Archive for 2017 October

Guest Worker Visa Reform Gains Momentum

Posted Oct 4 2017

The following is from the American Horse Council:

Guest Worker Visa Reform Gains Momentum, Tell Congress to Finish the Job!

Status update:

On September 15, the House of Representatives passed a $1.2 trillion funding bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 that will serve as a benchmark for negotiations with the Senate on a final package. Congress must negotiate a final bill by December 8, when the current continuing resolution (CR) to fund federal programs at FY2017 levels will expire. While the equine industry and its allies have taken an important first step by inserting some H-2B visa reform measures within the text of the current House spending bill (such as wage-survey flexibility), the fight to insert broader visa cap relief in a final spending bill continues.

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Legislation Moving in Congress

Fortunately, Congress can fix the broken guest worker visa program by acting on legislation currently moving through the legislative process. AHC members can help push the legislative process forward by weighing in with your elected officials in Washington. Contact your federal lawmakers today and urge them to support H2B visa reform through the following vehicles:

FY2018 Appropriations – Tell your lawmakers to include H-2B visa cap relief provisions in the final spending bill. This must-pass legislation is the most active vehicle moving through Congress. Meaningful cap relief includes common-sense exemptions for returning guest workers.

Strengthen Employment and Seasonal Opportunities (SEASON) Act (H.R. 2004) – Tell your representative to cosponsor H.R. 2004, which will provide cap relief by establishing an exemption for well-vetted workers who have already held a visa. This bill currently has 30 co-sponsors, a number which must grow to gain more political traction. If your representative is already a sponsor, tell him to contact leadership to assure passage.

Save Our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act of 2017 (S. 792) – Call both of your senators and tell them to cosponsor S. 792, legislation that will expedite applications to meet labor demands during peak seasons. This bipartisan bill currently has 12 sponsors, and will need many more to win floor time in the Senate. If your senators are already sponsors, tell them to contact leadership to make the bill a high priority.

To contact your lawmaker’s Washington office, please call the Capitol switchboard at 202-225-3121 , and ask to be connected to your elected official’s office. Also, you can your representative and senators by using #SaveH2B on social media.

Emerging Legislation, Next Steps

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) is soon expected to introduce the Agricultural Guest Worker Act of 2017, legislation that would replace the cumbersome H-2A program with more flexible H-2C visas. The draft text shared with AHC from House Judiciary Committee staff would accomplish the following benefits for large segments of the equine sector:

The bill would replace the H-2A program outright, with a new program that creates incentives to hire foreign labor through legal channels;
Reduce financial and paperwork burdens on agricultural employers by discarding H-2A mandates such as free housing and transportation;
Create marketplace flexibility by establishing “at will” employment between visa holders and agricultural employers;

Establish a baseline of 500,000 visas, with a built-in “escalator” that can result in 10% increases in the number of guest visas issued in subsequent years. According to State Dept. stats, the number of H2A visas has fluctuated between 65,000 and 135,000 during the past five fiscal years.

The House Judiciary Committee postponed a hearing scheduled for Wednesday, October 4 to formally introduce and review the bill. AHC will keep you updated on developments related to the Agriculture Guest Work Act, and other legislation impacting hiring practices for the equine sector. If you would like a summary of the draft bill, or have perspectives on immigration policy and priorities you would like to share, please contact Bryan Brendle at bbrendle@horsecouncil.org.

Read on AHC Website

URGENT – ORPHAN BABIES NEED HELP ASAP – PLEASE! Chilly Pepper Update

Posted Oct 4 2017

The following is from Chilly Pepper – Miracle Mustang:

The Chilly Pepper family is sending prayers for Las Vegas, and all the loved ones who are affected by this tragedy.

However, we are in an emergent type of situation here at home. Gypsum and Hope are hanging in there, and are extremely tired of all the shots (twice a day each) and the meds they are receiving.

Hope’s pneumonia seems to be breaking up and she has not had a fever for the last few days. Gypsum is still struggling and we need to take both of them to the vet by tomorrow for further testing.

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Gypsum has (hopefully had) an extremely life threatening infection. His good leg received this assessment by the vet. “The right front common digital extensor tendon had ruptured” So in addition to his contracted tendon, his potentially life threatening umbilical infection and pneumonia, his good leg is suffering. He needs another ultrasound ASAP and more blood work. We cannot wait as it could be life threatening if we do not stay on top of this infection,

Hope also needs more blood work and possibly additional medication as she is still coughing and wheezing from the pneumonia breaking up. We are hopeful it is just the gunk leaving her lungs, but we have to be sure.

