Michael Markarian: Animals & Politics

Crippled Cows Need Protection at Every Step of their Journey

The Humane Society of the United States yesterday released the next wave of its groundbreaking investigation into rampant mistreatment of sick and crippled cows. Last time, the downed animals were tormented and processed at a California slaughter plant for the National School Lunch Program. But now, there is evidence that animals are too weak to stand up or walk at earlier points in the process: the livestock auctions and half-way stops between farm and slaughter. 

Since the Hallmark/Westland case broke in January, there have been eight congressional hearings on downed animals and food safety issues, more than 150 million pounds of meat recalled, and two new bills introduced to address the abuses. Now, congressional reaction once again has been swift in response to the problems found at livestock auctions in Maryland, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Texas. 

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer urging the agency to conduct an industry-wide investigation into the animal cruelty at auctions and stockyards. “This is further evidence that oversight to ensure the humane treatment of animals destined for our food supply is inadequate,” she said. “Food animals should never be subject to the kind of horrible acts as witnessed in these videos and reported by concerned citizens.” Sen. Feinstein previously introduced legislation to provide more meaningful penalties for facilities that slaughter downed animals.

The chairwoman of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., also weighed in strongly. “Given the continued revelations about the abuse of downer cows—this time in our livestock auctions and stockyards—it is clear that this is a systemic problem. Unfortunately, preventing animal cruelty, and preventing animals at greater risk for food-borne illnesses from entering the food supply, does not appear to be a USDA priority.” Rep. DeLauro is the author of the Food Safety Recall Information Act, which would further address the problems highlighted by the downed animal investigation and beef recall.

And the co-author of the Farm Animal Stewardship Purchasing Act, Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., called for further protections for farm animals. “The humane treatment of animals speaks to our nation’s core values, and this cruelty reflects poorly on our country as a whole,” he said. “Our government can have a tremendous impact in encouraging improved treatment of animals by requiring producers to meet basic federal animal welfare requirements.”

The Humane Society Legislative Fund is grateful to these legislative leaders for speaking out. In fact, it’s not the first time lawmakers have asked USDA to look into this very problem. In the 2002 Farm Bill, Congress directed the USDA to investigate the question of downed animals at livestock auctions and markets—including the scope of problems, the causes, and the resulting cruel treatment of animals—and to follow up with “regulations to provide for the humane treatment, handling, and disposition of nonambulatory livestock by stockyards, market agencies, and dealers.”

Now that Congress is wrapping up another Farm Bill six years later, further action is needed to address these cruelties that have come to light. While the USDA has a presence at slaughter plants, no one is watching or taking responsibility for the animals at auctions before they are sent to slaughter. These animals fall into regulatory limbo, and we need to do better as a country to protect animal welfare and food safety.

Hunting Industry Group Sets its Sights on Pets

The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance takes aim at animals when they’re most vulnerable. Polar bears in the Arctic, as their ice floes are vanishing, body weights are declining, and populations are dwindling. Mourning doves in states where they’ve been protected for decades as backyard songbirds, still nursing their young during September target practice. Endangered antelope stocked in fenced pens for captive trophy hunts, where they have neither the opportunity nor the inclination to escape.

But now this Ohio-based trade association for weapons manufacturers has stooped to a new low.  By firing with its blunderbuss, the group is going to wind up with dogs and cats in its trophy case—just when these abandoned pets need our help the most.

The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance has declared that your community should not join hands to help hundreds, maybe thousands, of pets impacted by the foreclosure crisis. Moreover, a kind-hearted business that saw fit to try and assist has to be blackballed to drive home the point.

You think I’m kidding?

What we have here, friends, is a brand-new Boone and Crockett record in the department of loony thinking.

The facts are that The Humane Society of the United States, after hearing of the increasing needs from animal shelters and rescue group volunteers around the nation, started an emergency fund to help the animal victims of housing foreclosures. What do dogs and cats know about investment bubbles anyway?

Specifically, the fund is designed to help animal shelters and rescue groups from coast to coast that are feeling the worsening pressure of more abandoned pets. Understanding the nature of this tragedy, many businesses and kind-hearted individuals have reached into their wallets to assist. The HSUS is acting as a clearing house for these funds.

In the Midwest, the Meijer chain of regional stores agreed to chip in up to $5,000—$1 for each customer who entered the company’s pet photo contest on its website. Thank you, Meijer.

Then this fringe group claiming to represent hunters enters the picture. Because The HSUS and Humane Society Legislative Fund oppose such things as shooting captive, hand-fed animals in fenced enclosures for guaranteed trophies, the sportsmen’s alliance finds itself opposing anything that The HSUS and HSLF support. Even to the extreme. Even to the point of dooming dogs and cats to suffer.

How do these people sleep at night, you might wonder.

Sadly, Meijer succumbed to the extremism of this demand. No more will the company help shelters in this crisis.

As Wayne Pacelle wrote in his blog today, “Let’s not let them get away with this.” People of conscience can teach the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance a lesson, by donating to support The HSUS’s Foreclosure Pets Fund, and also donating to support HSLF's work to pass animal protection laws in Congress and in state legislatures.

Whether you are a hunter, or a wildlife watcher, or a pet lover, or a solid citizen down the block, you can join us in deploring the tunnel vision of an industry trade group that cannot lift its eyes high enough to see the real target. This is not a fight about hunting. This is a matter of kindness in a crisis, yes or no? The housing mess is claiming animal victims. Do you care?

The truth of the political landscape is that The HSUS and HSLF frequently partner with hunters, and sensible hunting groups, when our interests converge. And this occurs more often than some people recognize—on legislation to ban Internet hunting and captive hunts, to restore the prohibition on importing polar bear trophies, to protect habitat from development, to fight the effects of global warming that will threaten all wildlife, and to crack down on poaching by barring the commerce in bear bile and gall bladders.

Many hunters recognize that they are part of an evolving society. As their numbers diminish, their standing in our culture can only be jeopardized by the absurd, mindless radicalism expressed by the so-called sportsmen’s alliance.

