Beagletown in the Berkshires

Clover Hill Farm’s main work is horses, but it moonlights as an inn and a beagle paradise.

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Young NE state senator aims to rid state of horse rescue groups to promote horsemeat and slaughterrescue groups to promote slaughter

white horse

Neb. state senator Tyson Larson wants to force the state’s 2 horse rescue groups to take any horse and divert grain inspection funds to horsemeat inspection.

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Colorado Sanctuary gets ready for biggest lion rescue ever

Bolivia freed its circus animals last year. 25 lions are heading to a sanctuary outside Denver, where people will be able to see them enjoying their new life from a boardwalk above.

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Hunter shoots Assateague wild horse; Yellowstone wolf poisoned by banned compound

Wild Horse Grazing

Hunters shot and killed a 28-year old mare on MD’s Assateague National Sea Shore. 1080 poison was what killed a Yellowstone wolf that wandered to CO.

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Horsemeat convention strategizes to win over (or trick) public

horse butchering chart

Las Vegas’ horse summit tries to pretend animal welfare groups, Temple Grandin and common sense are on their side.

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Feds Want to Disappear Half of Outer Banks’ Wild Horses for Birds That Don’t Live There

FWS wants to get rid of half the Outer Banks’ wild horses, claiming they hurt protected birds. But the species in question–eagles and piping plovers–don’t actually live there.

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Lifesavers Rescues Another 100 Horses from Slaughter

Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue did it again: they scooped up another 100 horses that were about to be auctioned off to Mexican slaughter houses this weekend.

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Lifesavers May Save Even More Wild Horses At Auction Sept 18

Mustangs / wildhorserescue.org

Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue may be buying some more horses at auction today to save them from slaughter in Fallon, NV, Livestock exchange.

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Why is the Guy Who Promoted Horse Slaughter Recommending NY Stop Spay-Neuter?

Jolly, a handsome, neutered dog

New York State is about to cut off spay-neuter funds. It’s a short-sighted idea that leads to more strays and more government spending–like stopping vaccines to save a few bucks. Who would propose such a change? How about Patrick Hooker, a guy who got into the office lobbying pro-horse slaughter, pro veal and is generally not so keen on animal welfare.

Right now the change is buried on page 171 of a nearly 600-page state budget, billed deceptively as “dog licensing reform.” Search for spay or neuter. You won’t find it. I don’t know much about the byzantine Albany budget process, so I turned to the Times Union, where Brad Shear wrote an excellent column explaining that the provision was recommended by the Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets, Patrick Hooker and already approved by David Patterson. In 2008 the embattled governor, he notes, “stole $1 million from the fund and put it in the general fund.”

Hooker got the job in 2007 after working for 16 years as a lobbyist for the New York Farm Bureau. His state bio says he was the “farm advocacy organization’s top lobbyist, serving as Director of the Public Policy Division.” He’s also a hunter and maple syrup producer. The Daily News reports he gets a $1,622 farm subsidy himself.

While Hooker was the chief lobbyist for the Farm Bureau, it was fighting for horse slaughter and against bills that would outlaw the practice. The only

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Will NYC Replace Horse-Drawn Carriages With Cars Powered By Manure?

The New York City Council is holding hearings March 12 on whether to ban horse-drawn carriages and possibly replace them with classic cars powered by green energy. The city has been waffling over banning the horses since at least 1989. The Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages says the animals shouldn’t have to live in tight stalls and work in dense midtown, where they have been electrocuted and hit by cars, only to face unkown fate when they retire.

I don’t have any illusions that the council is going to finally ban horses today, but the new twist is the bill “replacing horse drawn carriages with alternative fuel powered classic cars.” This measure, supported by PETA, seems to have for everyone: classic cars for the old, alternative fuel for the young. If you’re going to have a fanciful, anachronistic vehicle sucker tourists into rides around Central Park, why use futuristic, unspecified fuel?

Ever dour, the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages says the horseless carriage plan does leave one key stakeholder out: the horses. They worry that if the bill passed, it would make no provisions that the 200 or so current carriage pullers wouldn’t end up at slaughter houses in Mexico or Canada, where many unwanted U.S. horses are increasingly dispatched. Right now the horse owners have to tell the city which horses they have, but but not what happened to the ones no longer there.

The coalition says their bill is the only one (of three potential laws) that

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