On December 15, 2011, the American Horse Council (AHC) issued a news release publicizing its opposition to the Department of Labor’s (DOL) proposed child labor regulations concerning children working on farms because of its potential negative impacts on the horse community.
The AHC was organized in 1969 to represent the horse industry in Washington before Congress and the federal regulatory agencies. It is a non-profit corporation that represents all segments of the equine industry.
According to the AHC, the proposed rule would effectively bar minors under the age of 16 from working in most capacities in agriculture, especially around horses and other livestock.
On November 30, 2011, the AHC filed comments with the DOL expressing its concerns with the proposed rule. A link to the AHC’s full comments can be found here.
According to the AHC:
The proposed rule would expand the number and scope of Hazardous Occupation Orders (HOs) to such an extent that young people not working on a farm or ranch owned by their parents would be precluded from working in agriculture. The proposed rule would prohibit herding livestock on horseback or foot in confined spaces such as pens and corrals. Furthermore, the DOL would prohibited youth from engaging or assisting in almost all common animal husbandry practices, such as branding, breeding, dehorning, vaccinating, castrating livestock, or treating sick or injured animals including horses. All these activities combined represent a great deal of the work performed in association with livestock.”
The proposed DOL rule does include an exemption for children working on farms and ranches owned by their parents, but the AHC believes this exemption is too narrow in scope:
The AHC does not believe the proposed rule recognizes the reality that many family farms and ranches are held as LLCs or partnerships with other family members. We believe there is no reason to believe it has ever been the intent of Congress to excluded farms owned by two siblings or multiple generations of a family from the parental exemption. Doing so would impact thousands of family farms and ranches and unnecessarily deprive young people of the opportunity to work on a family farm or ranch and all the benefits associated with such work…”
Texas Farm Bureau has also recently published these blog posts featuring the concerns of family farmers who believe the proposed rule would rob many children of the valuable lessons that they could learn working in agriculture and around livestock:
DOL Could Change the Value of Hard Work
In an age where most kids in the United States spend most of their free time in front of a TV set, an I-Pad or a computer, it is hard for me to imagine that so many kids are getting hurt working on farms that a new federal law is required to protect them from “exploitation”. Do any of you readers know what the real motivation behind this proposed rule really is? Please feel free to leave your ideas in the comments section.
In next week’s post, I’ll cover the most significant legal developments of 2011 that affect Texas horse owners. I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and safe travels this weekend!