Public Policy (Legal/Legislative)
Ag-Gag Bills Bite the Dust
As our society makes continuing progress on animal welfare, exposing cruelty and creating social, corporate and public policy standards, there’s an inevitable backlash from the industries that want to continue to do things just the same as always. I’ve written about the funded brand attack . . .
Steve King on Mules – and Pigs and Puppies
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, is again in the news for embarrassing, offensive statements – this time for his rants about immigrants and immigration policy. He told an Iowa radio show host that undocumented immigrant children are often drug mules who carry illegal substances across the . . .
Turn Up the Heat
I know it’s plenty hot in these dog days of summer, but we need to turn up the heat even more in our fight to ensure that the King amendment isn’t part of a final Farm Bill or any other legislation that may end up . . .
One Step Forward, One Big Step Back in Congress
Today, there was a positive step forward on Capitol Hill in the effort to get laboratory chimps to sanctuaries, but there was a setback in the House with the passage of a highly partisan, retrograde Farm Bill that could set back state policies on animal . . .
The Maine Event for Bears
Last year members of The HSUS and other animal welfare and environmental organizations convinced state lawmakers in California to pass legislation to ban hound hunting of bears. It’s been a major issue in Maine as well, and this year, our allies in the Maine legislature . . .
The Repercussions of Callousness, Carelessness, and Cruelty
I often say there are bad outcomes all around when humans are bad to animals. When we at The HSUS work with law enforcement on raids of dogfights and cockfights, we often find other criminal behavior is taking place in these situations, like narcotics trafficking . . .
Animal Welfare May Take Center Stage As House Takes Up Farm Bill
On Friday, the California-based Santa Rosa Press Democrat published an editorial calling out the hypocrisy of the Farm Bill amendment introduced by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, “who will enthusiastically tell you that Washington meddles too much in state and local affairs. Until he disagrees with . . .
Domestic, International Progress on Shark Finning
Earlier this month, the European Union agreed to tighten an existing ban on shark finning, the practice of cutting off a shark’s fins while the animal is still alive, and then throwing the shark overboard to die. Once the change comes into effect, the ban . . .
Inspector General, Smithfield Make News on Pig Production
Yesterday’s news that a massive Chinese meat producer, Shuanghai, has agreed to pay $4.7 billion to acquire American pork giant Smithfield Foods was a jarring reminder of the trend toward an increasingly centralized global trade in farm animals. While demand for meat in the U.S. . . .
Tenn. Ag-Gag Bill Vetoed – But King Amendment Looms in Congress
NEWS ALERT: This morning, Governor Bill Haslam of Tennessee vetoed the legislature’s proposed ag-gag bill, squelching the only state anti-whistleblower measure that made it to a governor’s desk this year. See our full statement on this major outcome for our cause – preserving our right . . .
Tennessee Walking Horse Barn Raided, Trainer Charged
The more light that’s shed on the “Big Lick” faction of the Tennessee walking horse industry, the clearer it becomes that Congress must upgrade the original language in the Horse Protection Act to deter the criminal abuse that is inflicted on the horses involved, and . . .
Ellen Speaks Out on Ag-Gag Bills
For weeks, my colleagues and I have been sounding the alarm about a spreading threat to the animal protection movement nationwide and, more broadly, to transparency and free speech in our society – the introduction by state lawmakers of anti-whistleblower, or so-called ag-gag bills, in . . .
