Animals & Politics

Cast A Humane Vote This Election Day

We are just six days away from what is shaping up to be one of the most historic elections in our lifetime. While voters are weighing the economy and other pressing national concerns, advocates of animal protection also need to know which lawmakers and candidates are standing up for their interests. When you fill out your mail ballot or go to the polls on Tuesday, the Humane Society Legislative Fund wants you to be armed with information on the candidates who are fighting for animal welfare in a very determined way.

In our comprehensive Humane Voter Guide, you can find a list of the HSLF-backed candidates in your state. After examining the animal protection records of lawmakers seeking reelection, and querying candidates running as challengers or in open seats, HSLF has made endorsements in more than 300 congressional contests. We are a nonpartisan organization and don’t make judgments based on party affiliation, but rather on a candidate’s actions and positions on animal protection policies.

In order to pass humane laws, we need to elect humane lawmakers. You can help advance the cause of animal protection by voting for candidates who are friends of animals—even if you have to cross party lines to do so. Only when the will of the millions of Americans who care about animals are mobilized can we hope to effect sweeping reforms for animals. As we approach Election Day, here are some of the races to watch that have implications for animals:

Top of the Ticket: The next president and vice president will have an enormous impact on animal protection, through the Department of Agriculture, Department of Interior, and other executive agencies. HSLF has endorsed Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as both senators have strong records on advocating for the humane treatment of animals. John McCain has been a lukewarm supporter and only scored 25 percent on the most recent Humane Scorecard, while Sarah Palin has a frighteningly terrible record on killing wolves, bears, and other wildlife, and the thought of a Palin administration should strike fear in the heart of every animal advocate in the country.

Motor City Madness: The Oakland County suburbs of Michigan's 9th District are ground zero for animal protection in 2008. Sixteen-year incumbent Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-Mich.) has one of the worst records on animal cruelty in the entire Congress—he voted to allow the slaughter of American horses for human consumption, to continue the abuse of sick and crippled cattle to get them into the food supply, to facilitate the trophy hunting of threatened polar bears in the Arctic, and even to de-fund the enforcement of the federal law to combat dogfighting and cockfighting. The Democratic challenger, Gary Peters, was a leader in protecting animals from cruelty and abuse when he served in the Michigan Senate. HSLF is airing TV ads in the Detroit area and volunteers are canvassing door-to-door in the 9th District letting voters know about Rep. Knollenberg’s long and embarrassing record on animal cruelty.

Humane Heroes: Several congressional leaders on animal protection legislation are facing tough reelection campaigns, and HSLF is working to help keep these animal advocates in office. In the U.S. Senate, we’ve endorsed incumbent Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), and others. In the U.S. House, some of our strongest leaders like Reps. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), and Chris Shays (R-Conn.) are in competitive races. We are also backing several animal-friendly challengers who are looking to unseat incumbent lawmakers, such as Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) in the Senate, and Kay Barnes (D-Mo.), Suzanne Kosmas (D-Fla.), and Mark Schauer (D-Mich.) in the House. And there are great candidates running in open seats, such as Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) for Senate, and Frank Kratovil (D-Md.) and Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) for the House.

Don’t Forget the Ballot Measures: In several states, it’s not just candidate races that will have an impact for animal protection, but voters will also have the opportunity to weigh in directly on issues that affect animals. We urge Californians to vote YES on Prop 2 to stop cruelty to farm animals, and Massachusetts residents to vote YES on Question 3 to phase out dog racing. Arizonans should say NO on Prop 105 which would essentially eliminate the right to vote on animal issues in future elections, and Oklahomans should vote NO on State Question 742 which would have a similar impact on wildlife protection measures. Oregonians should vote NO on Measure 64 which would harm nonprofit organizations such as the Oregon Humane Society.

Some voters and newspaper editorial writers complain about ballot measures because they are complex and difficult to understand, but when it comes to the animal issues, it’s just plain common sense. Even a 4-year-old knows what’s right and wrong. As you get ready for election week, here’s your daily dose of cute overload—you can see why Mia is crazy about animals and urges you to vote YES on Prop 2!

Making Sense of the Muckslinging

The Agribusiness Big Shots opposing Proposition 2 are spewing out so much manure that it’s hard to keep up on this blog alone. And I don’t just mean the literal manure which is illegally dumped into local water supplies, and which is piling up to give their neighbors sore throats, headaches, and respiratory problems. I mean the figurative manure—the lies and deceptions they are dumping on California voters.

