SOURCE: PPJ Gazette
By Debbie Coffey Copyright 2013 All Rights Reserved.
At a time when so many horses are being sent to slaughter, who are the two men who have filed an antitrust lawsuit against the American Quarter Horse Association to force it to allow cloned horses to be registered?
(photo – Amarillo Globe News)
Dr. Gregg Veneklasen and Jason Abraham
Rancher Jason Abraham of Canadian, Texas, and Amarillo veterinarian Gregg Veneklasen, who owns the Timber Creek Veterinary Hospital in Canyon, Texas, aren’t just a couple of cowboys, they’re both major partners with animal cloning company ViaGen.
Here is a shocking fact:
“ViaGen Inc. has had a field office in Canada since 2007. When the United States closed the doors to their equine slaughterhouses, the company moved north to Canada, as the cloning process requires equine ovaries (a by-product of slaughter horses).
To take advantage of the Fort Macleod, Alberta horse processing plant, ViaGen Inc. created their cloning laboratory, in nearby Lethbridge. Mares sent to slaughter at this plant are used in the cloning process for their ovaries and oocytes (unfertilized eggs). Their cells are then used by the company’s lab to host the DNA from the animal intended to be cloned. The Canadian slaughter horse market provides a continual supply of eggs to be used for Viagen, Inc.” (Jan/Feb 2012 Western Horse Review.com)
Bouvry Exports in Fort MacLeod, Alberta is the largest horse slaughterhouse in North America. In 2010, the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition made a complaint after a secretly recorded video was sent to them showing horses at the Fort Macleod slaughterhouse being shot and then hoisted away by their legs while still fully conscious. Animals Angels has also done an investigation of this slaughterhouse. Many of these slaughtered horses may have included our wild horses.
ViaGen has been actively cloning horses for years. ViaGen even has a “where are they now” video:
Abraham, Veneklasen and Austin-based ViaGen, which owns the patents to its horse cloning technology, will make buckets of money if they win in court. Abraham has a contract that will grant him 10% of ViaGen’s royalties for cloned horses, if the plaintiffs win their case.
Jason Abraham has also been partnering with animal cloning company ViaGen and Texas A & M to create cloned calves, to develop a line of cattle that will potentially produce higher value carcasses that reach USDA’s highest grade for carcass quality and yield grade in a shorter amount of time using less feed resources.
If horse slaughter is approved, offspring of cloned horses could end up in the food chain, too.
It’s important to note that Dr. Gus Cothran, and all of the DNA from our wild horses, are also at Texas A & M.
Jason Abraham, Gregg Veneklasen, and four-time world champ saddle bronc champ Clint Johnson are breeding cloned horses to use in rodeos.
JASON ABRAHAM
Jason Abraham is the owner of horse breeding company Abraham Equine, Inc. in Canadian, Texas, and also leases mares through Veneklasen’s Timber Creek Veterinary Hospital.
Jason Abraham has 2 brothers, Salem and Eddie. Salem is the owner of the Abraham Trading Co. in Canadian, Texas. This is a $300 million hedge fund firm that buys and sells futures contracts in 60 markets around the world. This includes commodities futures in meats (feeder cattle and live cattle). T. Boone Pickens is a longtime family friend, and even tried to interest Salem in a water deal. Eddie is ranch manager.
Jason Abraham is also a Board member of the Working Ranch Cowboys Association, and is listed as a Director of Short A Farm & Ranch Supply.
GREGG VENEKLASEN
Gregg Veneklasen has said that his Timber Creek Veterinary Hospital in Canyon, Texas, in partnership with ViaGen, produces the most horse clones in the world.
In a quarterhorsenews.com article in 2010, Veneklasen said “Sixty will be born this year at the hospital, in all varieties of horse. Texas A&M produces a horse a year.”
Veneklasen and son Andy with cloned horse, Lynx Melody Too
The Cogdell family of Tulia, Texas, gave Lynx Melody to Veneklasen a few weeks before she died in 2004. Veneklasen cloned Lynx Melody and now has Lynx Melody Too, foaled in 2007. She made medical history because it was the first time a horse had been cloned successfully after its death, and at 29, she was the oldest horse to be cloned.
