Reward Offered to Combat Animal Abuse in Horse Competition

The Humane Society of the United States has set up a reward hotline for the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration that allows participants to report any intimidation, bribery, or cheating during the judging of the competition. The phone line was instituted to combat horse soring, a practice in which the animals’ hooves are intentionally administered pain, sometimes using caustic chemicals, to make them walk with a high gait. Soring is a violation of the Horse Protection Act, and throughout the last few years numerous award-winning horses were subjected to it. “Soring horses is not only despicable abuse, it’s also cheating,” says HSUS Keith Dane, director of equine protection, “and corruption and cheating go hand-in-hand in this sector of the Tennessee walking horse industry.”