One of their fattest fibs is the idea that there is no veal or pork industry in California, so Prop 2 is really just about chickens. Oh really? Then why have a dozen pork producer associations from all over the country funneled money into the political committee opposing Prop 2?

So far, donations have come not only from the National Pork Producers Council and the California Pork Producers Association, but also from the pork industry trade groups in Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, and Pennsylvania—for a combined total of $89,500. Add to that another $50,000 from the American Farm Bureau Federation, and more than $46,000 from state and county farm bureaus.

Why would these groups dump big money into the campaign if they didn’t see it as a serious threat? As the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and Pasadena Star-News pointed out, “it turns out that there are indeed large hog farms in California—one up north has at least 9,000 sows in cages with no room for the mother pigs to move, and that sounds like a lot of pigs to us.”

It’s true that some of the nation’s largest pork and veal producers—like Smithfield Foods, Cargill, Strauss Veal, and Marcho Farms—have begun to transition some of their gestation crates and veal crates to group housing systems for sows and calves. But that only happened after Florida and Arizona voters passed ballot measures to ban crates. And it’s true that Corcpork—a massive hog factory farm in Corcoran, Calif.—has begun to phase out gestation crates. But that only occurred after California volunteers started gathering signatures to place Prop 2 on the ballot.

We need public policies like Prop 2 to spur change in the marketplace. And we need laws on the books that prevent the industrialization of factory farming from getting worse in the future. A massive hog farm could set up shop with a million pigs in gestation crates overnight, and who in California wants their state to become the next Iowa or North Carolina with the cruel confinement, air pollution, and water contamination that comes along with that status? Since California is one of the nation’s top dairy states—and dairy cows produce calves in order to produce milk—a thriving veal industry in the state’s future is not far-fetched.

It also puts to the test another big lie from Big Agribusiness—that if Prop 2 passes, California farmers would be put out of business and consumers would be forced to purchase products trucked in from other states. Donald Lathbury summed it up best in the California Majority Report, when he asked why out-of-state factory farms would spend millions of dollars opposing a measure that they argue would increase their own market share. He wrote:

Something doesn’t fit here. Maybe, just maybe, the outside egg producers that have dominated the finances of the No campaign are afraid that the old adage, “as California goes, so goes the nation,” applies in this situation. And if that’s the case, then far from exporting our egg production to other states, Prop 2 actually exports our more humane farming practices to other states, hence the fervent opposition from folks who love to squeeze as much profit as they can from stuffing six-to-eight hens in cages so small that they cannot turn around or expand their wings. After all, if they don’t have the basic decency to treat the animals in their possession with that minimal level of respect, why would they be so generous as to throw so many golden eggs into the basket of their competitors time zones away for a proposition that the opposition claims will help those same out-of-state producers’ business?

The logic of the talking point doesn’t add up, but the adding up of checks from out-of-state factory farms continues unabated. The only question that remains is whether California voters will see through this shell game on election day.

It’s clear that the factory farm executives see the writing on the wall, and they know they can no longer get away with treating animals like commodities and widgets, like nothing more than meat, milk, and egg-producing machines. Consumers and voters are demanding better, and major retailers like Burger King and Safeway are increasingly asking producers to raise their standards for animal welfare.

But that doesn’t mean the factory farms are going down without a fight—as evidenced by the big money donations to the anti-Prop 2 campaign. They’ve proven that they are able to adapt to more humane farming methods, but that it takes public policies and public opinion before they will change their miserly ways. A vote of YES! on Prop 2 will usher in these much-needed reforms.

Doctor, Doctor, Give Me the Truth

The battle of the airwaves is gaining pitch in California over Proposition 2—the groundbreaking measure to give farm animals a little relief from cruel confinement. But it’s always good to know a little bit about the people who are telling you how to vote.

A new TV ad from the YES! on Prop 2 campaign rolled out this week, featuring Wayne Pacelle, the president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States. Wayne is a familiar face, arguing the case for farm animals on "Ellen," "Oprah Winfrey," and in the pages of any number of publications. He’s devoted his life and his career to the cause of making ours a better world for animals. You don’t have to guess why he’s speaking out. If you want to know what he thinks, take a look at the new ads “Cruelty and Fraud” and “Shocking Video.”

It’s a different matter with the Agribusiness Big Shots on the other side. They’ve got a new TV ad out too. It’s another contender in the gutter-politics contest for the most misleading scare tactic of the year. I mean really, haven’t voters had to endure enough of this—a ploy as tired as last year’s Halloween pumpkin.

