There are many irrational horse fears. Here are just a few:

FEAR: Horses spread Rabies. FACT: Horses can be and should be inoculated against Rabies. Only 5 or 6 species can be inoculated against rabies-humans, dogs, cats, ferrets, cattle and horses. Check your state and county statistics through the web site for Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Your local health department may also have rabies statistics. Horses are not a significant rabies vector. Bats, raccoons and other wild animals spread rabies; livestock such as cattle and sheep can be inoculated, but rarely are as the expense would be prohibitive. Some animals are inoculated "off-label" which means that the veterinarians think that the inoculation works, but that the vaccination has not been "approved." The point to make is that horses do not spread rabies; for an urban environment where horses come in contact with the public, it would be reasonable to require vaccination.

FEAR: Horses bring e coli. FACT: Horse manure is clean; it spreads no disease. Human excrement, dog poop and cat feces are infinitely dirtier. Barn workers, our children, veterinarians and riders do not come down with e coli unless they go to a restaurant with bad food. Improperly kept horse facilities can pollute, no doubt. Overflowing trash, roadside runoff, the fertilizers and pesticides we put on our lawns and pollute. However, we don't ban trash, roads, fertilizers, we regulate them. Horse people do not want to keep their horses in an unpleasant atmosphere because that is not good for horses or neighbors. To set requirements for proper composting bins, placement of dumpsters or periodic removal of manure from the facility is reasonable. Much horse manure is gleefully harvested for vineyards and nurseries and a host of other growing uses.

FEAR: Horses bring flies. FACT: Any outdoor activity brings flies. Visit your local campground, park and picnic area for proof. Stables work hard at controlling the fly population; researches have found products that horses eat to kill fly larvae; they can use organic means such as a certain type of non stinging wasp can be released around barns to keep the fly population low; in addition, the regime of every barn includes daily individual fly control. Compare such efforts to the regime for fly control waged at your local picnic area, fishing site, dog or cat kennel.

FEAR: Rats. FACT: The greatest attraction for rodents is the backyard bird feeder. Better the legislators ban bird feeders if they really want to make a dent in the rodent population. Horse people do not like rodents either. Every barn has organic rat catchers-cats. Every barn keeps its food supplies as inaccessible as possible for two reasons: a horse that gets into food and eats too much can die and, secondly, unwanted rodents who get into the food pollute it.

FEAR: Smell. FACT: Spreading fertilizer on crops smells; perhaps we should ban that. Elementary Schools at the end of the day smell; gasoline pumps smell; people can absolutely stink; buses and diesel engines smell; freshly stacked firewood smells, garlic and onions smell. Which of these "smells" is dangerous to our health? Are we going to legislate preference? I like the smell of a barn and leather. I hate the smell of new plastic, heavy perfume and ammonia. Nobody is advocating we tolerate a stinky barn; we are saying that nature has natural smells. A dry barn does smell like horses inside. I love that smell. Outside, it does not have an odor at all.

FEAR: Horses are a nuisance. FACT: Horses make good neighbors. They don't have late night parties, their teen-age children don't roar up and down the street with loud mufflers or motorcycles and they don't bark when their owners aren't home. People with horses are taking care of them; they and their children have little time to loiter, to do drugs, to vandalize. Horses do not require us to pay increased taxes to educate them, register them to vote or to subsidize their medical care. They do not require air conditioning or oil heat.

FEAR: Horses decrease property values. FACT: Horses increase the property values across neighborhoods. They are a quality of life issue that holds back the flood of urbanites who want to pave and edge their entire property; plant exotic and non native species in their overly landscaped yards and run their chlorine fed pool pumps all day long. Dare anyone to watch a day of TV commercials or look through a national magazine without seeing horses linked to a healthy and meaningful life.

FEAR: Horses are dangerous. FACT: Horses are vegetarians. Horses do not attack anything, as they themselves are the prey animals. Dogs can attack, cats can attack, humans can attack, raccoons can attack, and parrots can attack. Horses run away from danger.

FEAR: Horses spread West Nile disease. FACT: Horses, just like humans, are dead end hosts. They can get the disease but they cannot spread it. Mosquitoes spread West Nile; infected birds spread the disease from region to region. Refer them to the Centers for Disease Control web site.

Once you begin to think and present logically by providing scientific information to calm unwarranted fears, you make it easier for the administrator or public official to make a judgment in your favor. You want to present yourself and your group as fellow concerned citizens (who vote!) who understand the difficulty of making informed judgments. If the decisions don't go your way in one hearing, be sure to follow up by meeting with the individual politicians and administrators. Rules and regulations are rarely written in stone and persistence can make considerable headway. Also look at state law that might supersede a local legislation. Your local board of town leaders may not know that the regulations they are proposing are actually subsumed under a state or federal law on the books. Each of us has to be aware and willing to make the effort to speak up to conserve a historic and healthy way of life.

Excerpted from:
EnivroHorse Public Issue Paper: Fears and Facts The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling! Or How to Deal with Foolish Fears about Horses By Cyla Allison, Ph.D.