THE FRONT PAGE

Ag Tourism To Be Exempt From
MoCo Amusement Tax - Jane Seigler

Montgomery County has a bill pending (Expedited Bill 16-07) that will amend the County’s admissions and amusements tax. As originally drafted, the bill does not include an exemption for Ag Tourism activities, but the County’s Ag Advisory Committee and the County Farm Bureau requested that such an exemption be added, and the Council obliged. Farm activities such as pony rides and hay wagon rides would come under this exemption. For more information, visit “resources” on equiery.com.

Is The University of Maryland Closing The Equine Research Program?
- Dr. Amy Burk

American Horse Council

Highlights From The Annual Meeting - What You Need To Know - Lauren Risby

Could Your Next Equine Business Be A USDA Quarantine Facility?

The Federal Government monitors the international movement of horses through the three quarantine facilities located in Miami, New York City and Los Angeles. The incubation period for these horses depends on the sex of the horse as well as the location that it is coming from. Over the past few years there has been a drastic increase in the number of horses being brought into the states for racing, showing, sales and breeding. After the EHV-1 epidemic, the procedures for the facilities are in review in hopes of controlling the problem more efficiently.

However, the three existing quarantine facilities may not meet the demands of the growing market for importing and exporting horses through the United States. Currently, the USDA rules do not allow for permanent, privately owned facilities.The American Horse Council (AHC) has requested that the USDA alter the rules so that permanent, privately owned facilities may be opened to meet the increasing demands of the international horse market.

After the AHC made its proposal, the USDA came back with an updated proposal with specific requirements.The biggest concerns of the AHC are that these private facilities need to have Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) personnel present to ensure the biological security of the facility.The other concern is that the new facilities should not have any affect on the temporary, privately owned quarantine facilities which are an important resource for the horse industry. In addition, the new proposal did not establish specific requirements for the potential locations of these new facilities. The AHC would like to see the USDA make a requirement entailing that these quarantine facilities be located within at least one-half mile from any premises holding livestock.The final desire of the AHC is that the USDA allow vaccinations to be administered during the quarantine period as long as blood work has already been taken for testing. Overall, permanent, privately owned quarantine facilities may be in the near future for the horse industry in the United States with the help of the AHC and the USDA.

Unwanted Horse Coalition (UHC) -

OR

What To Do With With All Those Horses If or When All The Slaughter Plants Permanently Close?

The Unwanted Horse Coalition was established in June 2006 under the AHC.The coalition’s mission is to reduce the number of unwanted horses and to improve their welfare through education and efforts of organizations committed to health, safety and responsible care of these horses. Currently, the number of unwanted horses exceeds the resources to accommodate them

The number of unwanted horses has increased because of the temporary shutdown of two of the three slaughterhouses in Texas and Illinois. On average, there were 100,000 horses slaughtered annually, which results in 100,000 more horses each year that are deemed “unwanted” (which is less than 1% of the total equine population). Shuttering slaughter plants does not automatically mean homes for these horses. Additionally, the challenge will be compounded by each passing year. If the slaughter plants are currently disposing of 100,000 unwanted horses each year, industry leaders are estimating the the future numbers of unwanted horses could rapidly escalate into the millions going forward into the future.

Leaders in the horse industry are attempting to prepare for an onslaught of abandoned horses, as well as horses being smuggled across the boarders into Mexico and Canada, which have slaughter plants untouched by U.S. laws or regulations.

At the moment, the only thing the Unwanted Horse Coalition can offer is education about the options, leasing of horses if they are serviceably sound, entering them into a service, such as mounted police or therapeutic riding - again, only if they are of sound mind and body, or donating them to medical research or finding a career as a pasture mate for those not serviceably sound. The challenge is that most of these programs are already overwhelmed with unwanted and cast off horses, and none of these programs can generally take horses that are not sound. The UHC will also encourage owners to pay for their horses upkeep in a retirement facility as well as investigating euthanasia options. Regardless, leaders are still concerned that we will soon be facing staggering numbers of unwanted and abandoned horses.

