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bullet Chair & Land Use Issues: M. Jean Ligon
bullet Legislative Issues: Rose Stern
bullet Environmental Issues: Chris Skelly
 
 
   E-mail: vicepresident@michiganhorsecouncil.com
     

Land Use issues:
Equestrian communities
Horse-friendly community masterplans, township boards & commissions
Right to Farm Act issues and opportunities
Other property tax and zoning issue

Legislative issues:
Animal ID (NAIS)
Problem of the "unwanted horse"
Laws, proposed legislation and court cases affecting horse owners
Companion animal vs livestock & other "animal rights" issues

Environmental issues:
Manure management
Non-point source pollution
Weed free hay
Other environmental issues affecting trail use and farm operation
 
Articles from our Legislation Committee
HORSE FARMS AND EQUINE POPULATIONS IN MICHIGAN HORSES AND PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT
   
 

 
   
bullet Legislation from American Horse Council; You will be directed to the AHC web site
 
bullet Immigration - Temporary Worker Programs Learn More
bullet Wild Horse and Burro Legislation Learn More
bullet American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act Learn More
bullet Livestock Manure and Superfund Legislation Learn More
bullet 110th Congressional Horse Caucus Learn More
bullet Important Legislation being watched by The Michigan Horse Council.
Finally, a good plan for funding state parks (Read about it)
"Grassroots activism by horsemen is an extremely important and effective way to advance equestrian interests in federal legislation and rule making.  Please take a few minutes right now to contact your Representative in the Congress, tell him/her that the horse industry has a significant impact on the agricultural, recreational and economic life and well being of the country, and ask that he/she join the Congressional Horse Caucus by contacting the office of Representative Chandler or Representative Stearns."
bullet 110th Congressional Horse Caucus Learn More
 Michigan is developing a SART (state animal response team), through the generous funding of the Michigan Veterinary Medical Association and PetSmart Charities.  This is a nonprofit team that trains for and responds to any animal related emergency, be it an overturned trailer of livestock on a major highway, or a catastrophic weather event like Hurricane Katrina.  Veterinarians, technicians, and animal caretakers will now have the opportunity to network and train with local police, fire and first responders in their community, state and across the nation.

Michigan joins 22 other states that have already established or are developing SARTs.  For more information about the national SART structure, please visit www.ncsart.org.  Michigan will hold a two-day SART Summit in spring 2007 and then plans to have at least two relevant trainings per year.  Ideas for "hands on" training sessions include large animal and wildlife handling and restraint, swift water rescue, and resourceful appropriations of equipment in disaster.  These topics will be handled by experts from VMAT, HSUS, US Army, and others.
This is going to be a fun, dynamic way to become involved, give something back, and prepare yourself to respond during the next "big one."  As many of you discovered during Hurricane Katrina, without credentials and security clearance you are not always welcome on national disaster sites.  Because of the high profile recognition and reputation of a SART, our team is likely to be invited to respond to other disasters across the nation, thereby giving our team valuable experience we can bring back to others in Michigan.
In addition to SART team members, we need:
A deputy team commander (second in command)
A logistics officer (how to obtain necessary items and equipment)
An operations officer (how things will get accomplished)
A communications officer (radio/field communications)
An administrative officer (forms, releases, details)
A webmaster (computer guru who can help set up our website)
A training officer (seeks out opportunities for the team)
Construction and handyperson types ("can do" people)
Certified Public Accountant (accounting and financial issues)
A fundraising officer (solicits funding to ensure the SART is ongoing)
A safety officer (ensures safety)
This is a total grass roots effort.  As Executive Director, I have a fancy title but no pay and you can expect the same!  You will experience hard, fun work that will have you participating in scenarios you NEVER thought you'd be involved in.  On a SART, there is no prejudice against non-veterinarians.  Technicians, animal care workers, humane advocates, computer whizzes, construction workers and others are all team members seeking to alleviate or prevent animal suffering in times of crisis.
Would you like to be a part of the team?  Send an email to the address below.  Would you like to join in the leadership of the team?  Send an email with resume or details of relevant experience and the position you are most interested in to Dr. Cathy Theisen at outfresh@aol.com