It is always hard to ask folks to keep helping when so many do so much. But this is about the babies and the horses here at Chilly Pepper, and we are in an emergency situation at this point. We are simply “their voice” (and their private staff – literally 24/7 lol).

I am grateful a good friend had reminded me in the past of how important it is to keep emergency funds available. This saved our bacon on the last trip, but we now need funding for the additional vet care and the costs of caring for so many horses just increased substantially.

We spent nearly $800 on Gypsum’s vet care prior to picking up the horses and saving the 9 slaughter babies. This is the reason he has a chance at life, as Doc Rodger (at Crossroads in CA) is the one who caught the deadly umbilical infection.

We then spent another $1486 at the vet in Idaho (for Hope and Gypsum). The trailer repairs were $800, and we spent over $800+ on medication and Coggins for the 9 babies in Washington. This doesn’t include fuel etc. for the days we were out on this rescue, or to cover the ranch care while we were gone.

So it was well over $3800 in unexpected emergency costs in just the last two weeks, and we are spending over $2000 in feed for the babies and the new horses. (Many of these horses did not belong to Chilly Pepper originally). We were just asked to help place horses. However, apparently they are now “our horses”. So this is where your donations are going. Without you none of these horses would be safe and most of them would already have been slaughtered.

So we are looking at 7 extra adult horses to feed and care for at the worst time of year, in addition to the ones we already had. We try to be really careful and responsible and we do say “No”. However, due to the emergency situation we had no choice but to pick up these horses.

Some of them are in pretty good shape, but there are a few who are pretty thin. We are looking for sponsors for these ladies, and especially for Granny, an older Virginia Range horse that is now our responsibility thanks to trying to help place her. But she is such a sweet mare, so we will figure it out.

There are so many crisis in our world right now, but we have to keep feeding and caring for these kids. If you would like to help us give these babies every chance they deserve, they would so appreciate it. Both of them have survived unthinkable odds, and by the Grace of God and some pretty amazing Angels, both of them are still here and wanting to run and play.

Please help if you can. Each and every dollar adds up, and these beautiful little souls are gifts from God.

THANK YOU FROM ALL THE HORSES!

* A quick note. We moved from LRTC to WIN due to some of the projects being more closely connected. However, we are still working with LRTC and will continue to do so. Our Large Animal Rescue training (at LRTC) (and some awesome Angels) is what made it possible to save Hope. We want to once again thank Willis Lamm for helping us come up with a safe and successful plan to extricate Hope from the trailer full of wild and very anxious horses.

If you want to help You can go to You Caring – to help us keep saving lives..

You can go to Paypal – Palomino@chillypepper.org or go to www.chillypepper.org

if you would like to help these horses.

You can donate via check at Chilly Pepper – Miracle Mustang, P.O. Box 190 Golconda, NV 89414 PLEASE MAKE CHECKS OUT TO “WIN”, as Chilly Pepper’s bank account is now under the name of our parent company

You can also donate via credit card by calling Palomino at 530-339-1458.

NO MATTER HOW BIG OR HOW SMALL – WE SAVE THEM ALL!

SAVING GOD’S CRITTERS – FOUR FEET AT A TIME

Chilly Pepper – Miracle Mustang, WIN Project – Rescue & Rehab

_We are now part of the WIN Organization

WIN (WILD HORSES IN NEED) is a 501c3 IRS EIN 55-0882407_

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A week away

Posted Oct 3 2017

The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

We’re a week away from critical votes. The Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee is expected to mark up its spending bill next week, with full committee votes the week after. Since the House lifted the longstanding prohibition on the destruction of healthy wild horses and burros in its spending bill, it’s critical that the Senate maintain these protections. These votes will likely determine what the final budget language is — and the lives of tens of thousands of wild horses literally hang in the balance.

When we meet with Senate offices and ask them what makes a difference, they always tell us to keep up the calls and emails. They REALLY matter. Our opponents have the money and power but we have the people. Keep it up.

Click here to call AND email your U.S. Senators right now.

Tell them: Maintain longstanding prohibitions on the destruction of healthy wild horses. Oppose any spending bill that would allow for the killing or sale for slaughter of healthy wild horses.

The roundup underway right now in Wyoming is a stark reminder of how important these votes are. Images of wild horses chased relentlessly by helicopter, driven into barbed wire, captured, and separated from their families are heartbreaking. Even worse is the thought that every one of the nearly 2,000 wild horses captured could be killed if the Congress does not reject the BLM’s request to destroy them and sell them for brutal slaughter.

We can’t let them win.

Keep calling,

Grace Kuhn

P.S. Thanks to your help, our TV ad ran throughout the weekend in Alaska telling Senator Murkowski: #NoHorseSlaughter. Donate now to help us run more ads in more markets.

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