Horse notes
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:
A legal parallel to the White
Sands situation came to light on the
Yakima Reservation, at Toppemish,
Washington, and the Warm Springs
Reservation near Madras, Oregon,
after horse enthusiast Sheila Herron
traced several injured horses she found
in a horsemeat dealer’s feedlot at Yelm,
Washington, back to annual roundups
authorized by the tribal councils.
Yakima councillors told Herron they
were “weeding out the crippled and
old,” but most of the horses at the feed-
lot were healthy, Herron said, and
some were foals. A Warm Springs
councillor said the Madras horses are
privately owned. “I was certainly
unaware,” Herron told ANIMAL PEO-
P L E, “that only mustangs and burros
from BLM or Forest Service lands are
protected by federal law. Mustangs and
burros from Park Service, Indian, mil-
itary or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
lands have no protection from being
rounded up and sold for slaughter.”
The same Friends of
Animals ad attacking the treatment of
horses in producing the estrogen drug
Premarin that appears on page 3 of this
issue was rejected by Allure, Good
Housekeeping, Ladies’ Home Journal,
McCall’s, Mirabella, New Choices,
New Woman, Prevention, Redbook,
Weight Watchers, Woman’s Day, and
Woman’s World. Allure publisher
Alexandra Golinkin said she vetoed it
because, “I think about the advertisers
who make a substantial commitment to
Allure,” and she felt they might object
to the “strong language” and “the tone
of the ad.” She claimed neither Wyeth-
Ayerst, the maker of Premarin, nor the
parent firm, American Home Products,
has ever advertised in A l l u r e, but
Premarin has been advertised in many
of the others. FoA called for a boycott
against all the magazines; PETA
endorsed the boycott of Mirabella. July
27, two days before the ad refusals
became known, three PETA members
were arrested for spraying urine on
Philadelphia police as they tried to
dowse the Wyeth-Ayerst headquarters
in an anti-Premarin protest.
The World Society for the
Protection of Animals on July 13
opened a veterinary clinic to aid draft
horses in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do
Sul, Brazil. About 3,500 horses draw
wagons and carriages in Porto Alegre,
which has no horse licensing or inspec-
tion. One goal of the new clinic,
Protetores Amigos Animais Tracao
Associados, is to start inspections.
Florida law bars cities from
banning carriage horses, but Pom-
pano Beach has for two years postponed
rescinding a ban adopted unawares of
the state law. On July 15 the city com-
missioners agreed to delay the vote
again.
