ASPCA Protests Illegal Practices At Tennessee Walking Horse Event
ASPCA PROTESTS ILLEGAL PRACTICES AT TENNESSEE WALKING HORSE EVENT
In a newspaper advertisement placed in the September 1 issue of The
Tennessean, the ASPCA wrote an open letter to the corporate sponsors of
the biggest Tennessee walking horse event of the year, held August 23
though September 2 in Shelbyville, TN. "The good citizens who come to see
Tennessee walking horse shows come for family fun and to observe beautiful
horses. They are being duped," read the ad's copy "Many of the horses they
will see this year have been severely hurt by soring." The text went on to
explain this illegal practice, by which a horse's hooves are cut to the
quick and the skin chemically irritated and blistered, causing him to walk
with the high, quick step the breed is known for.
Although controversial--the local paper, The Shelbyville Times-Gazette,
refused to run the ad--the letter generated a lot of positive feedback,
and the ASPCA's Marianne Radziewicz, Associate Director of the Washington,
D.C., Government Affairs office, spoke about the issue on a Memphis radio
show. Radziewicz is now asking ASPCA News Alert readers--especially
Tennessee residents--to write to The Tennessean, Attn: Publisher, 1100
Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203, and thank them for running the ad. Letters
can also be sent to David Seagroves, Publisher, The Shelbyville
Times-Gazette, 323 East Depot St., Shelbyville, TN 37160; politely express
disappointment that the ad was refused and urge the paper to use its
editorial section to air both sides of the issue in the future.
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