This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.

Tennessee walking horses, and other gaited horses, have continued to suffer abuse to get them to achieve an unnaturally high step known as the “big lick” for nothing more than a prize in the show ring. Urge the U.S. Department of Agriculture to take action to protect them.

The abusive practices used to get the big lick, otherwise known as soring, include putting caustic substances on the sensitive skin around their hooves to cause blistering, burning, and irritation, and then wrapping them in plastic to make sure that whatever's used is absorbed, which makes them quickly lift their legs to avoid pain.

Action devices, including pads, or stacks, may also be used on the front hooves to raise a horse's forehand and add even more animation. This alone causes other problems like unbalanced feet, but objects can also be hidden between the pads and hooves to cause even more pain. On top of that, chains can be used to cause even more irritation and agony.

Soring of all breeds has been banned for decades under the Horse Protection Act (HPA), but it's still being done by unethical trainers, and the HPA only protects horses at shows, exhibitions, sales or auctions, and during transport to and from these events, but not at home.

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) introduced a rule proposing new regulations to strengthen the HPA, but it was among hundreds of proposed regulations that were frozen when the new administration took office.

Now, following legal action, the USDA is proposing withdrawing the rule entirely and introducing a new one, but it hasn't set a timeline leaving horses in limbo again.

This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.