Tennessee's shame

A change aimed at stamping out the barbaric practice of soring has been put on hold.

- Sarah Radford

US legislation that would have stamped out the endemic “torture” of Tennessee walking horses was put on hold last week, days before it was scheduled to come into force.

Campaigners had been celebrating the progress of the 1970 Horse Protection Actamendment — a tightening of regulations that could have stopped the barbaric practice of “soring” for good.

The measure was approved by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the final throes of the Obama administration, but was caught in a review of all pending legislation ordered by Trump’s incoming regime.

“The rule was finalised by USDA on 13 January, so there were several days in which it should have been published [into law],” said Keith Dane, senior advisor on equine protection for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

“We’ll never know if anyone was involved in slowing its progress but, for whatever reason, the federal regulation office failed to get it published in time.” He said it is not unusual for a new administration to review legislation, but campaigners had hoped “systems would be firing” enough for this to become law.

“Luckily a lot of the work has been done, but now we’ll need to put pressure on to convince them to go forward with it,” he said.

The amendment had met with widespread support from the public and politicians, with former senator Joseph Tydings, the driving force behind the original 1970 act, one of the first to applaud the move.

“During my tenure representing Maryland in the US senate, I first became aware of a sickening practice all too often inflicted on the stoic creature known as the Tennessee walking horse,” he said.