AWA's Lobbying Efforts Secured Record Breaking $3 million in funding for USDA to enforce the Horse Protection Act in 2022

SYLVA, NC, USA, March 29, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Today, Animal Wellness Action (AWA) executive director Marty Irby discussed the soring of Tennessee Walking Horses, horse slaughter, and the latest of notorious Thoroughbred horse trainer Bob Baffert's scandals with Roy Burnette on WRGC "The River" in Sylva, North Carolina.

AWA worked to pass the U.S. Senator Joseph D. Tydings Memorial Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act through the U.S. House in 2019, and lobbied appropriators in Congress for their inclusion of the highest-ever funding levels for enforcement of the Horse Protection Act (HPA) of 1970. The FY2022 spending package to fund the government was signed into law this month and included a record breaking $3,040,000 for the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) to crackdown against soring and better enforce the HPA in 2022.

Until 2019, federal funding for HPA enforcement had never exceeded $705,000 for a single fiscal year. AWA, which was formed in 2018, has made HPA funding a top priority in the war to end ‘soring’ – the intentional infliction of pain to horses front limbs to induce an artificial high-step known as the ‘big lick’ that’s prized at Tennessee Walking Horse shows in the Southeastern U.S.

The larger equine community and animal protection world has long recognized that a lack of HPA funding for enforcement has contributed to the soring events that run rampant in Tennessee and Kentucky. AWA also helped secure HPA funding in the amount of $1,000,000 for FY2020, and $2,009,000 for FY2021 in collaboration with leaders in the Tennessee Walking Horse industry who’ve conceded that soring must end, and Members of the Tennessee and Kentucky Congressional Delegations.

Members of Congress who did the heaving lifting with AWA and walking horse leaders to secure this new funding include Reps. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., Ron Estes, R-Kansas, Hal Rogers, R-Ky., Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., John Rose, R-Tenn., as well as Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, John Kennedy, R-La., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and retiring Senate Appropriations Ranking Member, Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama where soring has long flourished and plagued the Yellowhammer State’s ‘Alabama Racking Horse’ breed as well. Members from both sides of the aisle made appropriations requests at the urging of Animal Wellness Action and walking horse breed leaders that also secured $300,000 for APHIS to begin utilizing swabbing, x-rays, thermography, and other science-based testing methods as part of its inspection protocols.

AWA also lobbied to maintain the de facto ban on horse slaughter on U.S. soil through the appropriations process that effectively defunds the inspection of horse slaughter plants in the U.S. and has been in effect for more than a decade. This provision was also signed into law and prevents American equines from being slaughtered in the U.S. in FY22.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO IRBY'S INTERVIEW.

Animal Wellness Action (AWA) is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) organization with a mission of helping animals by promoting legal standards forbidding cruelty. We champion causes that alleviate the suffering of companion animals, farm animals, and wildlife. We advocate for policies to stop dogfighting and cockfighting and other forms of malicious cruelty and to confront factory farming and other systemic forms of animal exploitation. To prevent cruelty, we promote enacting good public policies, and we work to enforce those policies. To enact good laws, we must elect good lawmakers, and that’s why we remind voters which candidates care about our issues and which ones don’t. We believe helping animals helps us all.

Marty Irby
Animal Wellness Action
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Interview with Marty Irby and WRGC