This murky group claims, in its mission statement, to be seeking “public support” for “stewardship” in the name of “heritage.”

Those are big words. Too bad they are spoken by people with such small thoughts.

Next time the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance defends the worst abuses of the hunting industry—practices that many rank-and-file hunters agree are inhumane and unacceptable—remember that this is the group that wanted to abandon the dog and cat victims of foreclosure to suffer.

To them, let me recall the grand challenge posed by Winston Churchill long ago: You do your worst and we’ll do our best.

Play Misty for Me

The nationally syndicated comic strip MUTTS is read in more than 700 newspapers, and fans know that artist Patrick McDonnell turns his attention not only to humor, but also to the cruelties and challenges that face animals. He regularly features the stories of animals in shelters, and his new hardcover book, “Shelter Stories: Love. Guaranteed.,” celebrates these pets and the people who’ve rescued them.

The two cats who’ve shared my life for fourteen years, Georgia and Oliver, didn’t come from a shelter, but they were rescued from the mean streets of suburban Washington, D.C. When I was married years later, our blended family included two more cats, Mario and Misty, both of whom my wife, Grace, had adopted from a local animal shelter. I’m proud to say that Misty’s photo was chosen from among thousands of entries to appear in “Shelter Stories” with 70 candid photos of adopted cats, dogs, bunnies, guinea pigs, ferrets, birds, and other pets.

Every adopted animal has a story to tell, but Misty’s story, as told to me by Grace, is especially touching. In 1994, a woman drove down a busy road in Arlington, Va., and glanced at what she initially thought was a splash of black paint against the curb. Then she noticed the paint splash had two pointy ears. An animal lover, she pulled over, backtracked, and discovered a very small, terrified, black, female kitty cowering against the curb, trying to make herself as small as possible.

The Good Samaritan scooped up the cat and promptly took her to the Animal Welfare League of Arlington, which was just down the road. The whole way there, the kitty stayed balled up against the woman’s chest, shaking slightly. The folks at AWLA took the kitty in and gave her an initial exam. She was running a fever and was still terrified, but otherwise appeared to be healthy. She was slightly underweight, but the shorter fur around her neck indicated that she used to have a collar and was probably, until recently, someone’s pet and had not been outside for very long. It was hard to tell her age because of her small size, but they guessed she was around three years old. She was put up for adoption at the shelter.

Grace heard the story from Sara Amundson, now executive director of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, who knew the cat’s rescuer. Her heart went out to the poor kitty, so scared and abandoned, trying to squeeze herself safely out of traffic, and she had to meet her. She visited the shelter that weekend, and the kitty did not initially put her best face forward, instead cowering and balling herself up. When Grace held her in the visiting room, the cat went limp and just looked so defeated. But gradually the kitty started to respond and purr, and Grace knew she had to take the black cat home.

She couldn’t leave the shelter, though, without visiting all the other cats, and she ended up adopting another one, too—an energetic, six-month-old, male, grey tabby (who was known as “Taz” at the shelter, short for Tasmanian Devil). Grace thought the extroverted grey kitty would help the introverted black kitty come out of her shell. A good plan, in theory, but it was not as simple as that. Cats are complex and have their own views of the world. But, eventually, they struck some kind of kitty peace treaty and embarked on a long journey of ignoring each other.

Taz was renamed Mario, and the black kitty was named Misty. Ironically, Misty’s appearance in “Shelter Stories” is not her first brush with comic strip fame. Her name is short for “Mister Peterson,” a stick-kitty character in a comic strip called “Jim’s Journal.” Misty is still pretty shy, and she hasn’t really warmed up to anyone except Grace. She tolerates me from time to time, when I am closest to the kitchen and can give her corn or green beans.

Misty is one of a kind, and she found her person—but there are millions like her waiting for love at animal shelters across the country. Pick up a copy of “Shelter Stories” and celebrate the lucky animals who’ve been given a second chance. And support your local animal shelter, where the caring workers, rescuers, and volunteers are saving all the Mistys of the world. One of them might just be waiting for you.

A Perfect Storm for Farm Animals

It’s been an exciting week for farm animal protection in America. On Sunday, more than one thousand animal advocates in 43 states gathered at our Party Animals events around the country to rally for laws to protect animals from the worst abuses of industrial factory farming. I participated in a nationwide conference call with partygoers to talk about the Humane Society Legislative Fund’s work to promote farm animal welfare, and I was joined on the call by the fantastic U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who is a stalwart advocate for animals in Congress. She is the chairwoman of the important House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, and has been one of the leading voices for passing the Downed Animal and Food Safety Protection Act, the Food Safety Recall Information Act, and other important policy reforms.

Congresswoman DeLauro spoke eloquently about the “perfect storm” surrounding The Humane Society of the United States’ recent investigation into the slaughter of crippled cows, and how it “crystallized the inhumane treatment of animals, the violation of the downer cow policy and downer cows becoming part of the food chain, and the potential for tainted beef making its way into the school lunch program.” She urged listeners to join the National Call-In Day for Downed Animals this Thursday. “Make your voices heard. Make this issue a national priority,” she implored. “My colleagues in the Congress listen to what their constituents say. You have to make sure that they hear you.”

Also joining us on the call was “Brian,” the HSUS undercover investigator who worked for six weeks at the slaughter plant and exposed the horrific practices that led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history. His voice was disguised to protect his identity, and it was a riveting and dramatic moment, straight out of “60 Minutes.” Brian told a story about his last day of work at the plant, when he saw a pregnant cow who literally gave birth on her way to slaughter. Despite her attempts to care for her calf, she was separated from her newborn and slaughtered. Brian had captured so many terrible images, and he knew it was time to show the world.

