The American Horse Council’s Animal Welfare Committee is working with the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) and others to develop voluntary “care and handling guidelines” for the equine industry.

In the past, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has expressed a desire to have care and handling guidelines for all forms of livestock. The AHC and the AAEP would prefer to have such guidelines developed by the industry, rather than having the government set the standards for horse owners on how they should care for their animals.

The Animal Welfare Committee expects to have draft guidelines developed by the AHC’s annual meeting, which will be held September 19-23, 1998, in Washington, D.C