Tell Congress: Cut Spending on Programs that Harm Animals

The U.S. House of Representatives this week is considering the Continuing Resolution (CR) for Fiscal Year 2011—a massive bill to fund the operations of the federal government. With the federal deficit growing, and on the minds of so many lawmakers, it is expected that more than 500 amendments to the bill will be offered to cut federal spending. We are hopeful that some of them will seek to cut spending for federal programs that are harmful to animals.

Wild horses belong on the range, not in holding facilities.
Kayla Grams/The HSUS

I wrote back in December about some ideas for spending cuts that could save tax dollars and save animals at the same time. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services Program, for example, is spending millions of dollars exterminating wildlife on behalf of the private livestock industry. And the Bureau of Land Management is spending millions to round up wild horses from public lands in the West and care for them in long-term holding pens. These are the old ways of doing things, and there are better options that are less costly, more effective, and more humane. Then, too, we need to rein in the billion-dollar bailouts for the largest factory farms, and stop subsidizing the worst abuses in agribusiness.

Please call your U.S. Representative today at (202) 225-3121, and ask him or her to “support amendments to the CR that cut spending on programs that harm animals.” We can do better for animals, and better for the bottom line.