In the opposition commercial, we meet a woman dressed in hospital greens. She’s Dr. Kara Hutton, a Bay Area pediatrician. Her supposed claim to fame, though, is that she grew up on a farm. She claims to be an expert. And she is shown in juxtaposition with an outrageous visual—a gurney with a patient on it and an ambulance. That’s right, she’s arguing the worst falsehood of all—that human health depends on treating animals cruelly.

Dr. Hutton, it’s not so. You should know better.

Right now, egg-laying hens, veal calves, and breeding sows are confined on industrial factory farms in cages and crates so small they can hardly move. It’s not for their own good. And it’s surely not for the good of humans who consume these products. It’s for agribusiness profit, pure and simple.

So, if the industry wanted a real medical expert on the subject, they wouldn’t have picked Dr. Hutton. They would have gone right to the top and called Dr. Michael Greger, author of the seminal book, “Bird Flu,” and the nation’s leading expert on food safety and factory farming.

Dr. Greger lectures and writes on the subject. In a way, he’s like Wayne Pacelle—he’s devoted his life and his career to the subject.

Oh, but I guess the industry wouldn’t want his views. That’s because he works for The Humane Society of the United States. And here is what he says:

Proposition 2’s opponents want you to suspend belief and trust them when they say that cramming six or so laying hens into a single tiny cage reduces Salmonella risk. This is science fiction, not scientific fact.

The most authoritative word on food-borne infection risk and egg production systems comes from a European Union-wide survey. More than 30,000 samples from more than 5,000 egg operations across two dozen countries were taken to measure the public health impact of removing hens from cages. Without exception, for every subtype of Salmonella reported and every type of production system examined, there was significantly lower risk of Salmonella infection in cage-free egg production.

Maybe Dr. Hutton was absent the day they talked about Salmonella risks at medical school. Or maybe she was back at the “farm” that day. Looking at Facebook suggests that Dr. Hutton’s maiden name is Demler. As in Demler Enterprises and Demler Egg Ranch—a pair of top ten contributors to the “no” on 2 campaign. Combined, they’ve thrown $436,603 into this deceptive campaign, with one of their own family members playing a doctor on TV.

The Demler family clearly hasn’t reviewed the scientific literature indicating that caged birds have 20 times higher risk of Salmonella than cage-free birds. And they don’t have the common sense to know that cramming animals tightly into cages makes them more susceptible to disease—just as cramming yourself into an elevator or an airplane cabin with other people is the best way to catch a cold.

Californians have long experience in this kind of dirty politics. What the “no” forces are out to protect is factory farm profits, not your health. The opponents are backed by a handful of miserly corporations that won’t even give animals room to move.

By contrast the YES! on Prop 2 campaign is financially backed by more than 20,000 individual people who care about the humane treatment of animals. Scores of credible and authoritative groups, like the Center for Food Safety and the California Veterinary Medical Association, have swung behind a “yes” vote. Our coalition has no profits to protect, not a penny. We’re out to make life better for animals—and that’s good for human health too.

Vote "Yesh!" on Prop 2

If you open your daily newspaper this coming week, chances are you will be greeted with a message of compassion for farm animals. That’s because Patrick McDonnell, the creator of the comic strip MUTTS, has dedicated a full week beginning this Sunday to the theme of protecting farm animals from cruelty.

MUTTS is syndicated in more than 700 newspapers in 20 countries. In California alone, it reaches 4 million households—and could not come at a better time as voters in that state gear up to decide on Proposition 2, a statewide ballot measure that would stop the worst factory farming abuses.

Patrick and I will be together next week at the Jack Gallery in Los Angeles for an exhibition of his newest collection of paintings on paper and canvas, and a benefit for the YES! on Prop 2 campaign. I had a chance to talk to Patrick about his work, and I wanted to share some of his thinking—and an exclusive sneak peak at next week’s MUTTS—with blog readers.

Michael Markarian: Fans of MUTTS read about the adventures of Mooch and Earl, but also about a wide range of animal protection issues, from the conservation of tigers to the rescue of shelter animals. Why is it important to you to incorporate animal protection into your work?

Patrick McDonnell: In MUTTS I try to see the world through the eyes of animals. This has made me more conscious of how tough many of them have it on this planet. In 2000 I was asked to join the Board of Directors of The Humane Society of the United States, and became even more aware and involved. I felt that my strip could address (hopefully, for the most part, in an entertaining way) some of these issues and help give the animals a voice.

