Letter: Backup system needed for horse ID’s

To The Editor:

In the USTA’s continued violation of its own rules (7.06) which mandate use of a microchip AND either a lip tattoo

or freeze brand to identify horses, the association not only jeopardizes its standing with the Internal Revenue Service as a non-profit 501(C)6 organization, but it chooses once again to ignore a huge portion of its membership.

Many registered Standardbreds are owned by the Amish, who have no way of reading a microchip without violating their religious beliefs. Forcing the Amish to use microchips, as opposed to effective low tech visual means to identify their horses, is either religious discrimination or just another case of the USTA and its employees advancing their own agenda over its published rules. The Amish can easily be taken advantage of if only chips are used. Regardless, it is an easily fixable problem.

I have been using microchips to identify animals since 2003. Microchips are useful, but they can fail or migrate, making them unreadable. Why would the USTA not want an easily visibly backup system that ALL its members can make easy use of? The implementation of microchips has been sloppy, in violation of USTA rules, and in some states, illegal, but the association moved forward anyway, without the approval of its directors.

Most importantly, do the USTA’s employees serve at the pleasure of the Directors, as it should be, and which leaves the Directors with just one option – enforcing the rule on the books as written. Or do the Directors serve at the pleasure of the association’s employees, in which case the problem is far more serious than microchips or freeze brands. It is time for the USTA’s Directors to do their job and end this unneeded controversy.

Sincerely,

Keith Gisser, Ohio