They’re Lying To You. Again.
So let me get this straight. You see the headlines. A “short shutdown” in Oregon. “Concern” in Texas. Officials are “tracking” a growing outbreak. They throw around acronyms like EHV-1 and sound very serious and official, as if they have it all under control. They have nothing under control. What you are witnessing is not a measured response. It is a pathetic, knee-jerk scramble by a bureaucracy that has been caught with its pants down, a system so bloated and reactive it couldn’t stop a tidal wave if you gave it a week’s notice and a map. This isn’t just about a horse virus. This is a symptom of the rot.
They tell you it’s Equine Herpesvirus. What they don’t scream from the rooftops is that this is a neurological plague that turns magnificent, powerful animals into shivering, stumbling wrecks before it kills them. It attacks their very brain. Their spine. And the people in charge, the Oregon and Texas Departments of Agriculture, what’s their big, bold plan? A “Temporary A” whatever the hell that is, and some safety measures at an expo. A single expo. That’s their plan. That’s it. It is a single drop of water on a raging inferno, an insult to the intelligence of every horse owner, every rancher, every person who can see the smoke billowing over the horizon. They are not protecting you. They are managing their public relations.
The Real Culprits: Greed and Incompetence
And let’s be brutally honest about how we got here. Because this wasn’t some act of God that fell from the sky. No. This was manufactured. It was created by an industry drunk on money and prestige, an endless circuit of horse shows, rodeos, and competitions that ships animals from Florida to California to Washington to Texas, cramming them into trailers and stalls, stressing their immune systems to the breaking point. This virus, this herpesvirus, is a monster that awakens under stress. And the modern equestrian industry is a non-stop, high-pressure stress machine. They created the perfect incubator for a plague. For profit. For shiny buckles and blue ribbons.
But the government agencies, the ones paid by your tax dollars to protect agriculture and livestock, where were they? They were asleep at the wheel. They knew this was a risk. They’ve known for decades. EHV-1 is not new. But instead of implementing tough, mandatory, nationwide biosecurity protocols for all interstate animal transport, they opted for a patchwork of toothless state-by-state suggestions. Why? Because it’s hard. Because it would upset the big-money event organizers. Because it would require actual work, actual enforcement, instead of just issuing press releases when things inevitably go to hell. They chose convenience over safety. They chose to appease the industry instead of protecting the animals and the livelihoods of the people who own them. This is a catastrophic failure of oversight. A dereliction of duty on a massive scale.
This Is Just The Beginning
Do you honestly believe this will stay contained in Oregon and Texas? Do you believe the flimsy “measures” they’re putting in place now will do anything at all? That horse has already left the barn, and it’s carrying a neurological time bomb. Because of the way this industry works, horses that were exposed last week in Texas could be in Ohio tomorrow, and Colorado the day after. Every stop they make, every nose they touch, every water bucket they share is a new infection vector. The bureaucrats say they’re “raising the alarm,” but they’re the ones who disabled the smoke detectors and left the matches out in the first place. Their concern is fake. It’s too late.
And what’s the long-term prognosis here? Let me paint you a picture. The outbreak spreads. More states report cases. The national media finally picks it up, causing widespread panic. The federal government will eventually, clumsily, step in. They’ll issue some sweeping mandate, likely shutting down all equine movement for months, punishing the small-time family with three horses just as much as the massive commercial operation that caused the problem. Livelihoods will be destroyed. The very fabric of the rural horse community will be torn apart. And who will get the bailout? Not you. The massive expo centers will get a government check. The big-name breeding operations will get subsidies. But the average horse owner, the rancher, the rodeo cowboy? They’ll be left holding the bag, with a sick or dead animal and a pile of vet bills. It is the same story, over and over again. The system is designed to protect itself and its wealthiest players, not the people on the ground.
A Warning We Can’t Ignore
This isn’t just a horse story. This is a fire drill for the next human pandemic. It is a perfect case study in how our authorities fail us in a crisis. First, they ignore the warnings for years. Then, when the disaster hits, their response is slow, localized, and completely inadequate. They focus on optics instead of containment. They lie and downplay the severity to prevent “panic,” which only allows the problem to fester and grow exponentially. We’ve seen this script before. We are living through it right now in so many other ways. The EHV-1 outbreak is just another glaring, flashing warning sign that the people in charge are not equipped, and perhaps not even willing, to protect us from foreseeable threats.
So don’t listen to their calm, reassuring tones. Don’t be placated by their press conferences and their flimsy “shutdowns.” Get angry. You should be furious. Your animals are at risk because of a broken, corrupt system that values money over health and safety. It’s time to stop trusting them. It’s time to realize you’re on your own. Lock down your own barns. Isolate your own animals. Build your own biosecurity walls, because the government’s have already crumbled. They are not coming to save you. They never were.