MM: How do your readers and fans respond to some of the animal protection issues included in MUTTS?

PM: Most readers know that animal protection issues are integrated into MUTTS. I hardly ever get negative feedback about these topics. On the contrary, many people respond positively—my favorite aspect in doing MUTTS is hearing from people who are inspired to adopt from a shelter or rescue group, or to volunteer to help animals.

MM: What inspired you to run a whole week of strips on the humane treatment of farm animals?

PM: Prop 2 is just too important to not tackle. Even though the reform will be modest, it puts a stake into the ground that the way we treat farm animals matters.

MM: Why is Prop 2 important to you, and what can your readers do to help?

PM: Because 20 million animals will be directly impacted, suffering less, if this measure passes. It will also send a clear message to the factory farm conglomerates that, once people are made aware, they will not tolerate the way most animals raised for food are treated in this country.

Prop 2 sets a new standard. If you live in California, you can be part of the solution by voting YES! If you do not live in California, you can tell your friends and associates who do live there about the importance of Prop 2. You can also work to get similar ballot initiatives started in your own state. Hopefully it will also make readers think about their own eating choices.

MM: A theme for this week’s strip seems to be that farm animals are speaking out and informing people of their plight. What would the animals say if they could really speak to us?

PM: Be kind. We are fellow beings sharing the wonder of this beautiful planet, and we are truly at your mercy.

MM: There is a long tradition of political and social commentary in comic strips and editorial cartoons. Do you see animal protection as part of this history in your field?

PM: Not so much in the past, but today there are quite a few vegetarian and vegan cartoonists who sometimes tackle these issues.

MM: In addition to MUTTS, you’ve published a number of wonderful books. (Of course, my personal favorite is Shelter Stories, since Misty is in there!) Tell us about your latest book, South, and your current book tour.

PM: South is a children’s picture book about friendship and helping one another. It’s centered on Mooch helping a little bird migrate south. This book was fun for me to “write”—it has no words.

MM: This week you will be at the Jack Gallery in Los Angeles. What will be on exhibition there?

PM: Recently I began doing large paintings of the MUTTS characters. The exhibit will include paintings on canvas and paper, drawings and lithographs. Some of the art is based on the South book. There will also be four paintings having Prop 2 as the inspiration with all the money going to fund Prop 2, along with a Prop 2 themed MUTTS comic strip. 

MM: In addition to your professional work, you sit on the board of directors of HSUS and govern the work of the organization. How do you view HSUS’s role in the animal protection movement?

PM: HSUS is pivotal. We are the largest animal protection organization in the world and have been getting amazing results in many key areas: disaster relief, investigative work (including puppy mills, animal fighting, factory farm abuses), stopping horse slaughter, protecting endangered species including the gray wolf, and bringing the horrors of the seal hunts and shark contests to light. I am particularly optimistic about the results we will see from HSUS’s Animals and Religion initiatives. With Wayne Pacelle (and you) relentless and running at top speed, the animals’ future could not be in better hands. I am so proud and honored to be a part of HSUS.

The Ballot Measure That's Fit to Endorse

A few months back, The New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof called California’s Proposition 2 “the most important election this November that you’ve never heard of.” And now, the full editorial board of the newspaper of record is doing its part to make sure as many people as possible do hear about Prop 2. It’s certainly a rare move for a national newspaper to weigh in on a state election occurring on the opposite coast, underscoring the significance of Prop 2 for the entire country. The New York Times officially endorsed the animal protection measure today, and I have reprinted the editorial in its entirety below.

October 9, 2008

EDITORIAL

Standing, Stretching, Turning Around

The goal of the California Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act — Proposition 2 on the state’s November ballot — sounds extremely modest. It would ban the confinement of animals in a way that keeps them from being able to stand, sit, lie down, turn around and extend their limbs. The fact that such fundamental decencies have to be forced upon factory farming says a lot about its horrors. We urge California voters to pass Proposition 2. We urge every state to enact similar laws.

Americans are becoming increasingly aware of how and where food is raised. With that should come real concern. The mantra of industrial farming has always been efficiency, but efficiency has come to mean a pregnant sow — millions of them — confined in a gestation crate barely 2 feet wide and only as long as she is. It means veal-calves rendered virtually immobile in crates barely large enough to contain their bodies. It means endless rows of laying hens kept in battery cages so small that the birds cannot even stretch their wings.