But it’s not just downer cows getting attention. The Party Animals events and the nationwide call to action came just days after national news on scientific innovations that may some day allow meat to be grown in laboratories, potentially reducing the suffering of billions of farm animals, environmental pollution, and public health impacts. "The New York Times" took the opportunity to comment in an editorial on the current state of factory farming in America, and the paper of record held no punches:

We are disgusted by the conventional meat industry in this country, which raises animals—especially chicken and pigs—in inhumane confinement systems that cause significant environmental damage. There is every reason to change the way meat is produced, to make it more ethical, more humane…Ensure the least possible cruelty to animals, by all means, and raise them in ways that are both ethical and environmentally sound.

And that’s not all the news that’s fit to print. This morning, at a press conference in Washington, D.C., the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production released a path-breaking report after two and a half years of studying the problems of factory farming. The commission is made up of prominent individuals such as former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, Colorado State University professor Bernie Rollin, and University of Tennessee Veterinary School Dean Michael Blackwell.  Among the commission’s findings are that factory farms jeopardize animal welfare, public health, food safety, and the quality of life in rural communities. They have issued a series of recommendations, including an end to the use of gestation crates for pigs, veal crates for calves, and battery cages for egg-laying hens.

The commission report will surely lead to policy initiatives to change laws for farm animals and change the way agribusiness operates in this country, and your Humane Society Legislative Fund will be on the front lines. In fact, several efforts are already underway which are directly in line with the commission’s recommendations, including the California Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act on the state’s November general election ballot. Californians will have the opportunity to end one of the worst abuses in industrial factory farming—confining animals in tiny crates and cages so small they don’t even have enough room to turn around and stretch their limbs for nearly their entire lives. 

Tethering veal calves by the neck, forcing pigs to squeeze inside tight metal bars, cramming five or six birds into a wire cage the size of the front page of “The New York Times”—it’s not just animal advocates who say these practices are cruel and unacceptable. It’s time for the perfect storm surrounding farm animal welfare to result in meaningful social change for these creatures.

State Lawmakers Horsing Around

When legislators want to duck an issue, they often say it’s outside their jurisdiction. Federal lawmakers tell you to deal with the states, and their state counterparts tell you to deal with the feds.

But when it serves their ideological interests, lawmakers will try to grab, rather than pass, the hot potato. State Rep. Dave Sigdestad, a Democrat in South Dakota, has advanced a proposal in the National Conference of State Legislatures that would urge the U.S. Congress to oppose legislation banning horse slaughter. The resolution will be considered when the NCSL meets in Washington, D.C. this week.

The proposed resolution repeats the fatuous claim that slaughtering tens of thousands of horses each year actually helps them. The horse slaughter industry has been trying to sell this bogus idea with a straight face: If horses weren’t killed they would be cruelly abused or abandoned. Yeah, right—isn't that like destroying the village to save it? Horse owners are not going to turn into would-be Michael Vicks because they can no longer make a buck selling horses for meat. There are plenty of other legal, responsible options, such as resale to new owners, placement at equine rescues or sanctuaries, or humane euthanasia.

It’s especially ironic because state lawmakers have largely been responsible for shuttering the last remaining horse slaughter plants. The Illinois legislature banned horse slaughter last year, and the state’s single slaughter plant, Cavel International, sued to overturn the law by claiming that only the federal government, not the states, could act to ban horse slaughter. The court rejected that argument and upheld the right of the state of Illinois to pass its own laws.

Another federal court upheld a similar state law in Texas, and Lone Star lawmakers defeated an attempt to repeal that prohibition. And Rep. Sigdestad’s own state of South Dakota flatly rejected a bill this year that would have opened a new horse slaughter plant with a $1 million loan from state taxpayers.

If they don’t want horse slaughter in Texas or South Dakota, where could they possibly want it? Not anywhere in the U.S., as there is not a single operating horse slaughter plant in the country. Arizona, California, Oklahoma, and other states have laws dealing with horse slaughter. Americans don’t eat horse meat, and don’t very much like our horses butchered so their flesh can be consumed as a delicacy in Europe and Asia.

Federal lawmakers have done their part, too, and have voted time and time again to cut funding for inspections at horse slaughter plants. They need to finish the job by passing the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, S. 311 and H.R. 503, which would prevent horse slaughter plants from reopening in the U.S. and would also stop the flow of horses to slaughter in Canada and Mexico where the transport distances are grueling and the slaughter methods cruel and clumsy.   

Absent the federal export ban, the states cannot ensure their own horses are not shuttled thousands of miles to grisly deaths in foreign plants. The NCSL resolution would undercut the efforts of state legislatures, at the behest of their citizens, to protect horses from this grim and painful end.

State and federal legislators should join together in getting the horse slaughter ban over the finish line, not turn back the clock on the progress that has been made for horses in both arenas. Contact your own state legislators and tell them that if they are attending the NCSL meeting, they should slaughter this wrongheaded resolution.

Companions in Creation

Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit to the U.S. as pontiff was historic for many reasons, but for animal advocates it was especially noteworthy because of the pope’s long history of advocating for kindness and mercy toward animals. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 2002, for example, he criticized some of the worst abuses of factory farming, including battery cages and foie gras:

Animals, too, are God’s creatures and even if they do not have the same direct relation to God that man has, they are creatures of his will, creatures we must respect as companions in creation…Certainly, a sort of industrial use of creatures, so that geese are fed in such a way as to produce as large a liver as possible, or hens live so packed together that they become just caricatures of birds, this degrading of living creatures to a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible.

The pope’s stay was, without a doubt, a media frenzy, but two news stories in particular caught my eye. The first was the report that police officers patrolling outside the United Nations building during the pope’s visit rescued a distressed beaver struggling in the East River. The 40-pound animal was swimming awkwardly and showed “labored breathing” before he was saved by the NYPD scuba unit. (Sadly, the beaver died during the trip upstate to a wildlife veterinarian, but our thanks still go to the papal security detail for doing all they could to help the animal in need.)

