Saturday, February 11, 2012

14 Year Old Offers Solution in Beleaguered Horse Slaughter Debate

Straight from the Horse's Heart

Forward by R.T. Fitch, article by Chey Little
Young Voice Continues Fight Against Predatory Horse Slaughter

Childrern Saving Horses by Marcy Leonard
“Six weeks ago we featured an article on the efforts of a 14 year old California girl who was attempting to stem the tide of a handful of special interests attempting to ram the concept of butchering companion horses for human consumption down the throats of the American public; said article was one of the more popular publications for the month of December here at Straight from the Horse’s Heart.  Now, as the misguided few assault children and the public majority in an effort to forward their cause of eating their best friends the same 14 year old, Cheyenne Little, has brazenly offered a potential solution that, to date, has not netted her any hate mail or threats from the dark underbelly of predatory horse slaughter and reaped great praise from folks around the world.  Chey’s petition, in it’s entirety, and the appropriate signature link are entered, below, along with a thoughtful video produced by Chey, herself.  The young ones give us hope.” ~ R.T.
EBC Program (Equine Breeding Certification)
What:
The Equine Breeding Certification (EBC) program is a program I designed myself. It requires people to go through a certification program before they can breed their horse. This certification program is similar to the one you go through at the DMV to get your driver’s license. It’s not a difficult thing to enforce and the whole country would benefit.
Why:
The EBC program would cause anyone who was interested in breeding their horse to become educated in the area before they bred the horse(s). Right now each week thousands of perfectly good horses are being shipped around the country and over the border for slaughter. These horses are the product of uneducated breeders, irresponsible owners, and cheap sales. People who didn’t know what they were getting themselves into turn their horses onto the roads to starve to death and be hit by cars. All of this would be stopped with the EBC program. The economy would be driven up, horses would be treated more humanely, and people would be employed.
The Basics:
If this program was put into place in our country you would have to go through the following steps to breed a horse-
• Educate yourself on breeding
• Take, and pass, a written exam on breeding soundness, the economics of it, pairing horses, foaling, breeding methods, simple genetic disorders, and moderate conformational pairing.
• Broodmares and stallions need a written approval of breeding soundness from your veterinarian each year to be presented to the EBC board and approved by them
• A bi yearly fee would need to be paid for your certificate
• A cap would be placed on the yearly production size
You may be wondering just what all this will do-
By making people take a written exam, just like the one you take at the DMV, people will need to study for it and inform themselves on the matter. During this process people may decide that breeding their horse is not for them. People who are unable to pass the test after 2 tries would not be allowed to breed horses as they would not be educated enough on the matter.
If broodmares and stallions needed to be approved for breeding by both the board and a veterinarian there would be far fewer foals produced from incompatible horses. Also infections and easily transmitted diseases could be caught before the horses were bred.
Truthfully if you cannot afford a bi yearly fee to breed your horse(s) you cannot afford to be breeding them properly at all! This would discourage many people because of the fee’s involved.
How would we cap the yearly production size? When you go in to pay your fee and take your exam every other year, the number of successful horses you put out in the previous years would determine the amount of horses you would be allowed to breed yearly for the next two years. If you only put out a couple of successful horses but bred 10 mares your number of mares that you could breed in the next two years would be lowered. This encourages people to breed only the best and put training into the foals to produce the highest quality horses.
Who:
This system can, and would be, used by EVERYBODY. The racing industry, show jumpers, event horses, dressage horses, reining breeders, halter facilities, every single person in the country would have to go through this program to breed a horse.
Benefits:
The EBC program would have so many benefits to it!
• Rise in the economy
• Rise in the price for horses
• Humane treatment
• Employment
How you ask?
The fees from the people paying for the certificates and the fines from people who were not obeying the law would really add up, boosting our economy easily.
There would be no such thing as a $500 horse anymore. Horses would be well trained and prices would skyrocket into the thousands for a high quality horse. This would also improve the economy and cause horses to go to homes where owners were more likely to provide top care for them.
Horses would no longer be crossed, abandoned in pastures, dumped on the side of the road, let loose, and destroyed. Every horse would be made for a purpose before it was even conceived.
Who’s going to be on the EBC board, approve vet exams, and patrol for people breaking the law? Tons and tons of state employee’s of course!
Consequences:
So what happens if I choose to shove my Thoroughbred/Paint mare through the fence with my neighbors Friesian/Morgan stallion? With every law there must be enforcement and consequences. Large fines would be applied. People who are breeding horses in such a way typically cannot bear the weight of a large fine, otherwise they would just go the cheaper way and get approved. The second time the fine doubles. The third time horses will be removed from the premises and the fine will be reapplied.
How do you prove it’s a certified foal?
When your vet comes out to do a breeding soundness exam on the mare and stallion a copy of the written approval will be made and kept by the mare’s owner from both the mare and stallion. When the vet comes out to do an exam on the mare and foal after foaling the approval paperwork will be gone over once again and a permanent certificate will be made for the foal saying it is in fact approved. This will be copied and sent in with its registration papers at the time of registration. Uncertified horses will be declined for the registry and investigated.
This is only the outline for the Equine Breeding Certification (EBC) program. I expect this program to improve dramatically overtime with the help of other concerned and responsible breeders! Please sign this petition to help start this program. We need it, our country needs it, and our horses need it. So sign today
Click (HERE) to sign Chey’s Petition
Click (HERE) to visit Chey’s Blog
Click (HERE) to visit Equine Welfare Alliance’s Children’s Page
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