Blue Marble Strategy

Horse racing can pat itself on its back for the progress that has been made concerning horses sent to slaughter. Under the Federal Meat Inspection Act, horses are an amenable species, which means that horse meat cannot be shipped or sold for human consumption without inspection. With the government declining to foot the bill for inspectors from the Food and Drug Administration, every slaughter facility in the U.S. was forced to close. Tremendous strides have also been made when it comes to aftercare. There are dozens of wonderful charities out...

Chris Heyde is the founder of Blue Marble Strategy and is a Washington D.C. lobbyist who has dedicated his career to animal welfare issues. Along the way, he has had some important successes, including effectively ending horse slaughter in the U.S. But one main goal remains and has been elusive. Heyde has been fighting for passage of the Save America's Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act, which would prohibit the slaughter of horses in the U.S. as well as ban the shipping of them to slaughterhouses in the Mexico and Canada. Heyde...

I was pleased to see the increased dialogue regarding Thoroughbred aftercare and the additional steps needed to reduce the number of horses needing homes in two recent TDN articles, "Open Letter to the Industry: When Does a Thoroughbred Earn a Safe Retirement?" and "Aftercare Not Meeting the Need." Unfortunately, they are two ships passing in the night when all horse industry boats should be rowing in the same direction.  Regardless of the front-end attention from owners and industry, Thoroughbreds will always fall prey to abuse until the export of horses...