Horses
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:
Wild Horse Annie (right), the first
wild horse to be protected by the Bureau of
Land Management, died on January 27 at the
International Society for the Protection of
Mustangs and Burros sactuary near Scottsdale,
Arizona. Named after Velma “Wild Horse
Annie” Johnston, the Nevada secretary who
worked for more than 20 years to secure feder-
al wild horse protection (and inspired the last
film of Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, The
Misfits), the horse was tattooed U.S. #1 after
she was rescued as a starving foal on
September 4, 1970, in the Pryor Mountains
––a year before the Free Ranging Wild Horses
and Burros Act took effect.
The U.S. Animal Health
Association has convened an external review
of federal Horse Protection Act enforcement,
at request of the USDA. The Horse Protection
Act, in effect since 1970, is intended to pro-
tect walking horses from intentional soring of
hooves to make them step higher. However,
the American Horse Protection Association
said in a prepared statement, “Soring contin-
ues to be a problem. Neither industry self-reg-
ulation nor USDA enforcement policies have
been effective.”
Animal Rights Mobilization on
March 16 announced “The Year of the
Horse, “ the first phase of a projected five-
year campaign “that will educate the public
about the various uses and abuses of horses
with its primary focus on slaughter and how it
can be eliminated.” Get details from POB
6989, Denver, CO 80206.
California state assemblyman
John Burton has introduced a bill, AB 2537,
to ban intentionally tripping horses. Roping
horses by the front feet so that they
fall––sometimes breaking their legs––is a
mainstay of charro-style rodeo. The horses
used are generally small Arabians, rented for
the day from killer-buyers before being
trucked to slaughter. Action for Animals asks
that letters of support be addressed to Burton
c/o State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814,
and mention the importance of adding AB
2537 to the penal code along with other crimes
involving animals in entertainment (e.g. ani-
mal fighting), rather than adding it to the less
stringently enforced agricultural code.