Veneklasen cloned top cutting horse producer The Smart Look for Strawn Valley Ranch of Strawn, Texas. The Smart Look clone was foaled in 2009. (For background stories on the clones and the cloning industry, see the July 1, 2008, and July 15, 2009, issues of Quarter Horse News.)
Lindy Burch of Weatherford, Texas, also owns a Veneklasen-created cutting horse.
Each horse clone costs $165,000, making the purchase something only some stock contractors can afford.
CLONING & GROWTH DEFECTS
The U.K.’s Roslin Institute developed the research resulting in the birth of the first cloned mammal, Dolly the Sheep, but no longer undertakes research related to cloning of animals. The Roslin Institute acknowledged that cloned animals have, in some cases, displayed growth defects.
The Center for Food Safety reached similar conclusions about growth defects in cloned animals in its report “Not Ready for Prime Time,” about the FDA’s flawed approach to assessing the safety of food from animal clones.
There are many ethical issues surrounding cloned animals, but one of the biggest ones is the fact that ViaGen buys the ovaries and eggs of mares being sent to a cruel slaughter (supposedly because there are too many “unwanted horses”) and then uses the DNA and eggs of the slaughtered horses to clone new horses.
http://www.rdbullhorses.com.au/files/pages/media/WHR_Cloning_Article_JanFeb12.pdf
http://defendhorsescanada.org/Canadians%20on%20Horse%20Slaughter.pdf
http://www.viagen.com/benefits/equine/
http://www.wtamu.edu/news/wtamu-marks-historic-scientific-accomplishment-with-cloned-calves.aspx
http://vetmed.tamu.edu/directorydetail?UserID=255
http://gazette.com/the-future-is-closing-in-on-rodeo/article/102080
http://www.manta.com/c/mm6gndn/abraham-equine
http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Jason-Abraham/583554719
http://timbercreekveterinaryhospital.com/Forms/MareLease2012.pdf
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aO_Izoc1yrtw
http://www.abrahamtrading.com/downloads/AH26-30.pdf
http://www.altavra.com/managedfutures/develop/advisors/abrahamtrading.htm
http://www.whitetaildeerfarmer.com/AIServices.htm
http://www.manta.com/c/mtm4rrr/abraham-equine-inc
http://www.corporationwiki.com/Texas/Canadian/short-a-farm-and-ranch-supply-inc/33355404.aspx
http://abrahamtrading.com/letters
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/final_formattedprime-time_20278.pdf
Related Articles
- Court battle looms over Quarter Horse cloning (horsetalk.co.nz)
- Horse cloners try to force their way into the starting gate (investigations.nbcnews.com)
- Multimillion-dollar legal battle over quarter horse cloning begins (amarillo.com)
- Horse cloners try to force their way into the starting gate (investigations.nbcnews.com)
Categories: Horse News, Horse Slaughter, Wild Burros, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Makes no sense. But money is involved. Can only hope they go broke trying.
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Some people will make a lot of money. Troy Adams, who owns Broken Arrow, the BLM wild horse facility in Fallon, NV (also called the Indian Lakes Road facility), has cloned cattle with animal cloning company Bovance.
http://ppjg.me/2010/04/02/slaughterhouse-sue-wallace-conrad-burnsviagen-and-the-blm-the-people-behind-the-slaughter-of-nevadas-mustangs/
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More despicable AQHA people with no regard for horses, only making money.
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I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Lots of stand alone facts that are connnected somehow to the wild horses? I guess the point is, horses are being sent t slaughter because there are too many and yet someone wants to clone the more expensive ones?
And reproductive materials are being collected from the slaughtered horses for use as hosts? Are you implying Dr Cothran’s work is involved?
I wonder when the repro materials are collected? Seems like the animal would have to be alive.
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Jan, the University of Georgia cloned a calf from the cells of a dead cow.
http://www.viagen.com/news/scientists-clone-calf-from-cells-of-slaughtered-cow/
I was simply noting that the wild horse DNA, and Dr. Cothran, are at Texas A&M.
