The Official Newsletter
of AHDF (PDF file)
HOOFLINKS
News Articles
• New AHDF Mascot
• Congress agrees to increase in Shackleford ponies'
herd size
• BLM Sale Program: Potential buyers back out after
agency imposes fines for selling animals to slaughter
Archives
• Report from National Capitol Hill Day for Horses
• 2005 News
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Press Release
American Horse Defense Fund’s Rescue Spotlight Award
For Immediate Release
Sunday April 1,2007 |
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Contact: American Horse Defense Fund
866-956-AHDF (2433)
Fax 866-676-9758
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American Horse Defense Fund’s Rescue Spotlight Award
The American Horse Defense Fund (AHDF), the nation’s premier equine welfare organization, announces its first rescue resource program,
the Rescue Spotlight Award. Each month the AHDF staff selects an exceptional equine rescue that will be highlighted on the AHDF website.
Each award comes with a donation for the rescue to use to help facilitate equine rescue efforts. Additionally, at the end of each year
an award for Rescue of the Year will be awarded to one of the monthly winners. This ongoing program is just the first of several
programs the AHDF plans to implement in the next two years designed to enhance and support rescues nationwide.
“We are very happy to be able to support equine rescue facilities around the country with this award,” said Shelley Sawhook the president
of the American Horse Defense Fund, “it gives something back to those who directly impact the lives of equine and is the only award of
its kind”.
The April 2007 award is being given to Return to Freedom, a facility that houses over two hundred wild horses in a natural setting.
Return to Freedom is designed to be a model program, which explores alternative and minimally intrusive management philosophies. The
facility recognizes that wild horses live in tightly bonded herd groups, but due to space constraints they have designed a non-hormonal,
reversible contraception to keep population down and conserve habitat that allows the mares and stallions to coexist as they do in
nature.
“I couldn’t be happier that we selected such a wonderful program to be our first ever Spotlight Award winner,” said Sawhook.
“We support any program that helps horses, but this one also is working to preserve the horses in their natural family bands as
well as working to conserve the rare and diverse bloodlines that make up the real American Horse, the Mustang.”
Return to Freedom offers not only a safe haven for wild horses in their most natural state; it also offers a wide spectrum of
experiential education programs. Programs include Living History Tours and hands on clinics. “The programs of Return to Freedom
are exceptional,” said Sawhook. “We look forward to seeing what the future brings to the organization and are excited to play a part
in the advancement of that future.”
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Review Federal Legislation To Ban Horse Slaughter
S 576 (wild horses) •
H.R. 297 (wild horses) •
S B 311 (horse slaughter) •
H.R. 503 (horse slaughter)
New Risk to Slaughter Halt
For Immediate Release
Thursday, January 19, 2006 | |
Contact: Melissa K. Carlson
(202) 225-4644 |
SWEENEY URGES USDA TO COMPLY WITH NEW REGULATIONS
INTENDED TO STOP HORSE SLAUGHTER
WASHINGTON, DC – Today Rep. John E. Sweeney (R-Clifton Park), along with 39 members of the US House & Senate,
sent a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns, reiterating Congressional Intent in their fight to end Horse
Slaughter in the US.
This letter was written to ensure that the US Department of Agriculture complies with language included in the
FY05 Agriculture Appropriations bill prohibiting the USDA from inspecting horsemeat to be used for human consumption.
Without USDA approval, the horsemeat cannot be sold or exported for human consumption. In previous correspondence,
the USDA had expressed reluctance to abide by this restriction.
“The slaughter of horses is an inhumane practice which must be eliminated,” said Rep. Sweeney. “By preventing
the USDA from inspecting horsemeat which would otherwise be used for human consumption, we found a way to effectively
shut this practice down. However, before we can declare victory we must first ensure that the USDA complies with
these new regulations.”
The text of this letter is located in the attached PDF document. |
FOSH Proposes Changes to USDA Horse Protection Program Operating Plan - 01/20/06
The NEW AHDF Mascot “New Hope”
AHDF is happy to announce our newest rescued horse, “New Hope”, a lovely former wild mustang mare, with
somewhat of a blaze on her pretty face.
Hope was sold at an infamous Pennsylvania auction held in New Holland, without her title, on Oct. 17th 2005.
She was bought by a dealer who sometimes sells at other auctions and to a risky mix of "buyers." Even though Hope
wasn't at a slaughter plant, moments away from being killed as Liberty Alive was (a mustang mare AHDF saved in 2000),
Hope's future and safety were very uncertain. Being in good weight and easy to handle, she could have ended up at a
slaughter plant within days of our learning about her.
Although AHDF knew very little about her when she was purchased, as it turns out, Hope is trained to ride and is
a sweet, gentle girl who enjoys attention and people very much. AHDF was able to learn much about Hope from the
BLM including that she was born in 1996 and captured from the Jackson Mountains Herd Management Area (HMA) in
Nevada in 1997.
 AHDF believes that Hope's name is appropriate as she was found at New Holland, and also in that she will
give new hope to the thousands of horses who may be spared from slaughter as well as wild horses we will work
to help keep free, in this coming year. Our hope is that all horses be spared, as New Hope was, from a cruel
end at the slaughterhouse and will live their lives in peace, whether in the wild or in a loving home.
Further Information:
Wild Horse Sale and Adoption
Help Protect America’s Wild Horses
and End Horse Slaughter in the U.S.
Congress agrees to increase in Shackleford ponies' herd size
2005, Picayune Item
Raleigh, N.C., Nov. 19 - Congress has given the National Park Service
permission to increase the size of the wild horse herd on Shackleford Banks,
a change intended to help maintain the herd's viability while still preventing it from stripping the island's resources. Since 1998, federal law has dictated that the "banker ponies" - descendants of animals brought by Spanish explorers - should number at least 100 and no more than 130. The mandate is meant to maintain the herd's genetic diversity without straining the resources of the grassy barrier island where they live, part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore. The herd's base size will increase to 110 and it will periodically be
allowed to expand to 130 or more, under a bill approved by unanimous consent
Wednesday by the U.S. Senate, U.S. Rep. Walter Jones said. The House already
approved the measure.
BLM Sale Program: Potential buyers back out after agency imposes fines for selling animals to slaughter
2005, Las Vegas Review Journal
Washington D.C., Oct. 31 - The federal government is looking for homes for more than 400 wild horses after
buyers this spring pulled out of revised contracts imposing criminal penalties for selling the animals to
slaughter. Twenty individuals and two tribes seeking 427 wild horses canceled their contracts after the
Bureau of Land Management in April suspended its infant sale program amid reports of horse slaughter,
according to interviews with BLM officials and agency records obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal
through a Freedom of Information Act request. "A number of these individuals had completed the necessary
paperwork, some even had sent checks paying for their animals. However, they still decided not to complete
the purchases and backed out," BLM spokesman Tom Gorey said.
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