Pets, by law and by nature...

From Jim: Equines are defined by California law as pets. The federal tax statutes make the a hobby. They are not, by legal definition, livestock, food animals, or anything else agricultural. If you have an equine, you already know there's no tax benefit. I suppose if you're in the horse business you might find some business loopholes, but they're "business" not "horse" tax breaks. It seems that the government(s) are not so horse friendly. BLM practices, slowness to pass and enforce anti-slaughter laws both here and in the export market are even more of an indication of a negative attitude towards equines. The Texas park rangers shooting feral donkeys, to include babies-another marker. I wonder how well it would have gone down if they had limbered up their rifles to take out golden retrievers or poodles. Animal control officers are often not trained or equipped to handle equines and usually counties have few or no facilities for them. Most rescues and sanctuaries are private entities, usually 501C3's. They are public charities. Government funding or support? ZERO! Hassles with tax agencies, yeh-that can happen. We're a California Non-profit corporation. Does the state ever mess with us-Only whenever they can. We spend thousands of dollars for an accounting firm and endless hours of record/book keeping and documentation to be beyond clean and transparent. Our non-profit thrift store pays sales taxes and city fees. The tax exempt status is sort of conditional. If all of us who take on unhomed, unwanted, seized, or abandoned equines got out of the game, animal control would be overwhelmed. They would euthanize the animals and that would be that! No kill equine pounds-not so much. Do we believe equines are pets? Absolutely! And so do they. Should the government do more? Any positive action they would take would be an improvement over their current behaviors and policies. Our local animal control folks are great. They do as much as they can with the limited resources they're given. They're animal advocates and animal lovers. The county supervisors, state officials, federal politicos-equines don't have much of a chance with them. It's really too bad that our society has chosen to just hope the problem takes care of itself. It won't. The equines in our USofA are having a pretty hard time of it.