Northernhorse.com Blog

(Amarillo, TX) – The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the 2008 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration Appropriations bill (H.R. 3161), which would fund the U.S. Department of Agriculture for Fiscal Year 2008, early next week.

Section 738 of that bill would be devastating because it would cut-off funding for USDA activities important to the horse industry. It would eliminate funding necessary for USDA to operate quarantine facilities and to pay personnel to approve and facilitate the import and export of horses for exhibition, competition, sale or breeding. The bill would not only cut off direct funding to USDA, but also eliminate USDA’s authority to impose user fees, which support the operation of the three major USDA Animal Import Centers and the land border ports along the Canadian and Mexican borders.

Read more at the AQHA site.

A call from a friend has me pondering questions about what to do with the remains of our equines when they reach the end of their lives. For one thing, can we legally bury them? I have been trying to find out the answer to that. Seems to be some confusion about which regulatory board handles these things but I’m sure we will get it figured out. Right now in our area the water table is pretty much at the surface. If you dig a hole, you soon reach water. So even if we do have that option most of the time, we certainly don’t right now. Continue Reading »