As the horse industry in the United States continues its dogged and tenacious struggle for a return of normalcy in the face of defamation and abuse perpetrated by extremist fundraising groups, it seems the hysterical, unsubstantiated, uncalled for campaigns of fallacious misinformation (in other words, flat out lies) just keep getting louder and more obnoxious.  When you start following the money from any of dozens of groups, all roads lead to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and their hundreds of millions of deceptively raised dollars.

After enduring the Obama Administration slipping a last minute, unannounced, back door provision in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) budget request seeking to reinstate the disastrous defunding of inspectors for horse processing plants in the Agricultural Appropriations bill, and both houses of Congress ignoring their own Government Accountability Office (GAO) study "HORSE WELFARE: Action Needed to Address the Unintended Consequences of Domestic Slaughter Cessation," and completely ignoring the horse industry, the agriculture industry, the scientists, the veterinarians, the tribes, the state governments, the county governments, and plain old common sense in favor of a culturally arrogant and elitist viewpoint of a Washington, D.C. beltway insulated special interest group with a radical vegan agenda it wants to impose on every American...I know I am not the only one in the horse business that was disheartened.

Nonetheless, sometimes truth and justice do prevail, and we have several positive developments that have come from the federal government to point to today. Earlier the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced that they had no choice but to follow the law and would finally issue grants of inspection to horse facilities that meet the requirements. (Never mind that the plants had met those requirements, or easily could have, mere weeks after the annual riders were taken off of the Ag Appropriations bill in November of 2011--a delay that caused the loss of literally millions of dollars, hundreds of unfilled jobs, and untold loss of value within the horse industry, not to mention equally untold amounts of unnecessary and totally preventable prolonged and increased suffering of thousands of horses).

At least FSIS did issue at the same time a powerful response to HSUS' "Petition for Rulemaking" that categorically denied every single one of HSUS' bogus contentions. 

Almost immediately, and sadly predictably, HSUS wasted no time and with their affiliate Front Range Equine Rescue filed a lawsuit seeking to stop FSIS from providing inspectors based on extremely flimsy environmental grounds. They first filed this in the liberal 9th District Court in San Francisco, their favorite venue. Fortunately attorneys were able to point out the obvious forum shopping, and the case was moved to New Mexico where Valley Meats has an ongoing lawsuit against FSIS for holding them up for over a year.  Tomorrow, August 2, the New Mexican judge will rule on HSUS' Motion for Preliminary Injunction.

Today, we wanted to share with you the even more strongly worded and unambiguous submission to the 10th District Court by the Department of Justice on behalf of FSIS, "Federal Defendants' Opposition to Plaintiffs' July 2, 2013 Motion for Preliminary Injunction,"  which correctly points out that the fear and unsubstantiated speculation of a few animal rights activists is not grounds for impeding legitimate business, that the allegations of HSUS will not prevail in a court of law without clear and convincing evidence, and that HSUS has failed to provide any evidence whatsoever.  You will find reading just the introduction and the conclusion refreshing and enlightening.  

We also wanted to share with you a series of editorials that confront the "Lies" of HSUS head on from the horse industry perspective. The editorials address lies about food safety and the Safety of American Horse Meat, the Environmental Impacts of Meat Processing, Animal Welfare,  What Really Happens in a Horse Slaughter Plant, and concludes with a Point by Point Rebuttal of HSUS Lies Encapsulated in Their Litigation Attacks on Small Horse Processing Facilities.

Our hope is that the documents linked to here will be useful for communicating to Congress, the media, and to the American people. Feel free to share, post, excerpt, and publish widely. As always, if you have comments or questions, please contact me at sue.wallis@ieqbassn.org.

Sue Wallis is a rancher and Wyoming State Representative who is the U.S. Chairman of the International Equine Business Association.