They still sore horses, don’t they?

Well, I no longer can find this funny:

The Humane Society of the United States is out with another damning undercover investigation, this one into the mistreatment of the famed Tennessee Walking Horses, show horses known for their unique four-beat “running walk.”

The investigation found many of the horses to be subjected to a cruel practice known as soring — the intentional infliction of pain to feet and legs to produce an exaggerated gait known as the “Big Lick.”

The video shows Jackie McConnell, one of the sport’s leading trainers, and his stable hands beating horses with wooden sticks and using electric cattle prods on them to make them lift their feet in the pronounced gait judges like to see. McConnell’s staff also apply caustic chemicals to the ankles of the horses and them wrap them with plastic wrap so the chemicals eat into the skin.

“That creates intense pain and then the ankles are wrapped with large metal chains so the horses flinch, or raise their feet even higher,” said the Humane Society’s Keith Dane…

Read the rest at What.

Via Youtube commenters:

“The USDA wasn’t funded to inspect so they made the Horse Organizations like TWHBEA self inspect. Something about the Fox guarding the hen comes to mind. Get congress to fully fund the USDA Animal Health and Plant Inspection Services to get this stopped NOW! We’ve told them for 40 years to stop and police themselves. They don’t.”

“Write your congressmen [or post this on their Wall]. Ask that they fully fund the USDA AHPUS enforcement of the 1970s law against this abuse.”