I was not implying anything. However, that being said, we don’t know how
secure the area is where the wild horse DNA is being kept, or who has access
to it (lab assistants, associates, etc.).
Yes, the point of the article is that supposedly, “unwanted” horses are being sent to slaughter, at the same time that horse cloning is being pushed.
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How can a cloned horse have different markings than the horse it is a clone of?
This is disgusting and senseless.
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Even natural twins can look slightly different. From what I’ve read, it seems that clones are genetically identical, even though they don’t look exactly the same as the original animal.
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This really makes me sick. People playing creator roles that are unnatural and potentially harmful. The fact that they must support horse slaughter in order to achieve this also makes it an instant deal breaker. Think about it once. Why would you want to omit the diversity of the gene pool that made horses what they are today? The horses being cloned have all the genes from that line of horses in them which is what it took to make them that particular horse. It’s that diversity that made them and natural breeding will continue to add to that lineage. As I understand it, there are no long-term studies to show any irregularities and potentially harmful consequences in cloning horses but it was suggested that there had been growth issues with other species. That, along with this whole unnatural process of creating life, is definitely not something I encourage nor support!
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It seems the studies by cloning companies were skewed – they did them when the animals
were young, before they developed some of the problems. The FDA used the cloning companies’
studies, not independent studies.
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Just like anything else – full speed ahead before any research or study. Look at nuclear power – fracking – any “progress”. Jump right into it without a second thought. Why in the world would they want independent studies? Just take the cloning companies word for it? There is no troubling little thought that this might be creating more inhumanity towards these animals.
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There has been a long-time cloning study going on at Colo. State Univ. Equine studies division.
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So disgusting!!!
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Ok folks this article says it ALL. They just announced greed in its purest form. Not one mention of genetics being viable through history-not one mention of the passing of the genetic code for improvement of the breeds, not one mention of the preservation of the animals that people revered or loved. But written ALL over it are WE ARE GREEDY CATTLE PEOPLE with a desire to LEGALLY overpopulate the overrun worn out and tired horse industry with our not yet proven genetically perfect samples to feed people because they wont have drugs in them. If they couldn’t do it with sheep, then why horses, and why do these science expiriments have to take place in a foreign country? Because America saw this for what it is, another ghastly issue that will have long-term side-effects on our horse industry with devasting consequences. When we selective breed we are using a compilation of nature’s best, we are not just looking at one specific model, why would 1000 people want to be purchasing the exact same animals, say a bunch of people come up with the money for the purchase and then they are competing in the exact same field with the exact same horse for the exact same prize? NNNN! This is like Frankenstein. I am really peeved off at AQHA but for the ONE time they are to stand against something I hope they win the case not to have cloned horses registered. That is one blunder that will complicate history like nothing else, the AQHA is a genetic road map, a course through history and if the horses are given the ability to be registered then they will have identical genetic histories which will then destroy the data base once packed full of cloned animals. As for the rodeo horses being cloned, really? We have enough rough riding, bucking, useless horses that kill buyers say have to go, yet RODEOs are using cloned horses because they “NEED” them so when there are 160,000 wild and untrainable horses do they have to purchase high dollar cloned animals? Taking the fun out of rodeo’s and then another meat on the market not tested to make sure we will be safe, without the drugs, what about the mutations they don’t check for or abnormalities that they cannot visually check for? And Further more if they are SO very expensive in the first place then how can they afford to slaughter them unless they know they are sending the ones that are NOT turning out as planned? I am really worried, because there are a lot of horse related scams out there.
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If they’re seeing outward (phenotypic) differences in cloned animals, then that may indicate genetic (genotypic) mutations – also, its a well-known fact that harmful, carcinogenic substances & chemicals like the ones horses are subjected to over their lifetimes can cause genetic mutations & be passed along in their DNA – then that indicates that the chemicals can alter DNA & still be “tainted” & unfit for consumption. Another battle worth fighting – I still can’t understand why its the Horse that’s being so viciously targeted!
