Trump and McConnell team up to prevent Rule that would virtually end horse soring

WASHINGTON, DC — Shortly before leaving the White House to attend his Inaugural Ball, Trump approved the following Memorandum:

The Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies states:

The President has asked me to communicate to each of you his plan for managing the Federal regulatory process at the outset of his Administration. In order to ensure that the President’s appointees or designees have the opportunity to review any new or pending regulations, I ask on behalf of the President that you immediately take the following steps:

The Memorandum continues in paragraph 2 with:

2. With respect to regulations that have been sent to the OFR [Office of Federal Regulation] but not published in the Federal Register, immediately withdraw them from the OFR for review and approval as described in paragraph 1, subject to the exceptions described in paragraph 1. This withdrawal must be conducted consistent with OFR procedures. [emphasis added]

Mitch McConnell has been aiding and abetting the horse soring faction for decades. No doubt his hand is in this. According to our sources, McConnell made sure that the OFR was included in the Memorandum.

The Federal Regulation that would eradicate the use of “pads and chains” in Tennessee Walking Horse “Big Lick” competitions, eliminating the horrific animal cruelty that goes with it, is set to be published in The Federal Register on Tuesday, January 24, 2017.

Clant Seay, of Citizens Campaign Against Big Lick Animal Cruelty (also known as Billy Go Boy), who has worked tirelessly on this issue states:

Inside politics seem to be at play here. U. S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has received over $750,000.00 in “Big Lick” Animal Cruelty money since 1988. His wife, Elaine Chou, was chosen by President Trump to be Secretary of Transportation. Today, Senator McConnell offered the toast to President Trump at the Congressional dinner following his taking the Oath of Office.

It is Chou who has the wealth in the family and helped McConnell get re-elected which he needed. The amount of money McConnell threw at his re-election campaign was outrageous. In Kentucky?

And we know what McConnell really thinks of the man he was toasting. McConnell famously stated, “Trump doesn’t know a lot, but I’ll support him anyway,” during the election campaign.

The referenced Memorandum freezing the activities of regulatory agencies is not uncommon particularly when the Presidency has changed parties and has yet to form a cabinet. At the moment the Secretary of Agriculture chair is vacant.

Trump appointed former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue (R-GA) as Secretary of Agriculture on January 18, 2017.

If he is approved, and there appears no reason for him not to be, Perdue will be making the decision concerning the removal of “pads and chains”.

In the meantime, according the Memorandum, the decision is in Trump’s hands.

We have already told you about Perdue. Perdue is pro horse slaughter and from what reports says he is insensitive to the welfare of farm animals.

Speaking of being pro slaughter, Mitch McConnell is the Senator who routinely puts a “hold” on federal bills banning horse slaughter in addition to tightening up federal laws to end horse soring and “Big Lick” animal cruelty so there is not a chance in hell any of this federal legislation will pass. According to Washington lawmakers, McConnell has spent the last six years running a “program of obstruction, delay, and non-compliance”, on the Hill.

This is why we keep preaching that we need to work at the State level, particularly if we are going to close the export of horses for slaughter loophole and prevent horse slaughter from ever returning to US soil. It has never been truer.

IMAGE CREDIT
The New Yorker, “Donald Trump Enters Mitch McConnell’s Washington“.
PHOTOGRAPH BY AL DRAGO / THE NEW YORK TIMES / REDUX

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