The second was a heartwarming feature in The New York Times about the pope’s fondness for cats. In fact, on Tuesday, cat lovers made this the most popular e-mailed article from NYTimes.com. Pope Benedict befriended a ginger tabby named Chico when he lived in Germany, and a recently published biography of the pontiff is told by the feline. At the Vatican, Benedict has often been seen tending to stray cats and bandaging their wounds.

When I was in Rome several years ago, I visited Torre Argentina, which now serves a much more noble purpose than when Brutus stabbed Julius Caesar there in 44 B.C.  The excavated ruins have been transformed into a cat sanctuary where stray and abandoned felines are protected below street level. The dedicated “gattare” (cat ladies) feed, spay, and care for the rescued cats, and place them for adoption.

I know that Pope Benedict must miss the friendship of Chico back in Germany, but I also know that when he’s in Rome, he must feel right at home in a city of cat lovers.

Protecting Our Closest Living Relatives

Christine Kenneally recently penned a thought-provoking "Washington Post" column about how alike people and animals are in so many ways. Chimpanzees are perhaps the most striking example, as our closest living relatives understand and construct sentences and favor different tools for hammering and fishing. As Kenneally wrote, “chimpanzees make sense of the world in many of the same ways we do. The implication is indisputable: Humans are not unique.”

Because of these similarities, it’s especially troubling that about 1,200 chimpanzees are still used in U.S. laboratories. These highly intelligent and social creatures got a boost in Congress yesterday when a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced H.R. 5852, the Great Ape Protection Act, to end invasive research on all chimps and to retire those who are federally owned to permanent sanctuary. The bill was introduced by U.S. Representatives Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), and Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), along with Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), Tom Allen (D-Maine), John Campbell (R-Calif.), and Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) as original cosponsors.

The U.S. remains the largest user of chimpanzees in biomedical research, as England, Sweden, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Austria, and Japan have all banned or limited their use. Some chimps have been languishing in labs for more than 40 years, confined in steel cages for most of their lives and enduring sometimes painful and distressing experimental procedures. It costs U.S. taxpayers $20 million to $25 million each year—money that many in the scientific community believe could be allocated to more effective research. More than 300 scientists, physicians, and educators have joined The Humane Society of the United States’ Chimps Deserve Better campaign and the New England Anti-Vivisection Society's Project R&R: Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in U.S. Laboratories in calling for an end to invasive experiments on chimps.

The number of chimps in research has declined steadily over recent years, as the animals have proven to be ineffective models and innovations in alternatives have emerged. In 2000, Congress passed the Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance and Protection (CHIMP) Act which established a national sanctuary system for those chimpanzees who have provided long service in laboratories. The law was upgraded in 2007, thanks to the work of U.S. Representative Jim McCrery (R-La.) and U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.), to ensure that these animals could not be removed from sanctuaries and placed back into research. 

Many former lab chimps now live out their lives at outstanding animal sanctuaries such as Chimp Haven, Save the Chimps, the Fauna Foundation, and the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch. Groups like Animal Protection of New Mexico and In Defense of Animals are working to get remaining chimps to sanctuaries, such as the 288 currently housed at the Alamogordo Primate Facility on the Holloman Air Force Base. The National Institutes of Health confiscated these chimps from the bankrupt Coulston Foundation and handed them over to Charles River Laboratories, which received a ten-year contract and more than $4 million per year to maintain the colony. Charles River is under fire from the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office after the recent deaths of two chimps and near-death of a third.

But it shouldn’t just fall on the shoulders of private groups to clean up the mess caused by the research industry, or law enforcement officials to prosecute the worst abuses. Congress must play its part, too, and recognize it’s time for a national public policy to protect our closest living relatives. Just as lawmakers passed the CHIMP Act in 2000 to give sanctuary to chimps, they should now finish the job and allow the remaining chimps to be released from labs to live out their lives free from harm.

Paoli and Penn Hills with Pigeon Shoots in Between

I’ve written before about the presidential candidates trotting out their hunting bona fides to strut their stuff in rural primary states. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are not immune to this quadrennial affliction, as they duke it out in Pennsylvania—a state which James Carville famously described as Paoli and Penn Hills with Alabama in between.

The Obama campaign has formed a “Sportsmen and Sportswomen for Obama Steering Committee” in Pennsylvania, stating in a white paper, “He will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting.” At a recent campaign stop, Clinton talked about her own experiences hunting as a girl, when she learned how to shoot “behind the cottage that my grandfather built on a little lake called Lake Winola outside of Scranton.”

It’s odd that these candidates are swooning over such a diminishing constituency. But it’s also a reminder of the power of politically active interest groups. We will have greater political success when we organize our community of animal advocates into a cognizable voting bloc.

Pennsylvania has 920,000 hunters, second only to Texas in the nation. It has more hunters than the total number of soldiers in the U.S. Army, but still they represent only 9 percent of the state’s population. By contrast, 3.6 million Pennsylvanians, or 37 percent, participate in wildlife watching. Presumably, for every voter who stalks animals with a gun, four voters stalk animals with cameras and binoculars.

And the sportsmen of Pennsylvania, unlike their counterparts in other regions, have failed to clean up some of the most abusive practices in the country. The Keystone State is home to the last remaining live pigeon shoots—gruesome contests in which live birds are sprung from traps and shot at point-blank range for money and prizes.

At the shoots, three out of four birds are not killed immediately, but are wounded and left to suffer from their injuries. Some are collected by young children who stomp on them, cut off their heads with gardening shears, or throw them into barrels to suffocate. Even the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has called the events “cruel and moronic.”

Any presidential hopeful (perhaps with the exception of Mike Huckabee) would be horrified by such conduct. We need leaders who will inspire us to teach our children the values of kindness and mercy, not allow us to numb them with cruelty and indifference. Pennsylvania is now in the spotlight, and state lawmakers should take the opportunity to ban pigeon shoots and rid the state’s sportsmen of this black eye.

