Does HSUS Control USDA?
Friday, August 28, 2015
By Jeffrey Howard
The connection between the United States Department of Agriculture and the Humane Society of the United States is well documented and the start of the 2015 Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration is once again the chopping block for the allies to carry out their collective agenda. The 2015 show season began with the USDA losing in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on their flawed attempt to force HIOs to institute federal penalties of the Horse Protection Act, a rulemaking that was heavily endorsed by HSUS.
The connection between HSUS and USDA begins at the top. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s wife Christie Vilsack, ran for Congress in Iowa against Rep. Steve King. The HSUS spent over $750,000 in the race in their attempt to get Vilsack elected. In addition, in the investigation over potential ethics violations by Rep. Ed Whitfield, emails were made public that identified Dr. Rachel Cezar with the USDA as the “insider contact” of the HSUS in the department.
The show season, for the most part, got off to a very good start with DQP inspections conducted by SHOW and Veterinary Medical Officers inspections conducted by the USDA being consistent and in most cases agreement. As August approached, VMO inspections began to change as a new VMO Aaron Rhyner came into the picture for the USDA and violations skyrocketed.
The USDA and its lead VMO, Dr. Jeff Baker were in attendance at the annual 4th of July weekend in Middle Tennessee, a highlight weekend in the Tennessee Walking Horse calendar. During the three nights of performances, 751 horses were inspected pre-show. The USDA took information on 15 potential violations of the HPA or just under 2% of the entries. Dr. Cezar was not in attendance at any of the three nights of shows.
Since that time, HSUS has released a false and misleading undercover investigation of ThorSport Farms the day before the start of the 77th Annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration. Does anyone think there is a coincidence in the timing of that release?
All of the horses named in the report were sent to an independent equine hospital and found to be in perfect health and had zero signs of any abuse. The false report by HSUS caught very few people by surprise. The organization has been proven to be corrupt after they and their co-defendants paid over $15M to Feld Entertainment to settle a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) lawsuit after it was discovered they paid a plaintiff to lie in the original lawsuit in 2014.
Dr. Cezar, the HSUS “insider contact” at the USDA, has not been at a horse show all year in 2015 yet was in attendance at the start of The Celebration. At the first evening performance of the Celebration on August 27, 129 entries were inspected pre-show and the USDA found 18 horses in violation of the HPA. Without Dr. Cezar in attendance and HSUS not targeting The Celebration, USDA VMOs found less than 2% of entries in potential violation. With Dr. Cezar’s presence on the first day of the show and HSUS pressure on VMOs to target The Celebration, those VMOs on Thursday night found 14% of entries in potential violation.
Of those 18 horses disqualified on the first night, 15 were found to be in compliance with SHOW rules by the DQPs. Those 15 horses disqualified by the USDA have previously been inspected and found compliant 71 times this year, 47 of those times with USDA VMOs in attendance at the horse show.
This isn’t a new trick by the USDA. At last year’s Celebration, approximately 100 horses had information taken on potential scar rule violations by USDA after passing SHOW’s inspection. Those same 100 horses had passed over 300 inspections that year prior to The Celebration with the USDA in attendance 80% of the time. Even more disturbing, 34 of those 100 horses showed five weeks later and 32 of those 34 passed inspection with USDA VMOs in attendance. Dr. Cezar was in attendance at The Celebration but not at the show five weeks later.
Rep. Scott DesJarlais was in attendance at The Celebration on August 27th and met with USDA personnel and saw first-hand the overreach by the federal government. The USDA had 21 persons in attendance to inspect a performance with 129 horses. Obviously, Secretary Vilsack is not worried about the deficit.
Does the HSUS control the actions of the USDA? I don’t know if we will ever know but the numbers tell a compelling story and HSUS has proven they will pay to cover it up.
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