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Southfield-based company wants to put a measure on the 2008 ballot that would allow slot machines — or even full-fledged casinos — at state horse racing tracks. Dan Adkins, vice president of Hartman & Tyner Inc., said Friday that his company is interested in seeing Michigan race tracks offer more kinds of gambling. Hartman and Tyner own Hazel Park Raceway, which offers harness racing from April to October, in the Oakland County suburb just north of Detroit.
"We may actually try to amend and go for full casinos at the tracks. We haven't decided yet," Adkins told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the race track and gaming center the company owns in Hallandale Beach, Fla.Adkins said Michigan has seen horse racing tracks shut down in recent years and noted that the operator of Great Lakes Downs, the state's only horse track for thoroughbred racing, has decided not to hold meets at the Muskegon-area track after 2007.
"Not only are we going to create new jobs, we're going to save jobs," he said. "I think it's a winner for the state, and it's a winner for the existing jobs." Michigan voters in November 2004 effectively stopped legislative efforts to allow slot machines at race tracks by passing Proposal 1.The measure amended the state constitution to require most new gambling operations, except those run by Indian tribes or at Detroit's three casinos, to be approved by voters at both state and local levels before they could go forward.
A spokesman for the Greektown Casino in Detroit said Friday it would be difficult for anyone to get statewide voter approval plus the approval of six communities to allow slot machines and video gaming at race tracks." Every (2004) poll done on racinos in Michigan found pretty overwhelming opposition to them," said Roger Martin, who led the effort to pass Proposal 1 and now is with Martin-Waymire Advocacy Communications in Lansing.
Adkins said Proposal 1 was sold as a way for voters to have control over gambling establishments but really was an effort by existing casinos — those in Detroit as well as tribal casinos — to limit competition. He said he could promise 5,000 new jobs in Michigan if race tracks were allowed to offer other kinds of gambling." People have to understand that the casinos' intent was to guarantee themselves a monopoly," he said. Adkins said the Mardi Gras Race Track and Gaming Center at Hollywood Greyhound Track in Florida that Hartman & Tyner now run first added slot machines on Dec. 28 and has gone from 120 employees to 1,000. He expects to eventually have 1,500 people working there once he has the full 1,500 slot machines allowed by state law installed.
"I'm sending the state (of Florida) a million dollars a week, and I'm not even fully built yet," he said. Florida voters in 2004 approved allowing racinos in that state and voters near the Hallandale Beach track and other tracks approved racinos in 2005, Adkins said. His company also owns the Tri-State Race Track and Gaming Center in West Virginia and hopes to convince voters there to allow full casinos at race tracks.
Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, who had said earlier this week that taxing the revenue generated by slot machines and video gaming could be a good way to raise money for expanding Detroit's Cobo Center, said Friday that the state could just as easily use the money to deal with structural deficits while still letting some of the money go to Cobo's expansion." You could have a racino up and running in less than a year. (It) could generate $1.7 billion at six sites," Patterson said during a taping of public television's "Off the Record" show. Asked about how the idea might fly in the more conservative parts of the state, Patterson said voters might choose to allow more gambling if it could be used in part to help avoid tax increases. "They're not going to be downtown in bars. They're not going to be in the hotels. They're going to be at six sites where we already have gambling," he said.
Martin said gambling usually isn't seen as a solution to budget problems.
The state Senate and the House in 2004 passed separate bills that would have allowed slot machines and video gaming at race tracks. But the Senate declined to take up a compromise measure once racino opponents got their measure on the ballot.
Agriculture Leaders Seek Public Comments on Agricultural Management Practices

The Michigan Commission of Agriculture and the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) today announced they have scheduled a Public Input Meeting and review period to gather comments on the 2008 drafts of the
state*s Generally Accepted Agricultural and Management Practices (GAAMPs).

This year*s GAAMPs Public Input Meeting will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, December 17, 2007, in the Lake Superior Room of the Michigan Library and Historical Center, 702 West Kalamazoo Street, in downtown
Lansing. 

The Michigan Right to Farm Act provides nuisance protection for farms and farm operations.  In order to have this protection, the farm or farm operation must conform to GAAMPs, which are set by the Michigan
Commission of Agriculture.  These GAAMPs are reviewed annually by scientific committees of various experts and revised and updated as necessary.  Public comment is accepted and considered before final
versions of the GAAMPs are approved by the Michigan Commission of Agriculture. 

Public comment will be taken on all of the following GAAMPs: Manure Management and Utilization; Site Selection for New and Expanding
Livestock Production Facilities; Nutrient Utilization; and Irrigation Water Use.  The GAAMPs regarding Care of Farm Animals, Pesticide Utilization and Pest Control, and Cranberry Production have no proposed
changes for 2008.

Written comments may be submitted to MDA*s Environmental Stewardship
Division, P.O. Box 30017, Lansing, MI 48909, or via e-mail to
 bearssa@michigan.gov by 5:00 p.m. Monday, December 17, 2007.  MDA
will forward all comments received by the due date to the respective
GAAMPs Task Force chairperson for consideration prior to final review
and adoption.

For a copy of the proposed revisions to these GAAMPs, visit
 www.michigan.gov/gaamps or contact the MDA*s Environmental
Stewardship Division at 517-373-9797.

 

Re:     HIPPA Legislation for Recreational Riders Introduced in Congress

 Date:   March 7, 2007

Legislation

Representatives Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Michael C. Burgess (R-TX) recently introduced "The HIPAA Recreational Injury Technical Correction Act" (H.R. 1076).  This bill would bar employers from discriminating against those who take part in legal recreational activities such as horseback riding, motorcycling, ATV riding and snowmobiling in the health-insurance programs they offer their workers.  Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) introduced identical legislation (S. 616) in the Senate.

Specifically, the bill provides that:

a group health plan, or a health insurance issuer offering group health insurance coverage in connection with a group health plan, may not deny benefits otherwise provided under the plan or coverage for the treatment of an injury solely because such injury was sustained while engaged in any particular mode of transportation specified in the plan consisting of the use of a motorcycle, snowmobile, all-terrain vehicle, or other similar recreational vehicle or horseback riding.