Kids see through the nonsense, and it’s adults who do strange and sometimes cruel things for political purposes. Children have a natural affinity for animals, and this was illustrated by a passage in Hillary Clinton’s book, "Living History." Again remembering her days at Lake Winola, she tells a hunting story:

I loved Chelsea’s growing assertiveness, though it wasn’t always convenient. Around Christmas, 1988, I went duck hunting with Dr. Frank Kumpuris, a distinguished surgeon and good friend of mine, who invited me to join him, his two doctor sons, Drew and Dean, and a few other buddies at their hunting cabin. I hadn’t shot much since my days at Lake Winola with my dad, but I thought it would be fun. That’s how I found myself standing hip deep in freezing water, waiting for dawn in eastern Arkansas. When the sun rose, the ducks flew overhead and I made a lucky shot, hitting a banded duck. When I got home, Chelsea was waiting for me, outraged to wake up and learn that I had left home before dawn to go “kill some poor little duck’s mommy or daddy.” My efforts at explaining were futile. She didn’t speak to me for a whole day.

My late mentor, Cleveland Amory, once commented in "TV Guide" about a film in which a hunter struggled on the edge of a cliff. Cleveland said he was rooting for the cliff. Reading about an argument between mother and daughter about “some poor little duck,” I found myself rooting for Chelsea.

The Golden State's Golden Opportunity

Last week, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen certified the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act for November’s general election, setting the stage for this year’s biggest ballot box battle on animal protection. Thanks to 4,000 California volunteers who gathered  hundreds of thousands of signatures, voters in the Golden State will have the opportunity to stop cruel and inhumane treatment of animals on industrial factory farms.

The measure's certification made news in diverse media outlets from the Sacramento Bee to the Los Angeles Times’ new “Unleashed” blog. It also stirred up the agribusiness giants. As Donald Lathbury wrote on the political website California Majority Report, “The opposition, dominated by large scale factory farm conglomerates, is willing to burn a lot of money to prevent this proposition from passing. Don’t be fooled by what is certain to be a massive misinformation campaign by the No side.”

Despite the misinformation sure to come, the question that will confront voters is relatively simple: Should animals be given basic humane treatment, or should they spend nearly their entire lives in cages so small they can’t even turn around and stretch their limbs? Veal calves are chained by the neck, pigs are kept in metal cages barely larger than their bodies, hens have less space than a letter-sized sheet of paper. Voting "Yes" on the measure will help protect animals from such extreme abuse.

It will help us, too, as industrial factory farms also put our health at risk. The recent Humane Society of the United States investigation of a California slaughter plant exposed the cruel treatment of cows that threatened the safety of food fed to schoolchildren and led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history. The agribusiness industry put profits ahead of the health of people, and certainly ahead of the wellbeing of animals.

Caging animals in high densities leads to more animal waste and air and water pollution, as well as risk of disease transmission such as salmonella. Cramming hundreds of thousands of animals into a single factory is like putting all the residents of Fresno or Oakland into a high school gym, without a bathroom, and waiting for someone to sneeze.

We can do better—and many farmers are. Because it is not a California tradition to confine farm animals in tiny cages for their whole lives, the passage of this initiative will protect California’s family farming heritage. Family farmers know food quality is enhanced by more humane farming methods, and supporting this measure helps them compete and survive.

And while you’re likely to hear about food prices, these modest reforms won’t be costly to implement. The egg industry’s own California-based poultry economist (see page four) reports that producing cage-free eggs costs less than one penny per egg more. According to California’s Legislative Analyst, the fiscal impact of this initiative is limited to minor costs that will be offset by revenue from fines. 

Join the fight to protect animals from cruelty and abuse, and find out more from Californians for Humane Farms. Help spread the word, and tell your friends and family who live in California to vote "Yes" for the humane treatment of animals this November.

Protection Orders Help All Family Members

Last week on Long Island, the law stood up for a duck named Circles. As far as I know, it was a first time that waterfowl rated such attention at the courthouse.

We can be delighted for the duck. And we can be thankful for our own sake. Increasingly, our society recognizes that cruelty extracts a terrible toll not just on the likes of Circles and other creatures, but on us humans too.

In this case a man was charged under New York’s felony animal cruelty law for shooting the duck with a pellet gun in a neighbor’s backyard. Circles has recovered from a bullet wound to her voice box, and a judge ordered the man to stay away from the bird.

Circles may have been a path-finding case insofar as wings and feathers go, but court orders protecting pets from harm are becoming more common. Recognizing the connection between animal cruelty and family violence, state lawmakers and law enforcement agencies around the country are rallying to provide greater safeguards for the whole of the family, animals too.

When pets are abused, it’s a warning siren about other potential violence in a household. One way for abusers to torment spouses, lovers, neighbors and others is to target pets. We all know there are few bonds deeper than those between a person and a companion animal—which makes the pet a prime target in the grisly cycle of suffering.

In a national survey of battered women's shelters, 85 percent reported cases of just such attacks on the pets of women seeking refuge. Imagine the countless numbers of other women who never reach out for help because they fear what might happen to their animals if they did. As it is, almost half of abused women say they delay leaving a dangerous domestic situation because their partners might harm or kill the family pet.

In 2006, Maine became the first state to recognize the significance of this relationship between people and animals. Today, court orders can be written to extend protections not just to a woman and her family, but also to pets.

In the last two years, nine other states—California, Connecticut, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, New York, Tennessee, and Vermont—have followed suit by passing laws allowing pet protection orders. Thirteen more—Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Washington, and Wisconsin—have already considered bills on the subject in 2008.

We’ve all heard of the canary in the mineshaft. Now we can add the duck in the backyard. Our pets don’t ask for the duty, but they can serve us as early warning systems. When our laws protect them, we are all better off.

Lawmakers Can Lead by Example on Responsible Pet Care

Politicians have the blessing and the curse of being in public life, and every move they make is closely scrutinized. We have learned an awful lot about Hillary Clinton’s tax returns, Barack Obama’s pastor, and John McCain’s temper—even though for ordinary citizens those would be considered private matters.

