USDA

The NTRA reported new guidance out of the U.S. Department of Agriculture which will streamline the glanders testing protocol for importing horses into the United States, the organization said in a release Friday morning. USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service update, Veterinary Services Guidance 13407.3, introduces a new procedure effective Oct. 10 for glanders, which has been susceptible to produce false positives when horses were tested during their import quarantine. "One of the number one issues I've heard in this job is how cumbersome USDA testing protocols slow down...

When Peter Brant shipped a collection of newly turned 2-year-olds from the Mocklershill training facility in Ireland to the U.S. on Jan. 13 he had no reason to expect that their transport from Europe to Payson Park in Florida would be anything other than routine. Brant ships horses from Europe to the U.S. all the time. But in the case of a well-bred 2-year-old named Belle Gambe (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), the filly has been stuck in quarantine at Churchill Downs for more than three weeks, the result of what Brant...

Either trainer Burton Sipp is an unwitting pariah, or racing is his witting fool. Over the last 40 years, Sipp has faced allegations involving insurance scams and dead horses, animal neglect cases, race-fixing stings and regulatory malfeasance. Not all the accusations against him have stuck. Since the mid 1990s, Sipp has been barred from applying for a racing license in New Jersey due to swirling suspicions of fraudulent practices. So he moved his tack to more welcoming pastures. For the past few years, the trainer has been dogged by allegations...

   Chris Heyde is the founder of Blue Marble Strategy, LLC, a government affairs firm in Washington, D.C., which is the country's leading animal protection lobbyist. Heyde has been working towards passing a ban on horse slaughter in the United States for almost 20 years, serving as head of government and legal affairs for 17 years for the Animal Welfare Institute, the nation's oldest federal animal protection legislation program. Before entering the animal protection field, Chris was vice president of a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm that represented clients from health...