Ed Whitfield, Equestrian Hero
There are few if any admirable political figures in Washington, D.C., these days. But one whose under-the-radar work calls for high praise is Rep. Ed Whitfield, a Kentucky Republican. Whitfield's stalwart concern for horses is nothing short of spectacular, particularly given the fact he hails from the Bluegrass State. In Kentucky, the political muscle of horse breeders and trainers (many of whom oppose animal welfare laws because they interfere with profits) reigns, or should I say, reigns supreme. I have written about Whitfield in the past, but his nonstop push to protect horses from neglect, slaughter, and abuse deserves revisiting.
Whitfield most recently worked with a small group of members of Congress to hold last week's subcommittee hearing on thoroughbred racing. At that hearing, members of Congress publicly "scolded the horse racing industry for endangering thoroughbreds with lax drug policies and faulty breeding, and said the sport emphasized greed over transparency," according to the Associated Press.
Such "scolding" was long overdue. The subcommittee's investigation revealed just the first of many layers of cruelty to which the proud thoroughbred is sadly subjected. But the hearing was a start, and a good one.
Thoroughbred racing and other equine sports have produced a number of well-publicized recent tragedies, which is why Congress is finally starting to take reform seriously. The list began with Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro being "euthanized" after shattering his leg at the 2006 Preakness, the second event in racing's Triple Crown. I put "euthanized" in quotes because "slaughter" is more apropos. Then this year's Derby second-finisher, Eight Belles, shattered her leg and was destroyed while a horrified live TV audience looked on.
Most recently, the trainer of Big Brown (who won the first two races of this year's Triple Crown) very publicly stopped doping the horse and Big Brown fizzled at his next race, the Belmont. Message to the American public: Most horses must be loaded up with harmful, performance-enhancing drugs to win.
Last week's subcommittee hearing was a prelude to Congress considering the creation of a federal governing body for thoroughbred racing. The industry has sworn to reform itself in the past and has failed miserably. It is currently governed by a patchwork of mainly lax state laws. At last week's hearing, Stone Farm's Arthur Hancock testified that the industry was "too fractured and perhaps too dysfunctional to organize itself and needed federal oversight to rid the sport of drugs and stop fatalities." Stone Farm has bred three Kentucky Derby winners. Hancock, like Representative Whitfield, deserves some kind of medal for "outing" his own industry like that.
Few industry representatives are that honest. More typical is this doozy from Alex Waldrop, president of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, which Waldrop posted on the group's website after he, too, testified at the hearing: "The hearing is yet the latest example that our industry needs to act responsibly, collectively and expediently on a range of equine health and safety initiatives. Otherwise we can expect Congress and others to push forward with an agenda to act on our behalf."
Read that as code for, "If we don't start cleaning up our own very dirty act, we will have it cleaned up for us by federal authorities. Luckily for the horses and unluckily for the profit-motivated humans, it's probably too late for self-governance."
Whitfield deserves extra credit, but he is no longer the only member of Congress active in this cause. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat and self-described lifelong equestrian, is now a major supporter of legislation to protect horses. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat who chaired last week's hearing, is now also on board. There are probably others who also deserve credit.
But Whitfield has toiled for years to prompt Congress to become proactive on a variety of horse protection fronts. Before he took up the cause of thoroughbred racing reform, he led the so-far unsuccessful move to ban horse slaughter in the United States. (NOTE: State laws shut down the last three U.S. horse slaughter plants in Illinois and Texas. But on a national scale, horse slaughter is still legal in the United States because Congress has been unable to pass a federal slaughter ban.)
Whitfield's work and unnecessary track tragedies have accelerated the pace of reform to the point where it is probably now unstoppable. I wish the reformers Godspeed. Please join me.
Tags: Congress | sports | animals
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Horse Supporters
The Equine Protection Network applauds Congressman Whitfield and Senator Landrieu's efforts to Save America's Horses.
Let's get down to brass tacks here. How is Senator Landrieu from LA going to use her political favors and clout to move the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, AHSPA, HR 503, when all the bodies in New Orleans have yet to be identified? People still without homes? It would be poltitical suicide for Landrieu to stand up on the Senate Floor and Save America's Horses.