It means that lawmakers and candidates have to worry about their personal behavior as much as they worry about their votes and policies. They not only have to obey the laws, but also have to exhibit good judgment and set a positive example for others.

South Carolina state Sen. Kent Williams (D-30th) recently learned this the hard way. An article by Dianne P. Owens in the Florence Morning News reported that Williams got into hot water for returning his pregnant German shepherd to a local animal shelter. It seems that the senator adopted three dogs from the Marion County Animal Shelter, gave two to his mother and brother, and kept one in his fenced backyard. The dog escaped the fence several times, and Williams decided to return her to the shelter.

Both South Carolina and Marion County laws require that animals adopted from a shelter be spayed or neutered, but Williams apparently ignored the policy because he wanted to breed the female German shepherd. The dog, named Gretchen, had become pregnant during one of her many trysts outside the fence, and just days after being returned to the shelter, she gave birth to eight puppies. The story has incensed animal lovers and quickly made the rounds on blogs such as For the Love of the Dog, Rescue Dog Central, New Lead on Life, and FITSNews.

It’s especially struck a chord after Oprah Winfrey’s powerful show on Friday about responsible pet ownership and the problems facing dogs. Oprah chastised the puppy mill industry for churning out dogs like livestock, and informed millions of viewers about pet overpopulation and shelter euthanasia. She implored animal lovers to have their own pets spayed and neutered so they don’t contribute to the millions of homeless dogs and cats euthanized each year at shelters.

We can do better for pets as a nation. Our elected leaders can set a positive example for all citizens by being part of the solution, not the problem—adopting animals, having them spayed and neutered, providing the best veterinary care, keeping them inside our homes rather than chained or fenced outside, solving behavioral problems rather than dumping them at shelters.

When we don’t act responsibly, it hurts the animals. But when politicians fail in their personal responsibility to pets, it could just put them in the dog house.

Oprah Puts Puppy Mills Front and Center

Today, one of the most powerful voices in media will inform television viewers around the world about the cruelties of puppy mills. "The Oprah Winfrey Show" will air an entire hour-long program on protecting pets—in honor of Oprah's dog Sophie who recently passed away—featuring animal advocates such as Wayne Pacelle of The Humane Society of the United States and Bill Smith of Main Line Animal Rescue. Check your local listings and watch the show if you can.

Oprah’s attention to the issue is bound to provide an additional surge for the current groundswell of public policy reforms on puppy mills. Last month, Virginia became the first state to pass legislation in 2008 restricting the mass breeding of dogs at these commercial factory farms. Twenty other states are now considering bills to crack down on the abusive puppy mill industry. Lawmakers and consumers around the country are recognizing that dogs should be treated like part of the family, not crammed in filthy, wire cages, stacked on top of each other, just to produce litter after litter for pet stores and Internet sales.

The presidential candidates are speaking out, too—it's especially significant as Pennsylvania, the next big primary state, is the puppy mill capital of the east coast. Senator Hillary Clinton previously cosponsored the Puppy Protection Act in the 107th Congress and the Pet Animal Welfare Statute (PAWS) in the 109th Congress. Senator Barack Obama is featured in the new book, “A Rare Breed of Love,” posing with Baby, a three-legged poodle who survived a decade of abuse in a puppy mill. Both Clinton and Obama support the current provision in the Senate Farm Bill to ban the import of young puppies from foreign mills in China, Russia, Mexico, and other countries. 

When Oprah speaks, she can change the debate and move markets. Let’s hope that policymakers will listen and take action. Contact your legislators today and ask them to protect man’s best friend from being treated as a cash crop.

Trust in Me

The recent mortgage crisis has taken its toll not only on homeowners, but also on their pets. Animal protection groups and lawmakers are pitching in to help, and media outlets such as USA Today and CNN are reporting on the plight of four-legged foreclosure victims.

The news has caused me to think about responsible pet ownership, and preparedness in general. When we bring a companion animal into our family, we make a lifelong commitment to provide for that animal's care. Pets can be costly, as reported recently by the New York Times, and we should only bring them into our lives if we know we can handle the cost of pet food, veterinary care, and other needs. If we are forced to move or our financial circumstances change, we should do all in our power to keep these family members safe with us.

That lifetime commitment of responsible care should even extend beyond us. People often assume they will outlive their pets, but we must prepare for the unexpected and be sure to provide for our pets' future in case we are the ones to pass away first. If we just leave it to chance without proper planning, our pets might end up being relinquished to an animal shelter, abandoned, or euthanized, rather than with a trusted friend or relative. By planning for your pet's future, you not only can help your own dog or cat, but also can help to relieve society's burden of caring for and sheltering millions of homeless animals.

More and more pet owners are making provisions for longterm animal care in their estate planning, and more and more attorneys and tax advisors are offering this service to give their clients the peace of mind that their pets will be cared for. Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia have passed laws that recognize pet trusts, which are funds specifically set aside to pay for your pet's care after you are gone.

It's important that we have a national policy, too. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.) have introduced H.R. 2491, the Charitable Remainder Pet Trust Act, which would allow the establishment of pet trusts under the federal tax code. It's a sensible policy that will help people and pets and will encourage responsible planning. Ask your members of Congress to support the Charitable Remainder Pet Trust Act to give these four-legged family members the vital safety net they need.

Oh Canada...How Could You?

Today, Canadian fishermen on the Atlantic coast set out on their annual ritual of killing hundreds of thousands of baby seals for their fur pelts. One of the world’s most beautiful nurseries—as vulnerable seal pups, just weeks old, emerge on the ice floes—will be stained red in the world’s largest commercial slaughter of marine mammals.

What’s worse, the Canadian government delayed granting permits for humane groups and journalists to be present on the ice bearing witness and reporting on the carnage. It was a cruelty cover-up, and effectively barred any observation on the opening day of the hunt. They don’t want the world to see the images with their own eyes—to know what’s happening behind the Ice Curtain. 

