Bonnie Erbe

Tennessee Walking Horse Torture Continues—Federal Officials Get Harassed as Well

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September 25, 2008 RSS Feed Print
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I've blogged about Tennessee Walking Horse abuse many times and will continue to do so until all the "soring" and other forms of human-induced torture of gaited horses stops. Again, not all owners and trainers in the gaited horse world "sore" their animals (apply caustic chemicals to the skin so that the horses maintain exaggerated gaits to get away from the horrible pain inflicted on purpose). One gaited horse show organization contacted me to let me know they are working to wipe it out entirely. More on that in another blog post.

Meanwhile, this report from the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader shows only a tiny amount of the harassment and threats of physical violence federal officials trying to enforce anticruelty laws endure. I reported before I knew one such federal official, whose staffer was cornered in a bathroom and threatened with torture and worse, if he kept trying to stop the abuse. There's a related incident reported in the full story.

Tags:
horses,
animal cruelty,
Tennessee,
USDA,
animals

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Oh, YouTube videos? Really? I used to breed, raise, train and show flat shod walking horses in their natural state but quit breeding when I saw where some of those babies ended up. No thank you Rae. You just keep YOUR head in the sand, keep making excuses why you and the sore walking horse world should continue their ways and I will tell you that this is the beginning of the end of 40 years of work by many dedicated people to end this travesty. What we need is to get a video of someone with a big name (does Michael Vick sound about right?) riding a sore horse and it is game over for the Big Lickers.

Billy of SD 9:44AM May 17, 2012

Christie, your paper shouuld include the overriding denial Rae S.T. from GA exhibits? Information on human behavior regarding their treatment of God's creatures would be an eyeopener and interesting to boot. Rae is in the thick of the soring world without a doubt. I've listened to these types of excuses for their behavior for many years. How, I might ask, does Rae explain away the findings of illegal substances found on 52 of last year's Celebration horses 100% of the time? 60's & 70's needed monitoring? No, now needs monitoring. So, Christie, you have a wonderful topic and to answer your question, contact Keith Dane, equine director, @ HSUS and I'm sure he will have many ideas for you and the stats to back them up. Good luck to you and it is always good to shine the light of truth on their dirty little secret that lives and thrives in many a sore trainer's barn. Thank you for that!

Billy of SD 9:36AM May 17, 2012

i myself have ridden Tennessee Walking Horses, Since i was three. i know what im talking about. the tn walking horses do need to be governed some what i do agree, BUT, that thought that the horses are being mistreated and tortured, is NOT the truth.

yes in the 1960's and 70's horses were sored, but in the present that is not the case, there feet look better than mine, and saying that a horse is scarred because they have thin hare is the stupidest thing i have ever heard, some people have thin hair, and nothing has ever happened to them. i've grown up in the isles on the walking horse brans, and know what really takes place. the horses are well fed, and cared for, FEET AND ALL. saying that a horse is sored because the horse has a callous on its foot is completely wrong, i dare all of you to go look at a major athlete's foot, GUESS WHAT! there are callouses on there feet. if the government is going to continue to check the walking horses, fine, but at least they should hire the proper inspectors, the people that were hired to check the horses this year, were chicken plant inspectors, and meat pacing plant inspectors, its funny how here have been so many human product recalls in the past years, why werent the inspectors inspecting plants and other things that us humans rely on. also the government is trying to create more jobs correct?? so by shutting down the walking horse industry, the government is taking away hundreds, even thousands of peoples jobs by doing this. and what about the government trying to save money? for this celebration the government spent $500,000 sending representatives down to the celebration. what people dont see is that the walking horses will continue forever, no matter what laws are made, before people judge they should go to some of the barns, see shows, and not make ignorant judgements, people also should not think that they know everything just cause they've seen a few you tube videos. LONG LIVE THE WALKING HORSES!!!!!!! LET 'EM WALK ON!!!!

RAE S.T. of GA 5:34PM January 18, 2011

Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and hosts PBS's weekly news analysis program, To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbe. She also writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column for Scripps Howard News Service.

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