As for Whitfield, our hats are off to Whitfield for getting the votes to pass HR503 in the House in 2006. Sadly though when it comes to the debate on the issue, Rep. Goodlatte won the debate on the House Floor with his powerful pro slaughter message, even it was filled with lies. Lies that Whitfield and others failed to address.
Recently Rep Kirk from IL introduced the Horse Transportation Safety Act of 2008 co-sponsored by Whitfield. The language will ban the inhumane doubles, except the law will never be enforced because it has civil penalties.
Anyone who is serious about banning the inhumane transport of horses in double deck trailers and Saving America's Horses from slaughter needs to study history to understand all the players. The history of the Commercial Transportation of Horses to Slaughter Act is on the EPN website -http://www.equineprotectionnetwork.com/legislation/cthsaHistory.html
Read it and weep. Also on the EPN website are the violations of the regulations and action taken by APHIS, along with the Owner/Shipper Certficates that have not been filled out according to the regulations and no one at APHIS has done anything.
If you want to Save America's Horses-Demand that HSUS who takes in more donations than all the non-profit pro slaughhter organizations combined, hire the best profrsssional lobbyist available to lobby the AHSPA,and the best law firm to sue APHIS for not doing their job.
Your money is better spent donating to the Republican or Democratic National Committees if you want your voice in Congress heard. Politicians listen to donors...
Christine Berry
EPN
Pespective from the trenches
I own horses and run a variety of horse related web sites. I also deal daily with the fallout of the racing industry (as well as the equally bad English and Western show industry). While Bonnie hasn't spent her life around horses, she is bringing important things to light. And the feelings of non-horse owning American apparently do matter to our legislators and to at least a few of us in the business.
As an industry, we're worse than boxing ever thought about being. We are completely ungoverned, except by incestuous organizations like the Thoroughbred owners and US Equestrian Federation (their President and the USEF equestrian of the year are husband and wife!).
A 50% growth in feed and hay prices has wrecked the show and race industry. Years of over breeding by unscrupulous thoroughbred and quarter horse breeders has brought us here. But letting them off the hook by sending their culled colts to slaughter is unacceptable and not a mark of a capitalistic economy. They got into a commodity business and now they don't want to deal with the slow side of it.
Here is a little Mark Twain for you doubters. Twain, a big support of animal rights, said once that you could judge a country by the way it treats its animals. We haven't changed a bit and it is a real shame.
A Horse's Tale
"How many times have I changed hands? I think it is twelve times—I cannot remember; and each time it was down a step lower, and each time I got a harder master. They have been cruel, every one; they have worked me night and day in degraded employments, and beaten me; they have fed me ill, and some days not at all. And so I am but bones, now, with a rough and frowsy skin humped and cornered upon my shrunken body—that skin which was once so glossy, that skin which she loved to stroke with her hand. I was the pride of the mountains and the Great Plains; now I am a scarecrow and despised. These piteous wrecks that are my comrades here say we have reached the bottom of the scale, the final humiliation; they say that when a horse is no longer worth the weeds and discarded rubbish they feed to him, they sell him to the bull-ring for a glass of brandy, to make sport for the people and perish for their pleasure."
So who is to blame for horse slaughter?
We hear this argument all the time from the horse racing community.
"That said, you tout the work Ed Whitfield has done to eliminate horse slaughter houses as a good thing, when in actuality, it is quite bad. By eliminating slaughter houses in the United States, the government has lost all ability to govern the practices of slaughter houses and ensure they are as humane as possible. Now, the industry is shipping horses to Mexico where the trip and methods for destroying the animals is far more inhumane".
They try and convince us that when horses were distached for dog food or whatever in the US, it was done kindly and without suffering or pain.
In fact, the methods used by US meat processors were at least just as horrible and inhumane as those used by any other country.
That's why it was banned, folks.
Make your case for horse slaughter in this country if you wish, but jplease don't pretend that it was any more humane in this country than it is in any other. The FACTS puts the lie to that.
p.s. The comments from Mr. Gaffney are much appreciated at this time when every sports hero, human or otherwise, seems tainted by drugs. It's nice to be reminded once again as Charles Hatton described the great horse Secretariat, " His only point of reference is himself ".
TvNB
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