Last summer, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution—led by the late Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.), and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.)—calling on the government of Canada to end its commercial seal hunt. A similar measure has been introduced in the Senate—by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.)—and now has 13 cosponsors. 

It’s time for the Senate to join the House in condemning Canada’s cruelty. As the blood flows on the ice floes today, ask your Senators to speak out.

And the Cockers' Red Glare

An article by Winston Ross in the web edition of Newsweek reports on the trend of increased lawmaking and law enforcement actions to crack down on the cruel and bloody sport of cockfighting. Because state and federal legislators have upgraded the laws to root out this criminal enterprise, and because police and prosecutors around the country are aggressively enforcing those laws, the so-called “cockers” are waging a futile war to repair their public image. Ross quotes the mantra of the website Gamerooster.com: “No sport can be higher than the class of people that support it. Do your part to popularize cocking.”

It’s no surprise, then, that the cockfighters are trying to hitch their wagon to the heroes of American history. As I wrote last week, a resolution in the Hawaii state legislature imploring the United Nations to commemorate cockfighting as a “global sport” opines that “even the American Founding Fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson recognized the value of cockfighting, as participants in that sport.”

They’d have us believe that cockfighting was as important to the fledgling nation as the Declaration of Independence—as if Mount Vernon and Monticello preceded Michael Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels as the hotbeds of Virginia animal fighting. But it’s wishful thinking at best, and simply doesn’t stand up to historical scrutiny. It’s time to set the record straight.

Several years ago, Eric Sakach of The HSUS set out in search of documents and records regarding the oft-repeated claims that four American presidents—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln—were cockfighting enthusiasts. After consulting several historical sources, here’s what we know:

John P. Riley, historian for the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, indicated that he was aware of only two references to cockfighting among Washington’s many writings, diaries, and correspondence. “By the numerous references in his diaries and letters to foxhunting, card playing and attending the theatre, we know that these were some of Washington’s favorite amusements,” Riley wrote. “The two references to cockfighting in his voluminous writings and the absence of documentation or physical evidence of any cockpit at Mount Vernon leads me to believe that it was not an entertainment in which he participated in any great way.”

The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation’s director of research, Lucia C. Stanton, noted that “we have found nothing in the documentary record to indicate that Jefferson either attended cockfights or raised fighting cocks. His interest in raising poultry was evidently just for culinary purposes.” She added, “I am confident that if Jefferson had had any interest in cockfighting I would have come across some reference to it in my twenty-five years of working with his documentary archive. Our former Director spent over thirty years studying Jefferson and also found no references to cockfighting.”

Regarding Andrew Jackson, the Ladies’ Hermitage Association located only one reference in his papers putting him on the scene of a cockfight near Nashville in 1809. Sharon Macpherson, the deputy director of research, noted that “cockfighting became one of the issues in the campaign of 1828. The anti-Jackson forces published a number of broadsides attacking his character and trotting out all the fights, canings, stabbings, duels and other unsavory events of Jackson’s past.” They apparently accused him of being a cockfighter, too, and a letter in Jackson’s own handwriting denied the charge: “It is a positive falshood that Genl Jackson has been either at a cockfight or sports of a similar nature for the last thirteen years.”

The Illinois State Historical Library reports that cockfighting occurred in Lincoln’s home village of New Salem, but there is no evidence that Lincoln was involved in any way. Thomas F. Schwartz, curator of the Henry Horner Lincoln Collection, observed, “His love for animals is well documented and it seems unlikely that Lincoln would endorse cock fighting. In his autobiography, Lincoln indicates that he gave up hunting after shooting a turkey.” Schwartz further refuted the notion that Lincoln earned the nickname “Honest Abe” from judging cockfights, pointing out that Lincoln’s moniker came from his dealings as a storekeeper and his fairness in judging horse races.

Although it’s harder to prove inaction than action—that eighteenth and nineteenth century leaders did not routinely participate in cockfighting—there is evidence that they also actively sought to root out the cruelty. In the colonial era, cockfighting was under pressure thanks to a combination of Puritan, Calvinist, and Quaker influences, and then the notion that such frivolous games detracted from the seriousness of the Revolutionary War effort. The First Continental Congress passed legislation in 1774 to “discountenance and discourage every species of extravagance and dissipation, especially all horse-racing, and all kinds of games, cock fighting, exhibitions of shows, plays, and other expensive diversions and entertainments.”

Over the centuries, horse racing and theatre came back into popular and political acceptance, but cockfighting never did. Most states formalized the prohibitions against staged fights in the 1800’s, yet there were a number of states where cockfighting was not criminalized.  The practice had its devotees and an industry developed, but the public always remained dubious and when citizens had a chance to outlaw the practice, they've always done so.

The founding fathers, it seems, had it right: Cockfighting had no place in the United States then, just as it has no place in the United States now. Whether the First Congress or the 110th, passing laws is the way to make cockfighting history. 

Poaching Under the Gun

Last week, the Associated Press and other news outlets reported that a park ranger was arrested for masterminding the illegal massacre of endangered mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park in eastern Congo.  Only about 700 mountain gorillas remain in the wild, and most of them are in the conflict-ridden Virunga range which straddles Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. The ranger apparently orchestrated the slayings to deter and demoralize environmentalists who are working to preserve the gorilla’s rainforest habitat.

The political motivation for assassinating these rare creatures was nefarious in the extreme, but the photo accompanying the news story—showing four dead mountain gorillas tied to makeshift stretchers—was even more haunting. It’s a stark reminder of the many perils that wild animals face, whether here or abroad, and whether their species are imperiled or abundant.

Globally, the illegal killing and smuggling of wildlife is taking an astonishing toll. A few years ago, 25 tons of live turtles were exported from Sumatra to China every week.  That’s just one species from one country to another, and it gives you some idea of what is happening worldwide. From the killing of sharks for their fins, to the killing of elephants for their ivory tusks, to the killing of bears for their gall bladders, the cruelty for profit knows no boundaries.