Horse Industry Averts Bullet In Ag Bill

Late during the night of Aug. 2, the House of Representatives passed the funding bill for the U.S. Department of Agriculture for Fiscal Year 2008 after removing the overly-broad language that was opposed by the horse industry.

When the USDA funding bill was reported out of the House Appropriations Committee two weeks ago, it included language that was intended to apply to slaughter horses. But the provision was so broadly drafted that it would have applied to all horses and been disastrous for the horse industry. Section 738 of the bill would have prohibited USDA’s Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service from carrying out all horse health monitoring and regulatory work and prohibited the inspection of horses required to import or export a horse. Obviously, this would have dramatically affected the horse industry, which is national and international in scope. Horses are transported, imported and exported for many reasons, including racing, showing, sales and breeding. All these activities would have been adversely impacted by this provision.

Fortunately, this provision was removed before the House gave final approval to the USDA appropriations bill. The import, export, international and national movement of horses under USDA supervision and oversight will continue as it is done now. This was accomplished because organizations and individuals from numerous segments of the industry contacted House members raising the issue and their concerns.

The House did include language in the bill that would cutoff funding for USDA activities related to the slaughter of horses. This provision is similar to the one that was included in the USDA appropriations bill passed in the last Congress. Since the amendment is part of an appropriations bill, the funding ban, if it is also passed by the Senate, will last for Fiscal Year 2008, which extends from October 1, 2007 through September 30, 2008.

National Animal Identification System (NAIS) Big Brother or Critical Infrastructure?

NAIS is a system that has been developed for livestock purposes and is mandatory for cattle, swine, sheep, goats and poultry. At this point, horses are eligible for NAIS but it is not mandatory. The focus of this system is to protect animals and to provide a way to track the animals’ movement in a 48-hour period to control the spread of contagious infectious diseases, which could be devastating to either the equine or human population.

The Equine Species Working Group , which was created by the AHC in 2003 as a task force to evaluate the concept of a national ID system, has been researching the impact of utilizing this system with horses. The group continues to research the potential benefits and problems associated with NAIS. The goal of the group is to determine if the horse industry could develop standards for equine ID that would benefit the industry.

The tracking of the animals is done by a microchip about the size of a grain of rice that is implanted by injection on the left side of the neck between the ears and the withers. Each microchip has a 15 digit code that is kept in a databank where it can be accessed in case of emergency. The present cost of the newest microchip, the 134.2 kHz, runs between $12 and $50, including the price of injection. There are three components to the system. The first step would be to register the premises. The second step would be to have each animal registered. Once this occurs the animals with microchips will be able to be tracked.

NAIS would help with the importing and exporting of horses and the quarantine procedures. For the future, this system may affect performance horses because having a microchip would eliminate the need for competitors to bring papers because the microchip would contain the medical history of the animal.

Many horse owners are opposed to NAIS as they believe that the government will know too much about them, their horses and/or their premises.

Others are opposed to using NAIS for horses because NAIS was established on the premise of providing for bio-food security. Because horses are not consumed as food in the U.S., many horse owners feel that the program is unnecessary for equine livestock.

Lastly, many believe NAIS to just be impractical for the horse industry. Unlike cattle, individual horses move from stable to stable, track to field, trail to ring, breeding shed to sales barn, on a daily basis, and the program is not really designed for that kind of movement.

The Equine Species Working Group will continue to work with the NAIS to develop the most efficient way to use this program with the equine industry.

Immigration & Foreign Workers

Stable owners, racetracks, hay farms, grain farms, and even the saw mills that create your shavings are facing a critical labor shortage due to some recent changes to the laws pertaining to immigration and foreign workers. There are a variety of programs under which foreign workers can qualify for employment in the U.S., but two prevalent programs for seasonal workers are the ones that supply the majority of the unskilled labor: H-2A Agricultural Worker program and the H-2B Temporary Worker program. Trainers, equine health professionals, huntsmen, and other specialties qualify under a different program.

The H-2A program has some flaws that have aff ected its performance.Theadmission process is long and requires extensive documentation which tends to deter workers. In addition, the program employs the Adverse Eff ect Wage Rate (AEWR) which is a fl at rate that is paid across thecountry.TheAEWR does not account for the cost of living factors for each state and region. Finally, the H-2A program only allows the workers to stay in the country for a maximum time period of 10 months.

