This Is The HSUS "Outreach Director"?

The Humane Society of the United States recently hired former State Representative Eric Swafford (R-Pikeville) as their "outreach director" to the Tennessee Walking Horse community -- after vilifying that industry for years. Specifically they wanted Swafford to reach out to the Walking Horse people and try to persuade them not to pursue legislation to make undercover investigations more difficult to conduct, according to Knoxnews.com.

Last year HSUS released secretly recorded video showing caustic substances being applied to horses' legs and hooves ("soring") and the animals being beaten to make them stand, but only after sitting on the video for months while the animals continued to suffer.

A bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Dolores Gresham of Somerville and Rep. Andy Holt would require any video of livestock abuse be submitted to prosecutors within a short period of time. This would prevent the video from being edited or tampered with -- or used for fundraising purposes. It would allow the authorities to act quickly to stop the abuse.

Swafford was described as "an award-winning member of the Tennessee Walking Horse Owners Association." What the news story didn't say was that he had been cited himself by the USDA for having a sored horse at a show in August 2012.

Eric Swafford showed a horse, "Jazzy Sally", at the 2012 106th Anniversary Wartrace Horse Show, Wartrace, TN which was found sore.

Really? This is the person HSUS hires to represent them after they complain about the lack of enforcement of the Horse Protection Act and try to destroy the Tennessee Walking Horse industry in Tennessee? You have to wonder if they knew about Swafford's violation for soring or if it mattered to them as they try to fight this much-needed bill in Tennessee.

Sure, there could be all kinds of extenuating circumstances with regard to this violation and we know that USDA has handed out unfair violations to Walking Horse people in the past. You just have to look to the Celebration in Shelbyville last year to see how things were going with USDA. What matters here is the astonishing hypocrisy of HSUS in hiring someone as their "outreach director" who has been cited for soring when they never miss an opportunity to condemn the entire Walking Horse industry. But I guess violations don't matter if the person works for HSUS.

Sen. Gresham's bill has passed in the Tennessee Senate and it's scheduled to be heard in the Tennessee House this week. Here's hoping that the House will also pass it, without any weakening amendments. Rep. Swafford should know, as well as anyone, that we don't need vigilantes conducting undercover investigations while abuse continues. If someone films or photographs animal abuse during an investigation, they need to turn the material over to the authorities right away so they can investigate and stop the abuse.