Here in the U.S., some estimates indicate that for every wild animal legally killed by a sport hunter—tens of millions each year—another animal is illegally killed by a poacher. With strained budgets for law enforcement and countless acres of open land difficult to monitor, many poachers get away with their crimes and only a handful are brought to justice. The Humane Society of the United States and its Wildlife Land Trust are working with hunting groups and state wildlife agencies to take a bite out of poaching, offering rewards for tips on illegal activity and publicizing hotlines and websites for reporting poachers.

The Humane Society Legislative Fund is urging Congress to take action on an important anti-poaching bill, too. Last week, the House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Oceans held a hearing on H.R. 5534, the Bear Protection Act, introduced by Reps. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and John Campbell (R-Calif.). The bill would bar the interstate and foreign commerce in the internal organs of bears, and would deter poachers from killing these creatures for the lucrative black market in bear bile, gall bladders, and other viscera.

One principle of modern wildlife management is that wild animals are a public resource, and should not be killed for private commercial gain. That’s why market hunting ended in the early twentieth century, and why state wildlife agencies established hunting seasons, bag limits, and other checks on excessive practices. A bear’s gall bladder is not sought after for sport or trophy, but only to make a buck by selling it for Asian apothecaries and aphrodisiacs. And the gall bladder of a black bear looks identical to that of a more vulnerable polar bear or Asiatic bear, so there’s no telling what species the organs came from.

Many hunters rightly support strict policies to curtail poaching and conserve wildlife resources from illegal trade. Ray Schoenke, president of the American Hunters and Shooters Association, was among the supporters testifying in favor of the Bear Protection Act, and he wrote a blog on Daily Kos about the subcommittee hearing. Schoenke—a lifelong hunter and former Washington Redskins player—was attacked by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) for supposedly not being enough of a hunter. It’s ironic that Young would take such a position and squabble over an anti-poaching bill, since Alaska is one of the 34 states that already ban the commercial sale of bear parts.

The Bear Protection Act has passed the U.S. Senate unanimously in previous Congresses, but has always been blocked in the House by the likes of Don Young and former Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.). With new leadership of the House Natural Resources Committee, it’s time to pass this anti-poaching policy and protect bears from illegal killing—a goal shared by animal advocates and hunters alike.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Purrs

Following up on yesterday's photos of our legislative award winners, I want to share with you another set of winning photos. The HSUS's Spay Day USA Pet Photo Contest has come to a close, and the winning shots are touching and outstanding. (The four Markarian kitties—Georgia, Mario, Misty, and Oliver—were in the running, but were apparently disqualified due to bad behavior.)

More than 30,000 people submitted photos of their pets, celebrating the human-animal bond and writing about how their companion animals have impacted their lives.  The stories are inspiring, and the images even more so.  From the grand prize winner—Gomer (below), a rescued cat in Walnut Creek, Calif.—to the dogs, cats, rabbits, and even a baby rat, every picture reminds us of the joy and happiness that animals bring to our lives.

You can see the grand prize winner, along with the ten finalists and 25 honorable mentions, by clicking here. If you entered your pet's photo or voted for your favorite candidate, whether you're a "Demo-Cat" or "Re-Pup-lican," thank you for participating in the "Pet-toral College."

View Spay Day contest winners

Images of Leadership

Earlier this week I wrote about the awards that The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund presented to members of Congress, honoring their leadership on animal protection protection issues in the 110th Congress.  Today we've created a photo album of many of these lawmakers who received humane awards, and I invite you to check out the photos.

It demonstrates how far the animal protection movement has come on Capitol Hill, when dozens of legislators—Democrats and Republicans alike—are honored for their achievements and accomplishments in promoting the humane treatment of animals. With their help, and the help of all their constituents, we will truly make change and create a kinder and more merciful world for all creatures.

Michael Markarian, Nancy Perry, and Wayne Pacelle present
the top annual honor —the 2007 Humane Legislator of the
Year Award—to Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.)

View the Photo Album

 

Honoring Our Leaders

Last week, as members of Congress and their staff worked to take care of business before leaving town for the spring recess, Capitol Hill was buzzing with recognition for lawmakers who also take care of animals. The Humane Society of the United States and the Humane Society Legislative Fund held two awards receptions in the U.S. Capitol, honoring members of Congress who have been leaders in the cause of animal protection.

HSLF President Michael Markarian with Sen. Mary
Landrieu (D-La.), the prime sponsor of legislation to stop
horse slaughter for human consumption.

The HSUS and HSLF jointly gave their top annual honor, the 2007 Humane Legislator of the Year Award, to Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.). Blumenauer was the co-author of the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act, which was signed into law in 2007 and strengthen the federal penalties for dogfighting and cockfighting. He is also leading efforts to secure more funding for the enforcement of animal welfare laws and to establish charitable pet trusts for the lifetime care of companion animals. And he will be the keynote speaker at this year’s Taking Action for Animals conference in Washington, D.C.

In addition to Blumenauer, we honored 131 other members of Congress who were the prime sponsors of animal protection legislation or who scored a perfect 100 percent on the 2007 Humane Scorecard. My colleagues and I were joined by dozens of lawmakers who found time to stop by an evening reception in the U.S. Capitol Building to accept their awards and visit with HSUS and HSLF staff. The honorees—31 Senators and 100 Representatives covering 38 states—make up nearly one third of the Senate and one quarter of the House.

HSLF Political Director Richard Patch with Rep. Walter
Jones, Jr. (R-N.C.), who successfully pushed for the
establishment of a National War Dog Memorial.

Finally, The HSUS bestowed its highest award, the Joseph Wood Krutch Medal, on Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.V.) and posthumously on Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.). In surveying the field of people in political life, no one could deserve a lifetime achievement award for animal protection more than these two individuals. Byrd and Lantos were the 40th and 41st recipients of the prestigious honor, and the first legislators ever to receive it. Previous recipients have included such luminaries as Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, and Richard Leakey.

Sen. Byrd i