The H-2B program is a temporary service for unemployed workers who cannot fi nd labor in their own country. With this program, there is a cap of 60,000 H-2B visas that can be authorized annually.TheAHC is working to reform these two programs and alter the requirements so that they will benefit the horse industry.

Crackdown on Illegal Workers Imminent

The Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Commerce have jointly announced new immigration measures intended to improve border security, step up enforcement of immigration laws, streamline existing guest worker programs and address the failures of the current immigration system.The new requirements take effect in 30 days.

The announcement provides that new regulations will be proposed to simplify the process of employing aliens under the H-2A and H-2B programs, which may prove benefi cial to the horse industry. But the plan to more forcefully pursue enforcement of sanctions against employers for employing alien workers with faulty documents is raising concerns among employers of these low-skilled workers. Many employers in the horse industry use the H-2A and H-2B programs to employ willing alien employees.

As you know, the Senate could not agree on comprehensive immigration reform legislation earlier this summer. It has been suggested that the Departments did not adopt the new rules while Congress was debating broad immigration reform. But when Congress could not pass broad legislation, the Administration decided to move forward with the new rules.

Worksite Enforcement – Stepped-up Employer Sanctions

The cornerstone of the new requirements is the announced crackdown on employers who “knowingly” hire undocumented workers. This is the so-called “ no-match” regulation. Under current law, an employer must ask for documents that confirm an individual’s identity and ability to work when employees fill out the required Form I-9. These documents include a social security card. Each year employers send the Social Security Administration (SSA) earnings reports (W-2 Forms) in which the employee name and the social security number do not match. If an employer has more than 10 employees with inaccurate personal identity information, the SSA will send him/her a “no-match” letter stating that the social security information submitted by the employer for his/her employees does not match the records in the SSA database.

In addition, DHS’ U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will send a similar letter to an employer if an audit indicates that an immigration status document or employment authorization document presented or referenced by the employer in the Form I-9 cannot be confirmed.The new regulations spell-out what an employer can do to avoid “knowingly” hiring or continuing to employ the individual and avoid liability for employer sanctions.

If an employer receives such a letter from either SSA or DHS, he/she must take the following actions or risk penalties.The steps that will insulate an employer from liability include:

• Within 30 days of receiving the letter, the employer must check the information against his/her own records, make any corrections of errors and verify them with SSA or DHS.

• If the employer does not fi nd errors in its records, the employer must inform the worker of the discrepancy within 30 days.

•Theworker then has until 90 days after the employer received the letter to contact the appropriate agency and correct the error.

• If the employee does not resolve the issue during that period, he/she has three days to fi ll out new paperwork and provide all necessary documentation.

• If the worker cannot provide the documentation, the employer must fire the worker immediately or be liable to sanctions and fines for “knowingly” employing an undocumented alien and failing to act.

Under the new regulations, fines imposed on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants will be raised 25%. Current fines are $2,200 for the first off ense and up to $10,000 for repeat off enses.The 25% increase is the maximum allowed under current law.

The Administration will be proposing additional regulations to reduce the 29 categories of documents that employers may accept to confi rm the identity and work eligibility of their employees. These are expected in the near future.The purpose is to eliminate those documents that are most susceptible to fraudulent activities.

Streamlining Existing Guest-Worker Programs

The announcement also provides that the Administration has directed the Department of Labor (DOL) to review the existing regulations implementing the H- 2A program and to institute changes intended to provide agricultural employers with an orderly and timely flow of legal workers.

In the H-2B program, the Department will be issuing regulations intended to reduce the time for processing applications by moving from a governmentcertified system requiring DOL to issue labor certifications to an “employer-attested” system. Th is will allow employers to attest that they have followed the procedures and could not find willing American workers.

Finally, the Administration will be exploring ways to expedite background checks on alien workers in order to permit visas to be issued more promptly. All these reforms are intended to make the temporary worker programs more responsive to the needs of employers.