No philosophy can justify this kind of cruelty, not even the philosophy of cheapness. Proposition 2 will not just improve the square footage available to these suffering animals. Reducing the concentration of animals will also help reduce the water and air pollution created by factory farms. It will also begin to redress the imbalance between small farmers and the huge corporations that have acquired vertical, and fundamentally anti-competitive, control over the meat industry.

To a California voter still undecided on Proposition 2, we say simply, imagine being confined in the voting booth for life. Would you vote for the right to be able to sit down and turn around and raise your arms?

The Best Medicine on TV

The YES! on Prop 2 campaign launched two new television ads this week in California, showing voters statewide the cruelties of factory farming. The ads are narrated by two California veterinarians—Dr. Kate Hurley, professor at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, and Dr. Jeff Smith, past president of the California Veterinary Medical Association—telling voters that all animals deserve humane treatment, including those raised for food. You can watch the ads featuring Dr. Hurley and Dr. Smith, and spread the word to everyone you know in California.

In Their Opinion, Prop 2 is a No-Brainer

The Santa Cruz Sentinel today became the latest California newspaper to endorse a vote of YES! on Proposition 2. While some other newspaper editorial writers fell for the scare tactics of Big Agribusiness on Prop 2, plenty of opinion leaders have taken a thoughtful and careful look at the measure and have come down on the side of protecting animals and food safety. I’d like to share with you some of the best excerpts from the editorials that have appeared so far in the campaign.

Many egg-laying hens are confined to a space no larger than an 8.5-inch by 11-inch piece of notebook paper.

The egg industry and large-scale farm operations say that the price of eggs will go up, but already many consumers in areas such as Santa Cruz County are buying eggs with the label “cage free.” Some studies show egg prices would increase less than 1 cent per egg for producers.

And here’s another sunny-side up thought: As the supply of eggs hatched in more humane conditions increases, the price of such eggs could drop. Certainly, as demand increases, California egg producers who comply with cage-free standards could market their eggs around the country with labels indicating this more humane method.

The veal and pork industries are already moving away from inhumane confinement practices. Egg producers can do the same.

Vote yes on Proposition 2, and give humane conditions for animals, even those raised on industrial farms for food. This measure is both modest and sensible, and is in line with how most people think any living being should be treated.

Santa Cruz Sentinel, October 2, 2008

When MediaNews columnist Gary Bogue visited a commercial egg farm in Gilroy a few years back, he was horrified by what he saw: About 160,000 hens filled a building roughly the length of two football fields. The birds were crammed into tiny wire cages, five to seven to a cage, squeezed so tightly they could barely move. The cages were on three levels, with the birds defecating through the wire onto the hens below them.

It’s because of scenes like this that we urge support of statewide Proposition 2 on the Nov. 4 ballot.

…we also expect the heightened awareness that the new rules will create will lead consumers to look for eggs from hens that are humanely raised.

Animals crowded in cages are more likely to be infected with Salmonella and other diseases than those in cage-free facilities. The more consumers search for “cage-free” eggs, the greater the demand will be for California eggs.

Rather than import our eggs, maybe we can export a model for the healthy and humane treatment of farm animals.

We urge a yes vote on Proposition 2.

MediaNews (Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, San Mateo Times, and other Bay Area papers), September 21, 2008

…among many other organizations, Proposition 2 is endorsed by the California Veterinary Medical Association and the San Diego County Veterinary Medical Association. Would those independent organizations really come out in support if they believed it would actually endanger public health? We don’t think so.

Food prices would soar? We don’t think so. A study by the University of California Riverside, comparing the price of eggs from cage-free and caged hens, suggested the producer price would increase less than 1 cent per egg.

Egg farmers put out of business? We don’t think so. The restrictions have not prompted mass economic distress closings by veal or pig farmers in Florida or Arizona. In fact, in Arizona, the only hog farmer affected by that state's initiative actually sought to expand operations. In California, many egg farmers already operate caged and cage-free operations on the same farm. The proposition gives them six years to make the necessary changes, hardly an economic killer.

In the end, Proposition 2 is about the basic humane treatment of animals, even those raised for food. There are an estimated 40 million farm animals raised for commercial purposes in California. Every one of them deserves at least that much civility.

San Diego Union-Tribune, September 15, 2008

Think back to an undercover video from earlier this year taken at a California slaughterhouse. The tape—released by the Humane Society of the United States—revealed sick and debilitated cows.

