Fellow Republicans line up against GOPer who wants to get tough on abusers of walking horses

A Tennessee walker does the "big lick."

Republican senators from Kentucky and Tennessee are at odds with a Republican congressman from Kentucky who wants strong legislation to stop the mistreatment of Tennessee walking horses.

Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee are supporting legislation identical to that sponsored by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Reps. Andy Barr and Hal Rogers, R-Ky. Hers is a competing bill to one filed by Rep. Ed Whitfield of Kentucky, where the horses are also popular. Whitfield says he is having none of it.

"Any legislation that does not ban stacks and chains; does not eliminate the failed self-policing inspection system; does not increase criminal penalties to provide a truly effective deterrent; and does not strengthen the USDA's ability to enforce the Horse Protection Act, will not work," Whitfield, left, whose wife lobbies for an arm of the Humane Society of the United States, said in a press release this week.

The other Republicans' bill would ban soring, the intentional irritation of horse hooves, ankles and legs to produce the "big lick," the high step for which Tennessee walking horses are known. But soring is harder to catch than the use of chains, and of stacked pads in place of horseshoes. "Trainers put chains around a horse's sored ankles so that as the horse walks, the chains slide up and down, irritating areas already made painful by soring," notes Janet Patton of the Lexington Herald-Leader. "The Humane Society, the American Association of Equine Practitioners, the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Horse Council and dozens of other groups have backed Whitfield's bill."

Patton quotes Tennessee veterinarian John Haffner, "who once helped hide the effects of soring so Tennessee walkers could pass vet inspections," as saying that the big lick requires soring at some point, so it is used by many owners. "The Blackburn bill continues to allow the industry to self-police," he told Patton. "They've had 43 years to self-police. If anybody's been given leniency and time to come around, it's the walking-horse industry." (Read more)

Blackburn got an editorial slapping from The Tennessean in Nashville, which said, "Stronger than a desire for mere show-ring glory, this appears to be about deriving pleasure from causing pain. . . . Blackburn’s bill is, in fact, a Trojan horse — institutionalized abuse disguised as animal protection. It would set up a single horse industry organization (HIO), whose board would be chosen by the current trainers association that is populated with repeat violators of the Horse Protection Act. Those HIOs that currently prohibit soring at their shows would be left out." (Read more)

UPDATE: A Senate committee has approved a Senate version of Whitfield's bill.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/04/01/3173812/mcconnell-paul-introduce-bill.html#storylink