SRF asking USTA members to take action

Cream Ridge, NJ – 11/11//21 – Not a single director at the United States Trotting Association, (USTA) meetings spoke in support of freeze-brands. Freeze-brands are necessary to protect our horses at the last juncture of their lives, when they are tagged for slaughter.

People these days are far more compassionate and caring about animals than the representation of USTA members. Racing needs to step into the 21st century. USTA members will need to speak up right now in order to re-instate required brands whether they are added to microchipping or returned as sole identification.

This is a simple thing to do.

What to do: Dial in to the zoom district meeting for your area, if it has not already happened, and vote ACCEPT on rule changes 4, 18, 20, 21 and 24. (Only New York, NJ, Michigan and Indiana have had their meetings.) Also-as a member: You will get a notice in your email about five days prior to your district meeting. Fill in your email address and name and they will send you a link to participate in the zoom meeting.

You will also get a reminder about an hour prior to the meeting. Here is the schedule for upcoming meetings. If you want to speak at the meeting, you can click the icon that says “raise hand”.

If you cannot participate in your district meeting, let your directors know how you feel. Their contact information is here:

The most important thing to do is vote ACCEPT on 4, 18, 20, 21 and 24. Please tell your friends who are USTA members to tune in and vote also. These votes are not binding on the final result, but they are very important. If your meeting has already happened and you would like to listen to the audio of discussion on the pertinent rule changes, that can be done here.

For any questions, contact elleneharvey@gmail.com. The work of charitable organizations, and owners looking for their horse tagged to ship to their demise is greatly hindered with this switch to chips only. Identifying them in holding pens before they ship to Canada and Mexico is nearly impossible now for all the babies age 3 and younger now.

The USTA wants to offer wands to use in a pen to search for the imbedded microchip. Who would step into a crammed pen among one to two thousand pound terrified horses of all breeds, studs, yearlings, mares, geldings.

The Standardbred Retirement Foundation, (SRF) helps as many as 900 Standardbreds every year, keeping them from slaughter, and reuniting them with their past owners and breeders. The move to microchips impedes this very necessary work.

Well over 300 horses returned to their owners who wanted them back, identified by their freeze brands. The most recent just in the last 30 days are Sam McKee, taken in by Jeff Gural; and Here We Go Again, a winner of $943,000, back with Ron Burke who only owned him for a short time, and Learn The Lingo returning to the Waples in Canada.

From the Standardbred Retirement Foundation