Prevent All Soring Tactics Act of 2021

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5441, the Prevent All Soring Tactics Act of 2021, or the PAST Act.

Soring is the practice of using chemicals, sadly inflicting pain on the front feet of a horse when they touch the ground, with the intent to cause the horse to quickly raise its feet high off the ground.

This legislation will require the Secretary of Agriculture to issue rules for licensing, training, assigning, and overseeing persons to be qualified to detect and diagnose a sore horse and will prohibit the use of certain devices on horse breeds that have a history of being sored. This legislation will also increase capabilities for the USDA to enforce soring violations under the Horse Protection Act.

Americans throughout the country hold horses in high regard, myself included, including constituents, of course, in my district, who care deeply for the humane treatment of these beautiful animals.

I thank Representative Cohen and the 263 cosponsors of this legislation for their work to protect horses, and I urge my colleagues to support this.

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I wish this bill would pass in a bipartisan fashion, so that we can get it to the Senate. I yield back the balance of my time.

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