The Senate passed identical legislation in the 108th Congress.

The NAIS is a voluntary program intended to identify premises and livestock, and to record certain livestock movements for the purpose of disease management and control.  The program’s ultimate goal is to protect the health of U.S. livestock, as well as our ability to move and market animals, through a State-Federal-Industry partnership. 

 The NAIS and Horses booklet contains much useful information on the NAIS, and includes the following sections:

  • Introduction
  • History of National Animal ID System
  • Why Should the Horse Industry Participate in the Development of the NAIS?
  • Equine Diseases of General Concern
  • Methods of Identification
  • Potential Benefits of a National Equine ID Program
  • Current Status of NAIS
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Equine Species Working Group Members

The booklet has been updated to reflect recent changes to the program, including USDA’s position that it is a voluntary program.  It also includes the latest ESWG recommendations submitted to USDA in August 2006.  

One of the key recommendations made by the ESWG is that no equine movements should be reported. The group proposed that horses which move to a premises where a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (CVI), Brand Inspection, VS-127 permit or International CVI are required should be officially identified and that the records maintained through those currently existing and utilized movement permits capture the high risk movements that pose the largest threat of spreading disease.  Animal health officials would be able to query the state databases in the event of a disease emergency to obtain the necessary records.

If horse owners choose to utilize microchips for the purpose of official identification, the ESWG recommends use of the ISO/ANSI compatible RFID chip (11784/85, 134.2 kHz) and that RFID reader and scanner manufacturers and suppliers should make an immediate effort to provide readers and scanners that can read ISO/ANSI 11784/11785 microchips, and read or at least detect all 125 kHz frequency companion animal microchips.  USDA has recently announced its endorsement of the ISO standards if an owner decides to utilize RFID technology for NAIS participation.

The NAIS and Horses booklet is available on the ESWG website www.equinespeciesworkinggroup.com, along with other important and useful information regarding the ESWG and the NAIS, including the latest ESWG recommendations.

The facts about NAIS:

   The idea behind the National Animal Identification System ("NAIS") is to contain disease outbreaks that could threaten the safety of our food supply and infect tens of thousands of our animals if not contained.  When introduced, it was of particular concern to horsemen, so the American Horse Council formed a task force to represent equine interests to federal officials as they developed the NAIS regulations, and it is at least partly because of its efforts that equine identification is to be a voluntary program.
    On the state level, MHC Vice President Jean Ligon has represented equine on a stakeholders' advisory committee formed a few years ago by the Michigan Department of Agriculture regarding the implementation of NAIS in Michigan.  While equine have not yet been addressed specifically, it appears that Michigan intends to follow the feds' lead and make identification of equine voluntary in Michigan.  While premises identification may be required on some basis, tracking every movement of every horse serves no useful purpose, would be very costly and is not necessary to achieve NAIS' purpose.  The MDA has not even hinted at such invasive regulations for equine in Michigan. 
   "There is no reason for undue concern at this time," Ligon says. "The intent, as I understand it, is to end up with a state program that maintains only information absolutely necessary to protect our horses in case of a contagious disease outbreak." 
    The MHC website will post periodic updates from the MDA stakeholder meetings, as well as all information received from the American Horse Council on the federal NAIS program.  Monitor the AHC and MHC websites for the most accurate and timely information on this subject

 

Penn State University's National Animal Identification System (NAIS) Survey of Equine Owners
This study’s purpose is to determine the impact of micro-chipping horses as a form
of identification and reporting movement (IRB# 25658). To participate in the survey please "Click Here"

Farm Bill Passage Is Good News for Horse Industry.

After months of negotiations between the House and Senate, Congress finally passed the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, commonly known as the Farm Bill. The House passed the bill on May 14 by a vote of 318 to 106. The Senate passed it the next day by a vote of 81 to 15. President Bush has announced that he will veto the bill because of the overall cost, which approaches $300 billion. If he does, Congress can override the veto by a two-thirds vote of both chambers. Based on the votes for the bill, it appears likely that Congress will override a Bush veto for the second time in his presidency.

 The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 includes several provisions that benefit the horse industry.

  Depreciation of Race Horses Shortened.  The tax portion of the bill will amend the current depreciation schedule for race horses to make it uniform at three years.

 Equine Farmers and Ranchers Eligible for Emergency Loans  Another provision in the bill makes horse breeders eligible for the first time for emergency federal loans following a disaster.   Horse breeders have not been eligible for these loans, which have been available to other livestock producers.

 Horses Specifically Included as Livestock in Disaster Assistance Program.  The Farm Bill also includes a new disaster assistance program that will provide relief funds to farmers and ranchers who suffer losses in areas that are declared disaster areas by USDA. Horses are specifically included within the definition of livestock eligible for the program. 

The horse industry has been working for these last two changes for some time. The industry is now treated like other livestock producers with respect to federal emergency programs. 

 More information may be obtained from the American Horse Council at www.horsecouncil.org.

 Credit: American Horse Council Washington Update