First identify governmental and professional organizations that will be involved, at this point leaving their natural inclination neutral: the USDA, BLM, all forms of legislative bodies, the AVMA, Jockey Club (actually all breed registeries), Federal Gaming Commission, all state vet assoc, state horse councils, the state and local equivalents of any federal orgs., ASPCA and HSA... add on please Groups that might be inclined toward: 4-H, Pony Club, wow this one's tough, Help! Venues to get the

OK, that's a good place to start - working on the transportation bill. Let's find out the Senators and Congressmen who are against it or on the fence, and figure how to work the public in those states. It doesn't do a lick of good for me to write my congressman if he's already behind the bill, other than to further encourage him. It is the frustrating fact that it is people in states with hostile legislators who have to convince them that their re-election is in jeopardy depending

You make some very valid points, SpottedPony. It sounds to me like what you are saying is you would like to work on the problem, but you have some ideas of your own as to how that should work. Welcome. This very small group (we now have six total individual posters on this thread) are a verry, very tiny start to what I would like to see grow into a national cause. There are mony people who feel as we do, but they don't know where to start, who to talk to, and how to make their ideas work. That's

So if fees aren't the answer BSB, what is; think positive! Don't just say "this won't work" tell us what you think will work. A start on a mission statement (throwing a lot of stuff out there): To eliminate the slaughter of horses in the U.S. and the transportation of American horses to other countries for slaughter. To change the designation of horses as livestock to companion and work animals. To remove horses from the control and oversight of the USDA and BLM. To establish

TMN2, welcome to the discussion. You have some good thoughts - I certainly don't like the idea of more government - and I respect your view, but remember, with this thread we are brainstorming; we are not writing anything in stone, we have no base of support as yet, we are throwing out ideas for constructive feedback. This is not meant to be an oppositional argument, but the beginning of finding ways to solve a problem If you have issues with what is being proposed, we would really like to hear

I heartily agree with the whole tax/fee idea! Dogs are licensed in many areas (and should be more heavily regulated also, but that's another fight), livestock are regulated by the government as feed animals and a huge part of the cost of that burger you eat is goverment oversight... what's the problem? Even with the people who would try to avoid the taxes, enough would fall in that the numbers would go down, and there would be a law with teeth that could remove unlicensed horses from bad

I have no idea how to transfer posts, but I think we need to do just that starting with NH horse woman's post on this page that got this topic rolling. We need to start a new thread that concentrates on solutions and how to get this moving with ideas on how to gain the power needed to make things happen, and move it away from the slaughter controversy so that like-minded people know where to voice their ideas. And something like this will take serious amounts of power-building. Any techies out

I'm ready

OK; this thread morphed from the one on Horse Slaughter - go to the last page of that thread to see what started it. NH Horse Woman gave us some good ideas to start with to think about educating the public and potential and current horse owners to really take a look at what is happening in the good old US of A to horses, and to work toward trying to make a difference by promoting responsibility for horse ownership. Yes it involves money, it involves time, no one thinks it's going to change overnight

Bellamajor, you will get many opinions on how to handle this behavior. It can escalate to a respect issue if you let it. Horses like to rub their heads and faces on whatever is handy, because just like us, they have itchies and, unlike us, it's hard to scratch them. They may be worse after a ride because the tack has rubbed and irritated, so when you get off, yeehaw, you're a convenient scratching post. You should not let Major get in the habit of pushing and rubbing on your body... he is