I.J. Anti-horse Letter needs response....

["KIMBERLY PRICE" <kmprice51@hotmail.com>]

Letter published in the I.J. today, 3/23/01:

Horse left the barn
Fire roads and single track trails are too precious to all of us to
risk contamination by hoof and mouth and mad cow disease by horses.

The equestrian community in Marin transports and breeds horses from
all over the world.  Once here, these horses often share pastures and
animal feed with sheep and cattle -- perfect conditions for the
transmission of these diseases.

If hoof and mouth takes root here on our wonderful water resource, it
can be quickly spread by other horses and also by the native deer
population.  We might be looking at culling thousands of native deer
and tule elk to eradicate it.  We might also be looking at the
slaughter of Marin's dariy cows.

Water quality could be threatened if fire roads and thousands of
miles of single track trails must be sprayed with pesticides.
Already, hoff and mouth has jumped to France and Holland, and prudent
cattlemen in this country are taking this threat very seriously.

What are we doing in Marin to make sure that equestrians who
admittedly have little control over their animals under the best of
conditions are not riding trails astride animals weighing many
hundreds of pounds -- and foaming mad with an infection that poses a
significant safety threat to other trail users such as children and
the elderly?

It would be prudent to restrict access to all fire roads and single
track trails by horses for six months unless the horse rider can show
upon demand that the horse has been examined by a vet or state
agricultural official to be free of these dreaded diseases.

In six months, review the situation to determine if it is safe to
allow horses back on the trails.

Certainly the policy of allowing horses to defecate throughtout the
reservoir system should also be replaced by a poop and scoop policy
since pathogens are easily transmitted inthis manner.

Written by M.P. Fitzgerald, San Geronimo

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Please feel free to spread this around.  This letter is obviously
intended to promote panick about a disease which is not here by a
person who doesn't like horses (or poop) on the trail.

Thanks!
Kimberly &Mystery the Morab ("I'm only fertilizing the flowers!!")


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