If the stars wind up in proper alignment during the last few days of the current legislative session, Kentucky lawmakers are set to create the Kentucky Livestock Care Standards Board. The Board will recommend, but not mandate, standards for the care of horses, other livestock, and poultry on farms across the state. The Board will have no investigative function or actual authority, and the ultimate decision about whether Board recommendations are adopted will be left to the state Department of Agriculture. Opponents, although they are few, argue that this is what the Department of Agriculture should be doing already.

SB 105 has received strong bipartisan support so far, with unanimous passage in the state Senate and near-unanimity in the Kentucky House. All that remains is final Senate approval of changes in the legislation made during passage in the House. Creation of a Livestock Care Standards Board also has garnered endorsements from a wide variety of industry organizations, including some horse-oriented groups