PA
Department of Agriculture Publishes Fit To Sale Brochure
"Fit for Sale",has been published by the PA Dept. of Agriculture,
PDA.This is a brochure with _guidelines_ for the sale of horses in
PA. It includes a description and pictures on body condition, blindness,
lameness (shows an overgrown hoof) lesions and wounds (shows a picture
of wounds on a leg) it also list other disease that makes selling
a debilitated horse illegal in PA. It also has the PA Anti Cruelty
Law, Title 18, Section 5511(d). This law is in the Crimes Code and
can be enforced by police and humane agents.
Horses that are less than a 3 on the Henneke Body Scoring Condition
Chart cannot be offered for sale in PA under the PA Anti Cruelty Law.
The Henneke Chart can be found at: www.equineprotectionnetwork.com/cruelty/henneke.htm
To
assist in educating the public regarding this law, the PDA is distributing
these brochures to anyone who requests them for free to distribute
at auctions, sales and anywhere horse people might see them -feed
stores, tack shops, shows, horse club meetings etc.
The
EPN has had the PA Anti Cruelty Law on our website for several years
in an effort to educate the public regarding this law and the lack
of enforcement of the law. The EPN has worked diligently since 1996
for the enforcement of this law at PA horse auctions. The EPN's
continued efforts to document the conditions of the horses at these
sales and to expose the conditions by putting the pictures up on
the Internet for the world to see has brought about the enforcement
of this law, changes at some PA horse auctions and raised awareness
of this law.
In
September 1999 in the first enforcement of this law since it was
put on the books in the 1980's the PA State Police arrested 2 dealers
from NC for transporting and selling 2 disabled horses. More information
on this case can be found at http://equineprotectionnetwork.com/press/prpsp3.htm
For pictures of the horses and the story: http://equineprotectionnetwork.com/cruelty/prpsp3pic.htm
For background on our efforts to have this law enforced: http://members.tripod.com/~SueE/down.htm
We
are pleased to see the PA Dept of Ag publish these guidelines and
believe this brochure will go a long way toward preventing the sale
and transport of sick, lame and debilitated horses in PA. We have
suggested to the PDA that the brochure be published on the PA Dept
of Ag's website so more people can quickly and easily access and
download the brochure.
Please
do your part to help the horses by requesting copies of this brochure
to distribute to other horse owners and the public.
To
request copies, please contact PA Deputy Secretary of Agriculture,
Chris Herr:, cherr@state.pa.us,
717 787-4626.
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