SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A published report says a veterinarian touted as being part of a council to guard against horse soring says he never agreed to serve and hasn’t had any dealings with the group.
Dallas O. Goble of Knoxville told The Tennessean (https://tnne.ws/1pQHQPn ) that while he was approached about joining the council, he declined the offer for “professional reasons.”
The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration announced in July that it had formed a veterinary advisory committee to be composed of Goble and veterinary doctors Jerry H. Johnson and Phillip D. Hammock.
Johnson said the group’s primary mission is to protect the horses and set a gold standard that he hopes will be utilized by the industry.
The veterinarians were in charge of overseeing inspections to guard against horse soring at the show in Shelbyville this week.
Critics say it’s a sign that the council’s purpose is more political in nature than for protecting horses. The panel is charged with looking for evidence of soring.
In response, the advisory committee’s spokesman Tom Blankenship told the newspaper that Goble was involved in developing protocols to find soring and said it wasn’t necessary for the vets to attend the event. He said blood samples and X-rays could be gathered by other people.
“They do not have to oversee objective testing,” Blankenship said.
Contacted a second time, Goble still denied any type of participation with the committee.
“I am not involved,” he said. “I haven’t been involved from the start.”
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Information from: The Tennessean, https://www.tennessean.com
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