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Thanks for finding this article. I thought the AQHA was behind this venture and was surprised to see that out was fighting it in court. Is there no end to the greed of man? To many horses yet the want to clone more horses….WTF! Each member in Congress needs a copy of this article. Maybe they’ll ask themselves who is lying and where the truth is. And knowing that the cattlemen are behind this only shows why we are fighting horse slaughter and who we are actually fighting.
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Terri, I wrote this article. And sometimes it doesn’t seem like there is an end to the greed
and lack of ethics. But then there are people like you and others who read this blog and work
very hard to try to save the wild horses and to right wrongs. So don’t give up hope.
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I know from some of the science articles that I read a number of years ago when the cloning was just getting started most of the cloned animals died at birth or were aborted. Ten would die to one that survived. They were using horses then along with cattle and goats. One thing that I understand was going on at the time was the fact that the newborn cloned animal was genetically the same age as the adult that contributed the material that was used in the cloning process. So unless they figured out a way around this these animals would have a shorter lifespan than a normal animal. This is one of the reasons that cloning of humans has never got off the ground.
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As I just said when sharing this on my FB page, this is without a doubt the most morally bankrupt scheme to make money I have EVER witnessed. All excellent comments/thoughts above from Cynthia. Let’s hope the AQHA does prevail on this one. Frankenstein indeed!
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I believe AQHA as many breeds, barring The Jockey Club allows IVF.
Cloning is just the next step.
I’m thrilled AQHA has to spend MEMBER’S MONEY to stop cloning in litigation….they should have thought of that when they allowed IVF. And in theory, if the clone is of a deceased but already registered AQHA equine…why not? Playing devil’s advocate here folks.
I DESPISE the AQHA….Dr Tom Lenz is/was a big mouth piece for them and specializes in reproduction/IVF, professor at TX A&M and was a past president of AVMA/AAEP supporting the virtues and value and humaneness of HCHS. He is evil.
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In the air tonight by phil collins came on the radio. I think that song sums it up.
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Agony. That is what I feel. This world is all about the money & it seems to be the most attractive to the most devious among us. Between their ruthlessness & the large number of people that chose to live oblivious to what is happening around them I feel terrified at what our future holds. This earth belongs to all of us but only the wealthiest are treating it as they please. The rest of us are left to fight them to attempt to protect our earth & every life form that they will exploit for money.
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It was a lot of material to work with and I am just disgusted with the draconian usery. I hate to even bring this up, but horses are used in stem cell research. One of the reasons UC Davis won the research project was its access to horses.
Horses are used as laboratory animals. My heart sinkls everytime a gather report stateS how many stallions have been sent to Delta. Many wild horses have lost their lives in reproductive research.
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Thanks Deb. You brought a ton of info, I also forgot Adams was in the cloning business.
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Sounds to me like we have another fight on our hands! This is not right!
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The sport horse world wants their favorite athletic horses to be cloned. I think this is something the 1% will be looking at. This is still an ethical mess. I don’t personally believe the world is ready for this or in any need of it. Registries will fight but in the long run, I believe, they will give in.
We have been eating GMO pork and black angus for years. I recommend organic companies near you for your food.
Monsanto just bought a Bee Research Company! Do they want a Monsanto Resistant Bee? Science is being used and abused. The Earth is assailed by greed.
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This gives me the creeps!
This is so wrong! So unnatural!
What an abomination to clone horses.
This is treating them like mere objects, not the
living, breathing, sensitive and conscious unique beings they in fact are!
This must stop now. I is a disgrace to humanity and a grievous insult to horsekind!
I mention this threat in my book The Wild Horse Conspiracy and possible link with Broken Arrow holding facility. (Book available on amazon in print or as eBook.)
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Craig, thanks for putting excerpts from my articles about cloning and the Broken Arrow holding facility in your book!
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Reblogged this on angelfarm.
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She rejected Abraham and Veneklasen’s argument in the motion that the association was attempting to monopolize the market by excluding cloned horses.
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Just what we need more horses to save from horse slaughter. I say ban cloning or make them pay 1 million dollars for each horse clone to the American people who tax money will soon be used for USDA inspection on horse meat that we don’t eat for a select few want to line their pocket without having to worry about the horses they breed… CLONING HAS NO ROOM IN THE USA….
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