Late last year, The HSUS obtained still photographs and reports from USDA inspectors who examined horses trained by Larry Wheelon during the execution of a search warrant. Wheelon is a well-known figure in the Tennessee walking horse show world. Those deeply disturbing images revealed that Wheelon and his associates intentionally injured and “sored” horses – deliberately injuring the animals’ feet to produce an artificial, exaggerated gait known as the “big lick.”
Now we’ve had our first look at video footage of the abuse Wheelon and his people perpetrated. This damning footage – plain evidence of criminal cruelty that Wheelon and his defense team tried to prevent from getting out into the public domain — is being released to the public for the first time. The video shows a USDA inspector evaluating the injuries to the horses and confirms in a dramatic way what the still photographs told us about the cruelty these people committed in that barn. The horses felt such pain that they violently pulled away as the inspector handled their feet and lower limbs.
The USDA video footage confirms in a dramatic way the cruelty Larry Wheelon and his associates committed against the horses in that barn.
Tennessee law enforcement got their behind-the-scenes look at the goings-on in the barn in 2013, and the evidence of abuse was so jarring that they arrested Wheelon and three others under Tennessee’s animal cruelty law. Wheelon and his defense attorney managed to get the first set of charges dismissed on a technicality. But the evidence against him was so damning that a grand jury indicted Wheelon and his associates for aggravated cruelty to livestock and conspiracy to commit aggravated cruelty to animals – 15 felony charges and three misdemeanors.
But a Blount County judge granted Wheelon’s motion to suppress all evidence obtained during the search based on a technicality, letting him go scot-free. The photos, and now the video, have come to light only after The HSUS obtained them through a Freedom of Information Act request.
This video – and The HSUS’s undercover investigations at top walking horse training barns showing a subculture of cruelty within the “big lick” cadre of trainers and owners – underscores the desperate need for serious reform in this industry. The USDA’s proposed rule to strengthen its Horse Protection Act regulations would end four decades of failed industry self-policing and ban the use of devices such as tall stacked shoes and ankle chains that are an integral part of the soring process. This would be a monumental step forward in eradicating soring.
Of course, the horse soring crowd has long relied on a handful of lawmakers in Congress to protect them, and they’re now attempting to delay this rule — requesting a 60-day extension of the current public comment period scheduled to end on September 26th. The extension, if granted, would most likely put the rule on hold for the next president’s administration to consider – and condemn thousands of walking horses to yet another show season of agony like that inflicted by Larry Wheelon on his victims.
In photos taken by USDA investigators, the inside of Larry Wheelon’s barn looks like a medieval torture chamber. The walls are lined with heavy logging chains and weighted high heel shoes for the horses known as stacks.
The HSUS, American Association of Equine Practitioners, and American Veterinary Medical Association are among the many groups advocating for the reforms offered by the Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act, H.R. 3268/S. 1121, and by the USDA’s proposed rule that mirrors its key elements. We have contacted the USDA to urge the agency not to honor the request for delay, and instead move quickly to implement these long overdue reforms at the end of this comment period.
As the 78th Celebration rolls to a close in Shelbyville this week, we have good reason to hope this will be the last year in more than half a century of celebrating organized animal cruelty, and that a future free of pain and full of promise is on the horizon for the Tennessee walking horse breed.
Watch the video and view the photos of Larry Wheelon’s demonic handiwork – and when you are as outraged as I am by this flagrant brutality, take action to put a stop to it by telling the USDA you support its proposed rule, and want to see it implemented without delay.
Ask the USDA to strengthen regulations against horse soring »
The post Video exposes cruelty by Tennessee walking horse trainer appeared first on A Humane Nation.
Related Stories
- USDA may give us a different kind of Celebration
- California leads again for animals — by banning bullhooks, orca breeding
- A wild name, and an amazing, vast, new marine sanctuary
Enviroshop is maintained by dedicated NetSys Interactive Inc. owners & employees who generously contribute their time to maintenance & editing, web design, custom programming, & website hosting for Enviroshop.