and assign inspection authority solely to APHIS Veterinary Medical Officers and other persons authorized and overseen by APHIS.
The agency's 2017 final HPA rule included prohibitions on all action devices or any device that strikes the foot of the horse (except for certain protective boots) and all pads and wedges (expect where pads and wedges are prescribed for therapeutic veterinary treatment) on any Tennessee Walking Horse or Racking Horse at any horse show, exhibition, sale, or auction. The 2017 final rule also maintained that show management will still pay for inspectors, and that management of HPA-covered events must, among other things, submit certain information records to APHIS and provide inspectors with access, space, and facilities to conduct inspections. The rule notably required management to have a farrier physically present to assist inspectors at horse shows, exhibitions, sales, and auctions that allow Tennessee Walking Horses or Racking Horses to participate in therapeutic pads and wedges if more than 150 horses are entered and have a farrier on call if 150 or fewer horses are entered.
These 2017 final rule provisions are vital for preventing horse soring, and if the agency is withdrawing the 2017 rule, we urge the inclusion of these provisions in the new HPA rule that has remained at the White House's Office of Management and Budget since September 2022.
To strengthen the rule, the agency should include weighted shoes in the prohibitions on devices allowed at covered events, extend the prohibitions on the use of shoes, pads, wedges, and action devices to Spotted Saddles Horses, and revise the Scar Rule with consideration given to the 2021 recommendations of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine committee convened to study methods of detecting soring.
Soring has been allowed to persist for far too long and will continue to persist without strong HPA regulations. Implementing the 2017 rule, and then updating the system upon promulgation of the new HPA rule is not untenable, nor would doing so cause unworkable "regulatory whiplash." Withdrawing the 2017 rule places horses in jeopardy of soring, especially given the agency's lack of commitment to a timeline for issuing the new rule. If the agency persists in withdrawing the 2017 rule, I implore USDA to commit in the withdrawal rule to a timeline for the expeditious issuance of the new HPA rule containing, at a minimum, key components of the 2017 rule, to put an end to this cruelty once and for all.
Thank you.
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