Sue Wallis, former United Horseman vice president, and staunch advocate for the humane and regulated processing of horses, was asked to participate in a telephone interview to present the horse industry's view of the issue.
 
Only after the interview began did it become clear that it was a setup organized specifically to harass and vilify Wallis personally, and the horse industry in general. Without informing her beforehand, the show included HSUS' Wayne Pacelle, Madeleine Pickens, and R.T. Fitch all attacking Wallis with unfounded, unethical, and fallacious sound bites in an obviously choreographed ambush. 
 
Wallis agreed to the radio interview with Sasha Rethati on her show "Sound Off with Sasha" on a local NPR radio station in Southwest Florida believing that she would be interviewed about the horse industry and the need for humane and regulated processing in U.S.
 
When it was Wallis's opportunity to speak she was rudely interrupted by the other guests. Meanwhile the host of the show, who was obviously a co-conspirator, also interrupted Wallis in an attempt to bait her with loaded, inflammatory questions.
 
While Wallis did agree to the interview, what she did not agree to was the ambush that was about to take place on air. It was never announced by the show's producer or show beforehand that Sue would be joined on air by Pacelle, Pickens, and Fitch--all leaders of the radical anti-slaughter, anti-agriculture, anti-horse industry animal rights brigade.
 
Fitch, in particular, has waged a vicious, unprincipled and unrelenting campaign of libel and slander pointed personally at Wallis for years. At the point when Wallis realized his participation, she refused any further interaction and left the interview.
 
"There is no point in carrying on any sort of dialog with rabid radicals who have ulterior motives," says Wallis. “Animal rights radicals are not interested in helping horses; if they were, they would be doing what we are doing, and that is collaborating with the international horse world to ensure that all horses, regardless of their circumstances, are handled humanely. Instead, they choose to vilify and attack the honest, hard-working, horse industry families of the U.S. by stealing their opportunity to make a living with animals, and to use misleading emotional rhetoric to fund-raise for their six-figure salaries, and their multi-million dollar pension funds, while spending less than 1/2 of 1% of their ill-gotten gains to help a single dog, or cat, let alone a horse."
 
Please let your views be known by commenting here or calling their hotline at 877-428-8255. This host and her listeners need to hear from real horse people, from the tribes whose heritage and values are being co-opted without their support and against their interests by Pickens and her ilk.  Anyone in animal agriculture who is under assault from HSUS and anyone who respects common decency and the truth needs to stand up.