Workers at the Chino slaughterhouse shocked crippled animals and shoved them with forklifts.

The meat from these animals had the potential to make people ill, and government officials had to issue a recall of 143 million pounds of meat. Suppliers had shipped much of the meat to schools for lunch programs.

As we noted back then, relying on a recall is no way to run a food-safety program. How many more millions of pounds of beef should have been recalled in the last year but weren’t because there was no secret video?

A report by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production released earlier this year says many conditions of the present industrial-scale farm industry need improvement. Without reforms, there is unacceptable risk to the environment and public health.

A measure on November’s ballot gives Californians a chance to improve food safety and the conditions in which farm animals live.

Santa Barbara News-Press, September 9, 2008

Join the "Bloc" Party to Get Political for Animals

Growing up in my neighborhood, everyone loved a good block party—meeting friends and neighbors, gathering together for a common purpose. Now, with just five weeks until one of the most critical elections in our lifetime, we have a new purpose, and a new type of “bloc” party.

On Sunday, October 19, animal advocates across the country will gather at Party Animals house parties to learn how they can effectively come together to form a “Humane Voting Bloc” to give animals a voice on Election Day. I hope you will join me on October 19 as we party to spread the message about electing humane candidates and passing important animal protection ballot measures.

So much is at stake for animals, and your actions can have a lasting impact on whether these creatures are protected or persecuted for years to come. As a voting bloc, we can help determine who holds the nation’s top post in the White House, whether lawmakers elected to Congress demonstrate compassion and mercy for animals or utter fealty to the industries that harm them, and whether states will phase out abusive factory farming practices and inhumane dog racing.

One of our guiding principles at the Humane Society Legislative Fund is community engagement. We know we can’t accomplish legislative or electoral reforms just by having a professional staff in Washington, D.C.—we need the active participation of thousands of people who care about animals all over the country. That’s why we created our Party Animals program. You can host or attend a party in your community. I'll be joining you on a nationwide conference call that brings all of us together at 7:30 p.m. Eastern. You'll be hearing from some special guests, too.

Political candidates have used simple yet effective house parties to raise awareness and mobilize armies of volunteers and donors for their campaigns, and we aim to apply that same strategy to advance the cause of animal protection. Recruit as many of your friends and neighbors as possible to attend your party and become a part of the HSLF community to help make change for animals at the ballot box in 2008. And as a special incentive, HSLF will recognize the host who is most successful in his or her fundraising efforts by sponsoring him or her to attend the 2009 Taking Action for Animals Conference, which will be held July 24-27 in the nation’s capital.

Party Animals brings people together on one night at the same time for a party with a purpose. In the past, we’ve held successful Party Animals events to advance legislation on farm animal welfare, animal fighting, horse slaughter, protecting pets in disasters, and ending Canada’s seal hunt. Using tools provided by HSLF, party hosts create their own website, establish a fundraising goal, send invitations to friends and family, and collect donations through a secure online server. Campaign, lobbying, and video materials are provided. It’s fun and easy and it brings people together to stand up for animals.

To join the fun, sign up to host your own event or find an event near you at the Party Animals website. I hope you will be there with me and thousands of other animal advocates from coast to coast, as we rally toward Election Day with our “Humane Voting Bloc Party.”

Uncage the Truth

Ever since “The Meatrix” came out in 2003, I’ve wanted to work with Free Range Studios. Now, the aptly named moviemakers are shining a spotlight on more factory farm abuses, and their new animated film urges Californians to vote YES! on Proposition 2 this November.

Watch this hilarious new video, “Uncaged,” and then be sure to share it with your friends in California. The election is just 38 days away, and the animals need this hit song to go platinum between now and then.

Paw-litical Pets

Last month I reported on congressional candidates who are harnessing pet power on the campaign trail. Now that we’re less than six weeks from Election Day, the race to the White House, too, is getting some attention from our canine and feline friends.

It seems that blogs and websites dedicated to presidential paw-litics are breeding faster than unneutered alley cats. There’s Pet the Vote! which has photos and video clips such as John McCain’s dog making an appearance during a television interview and a kitten watching Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention.

The Dog Vote allows users to follow the Doggie Electoral Map, and order bandanas for pooches who want to show their support—blue for Obama and red for McCain, of course. On Bark the Vote, five-pound Schmitty takes a bite out of voter apathy by directing pet owners to online voter registration.

Some of these sites have much more partisan bite in their bark. Gina Spadafori and other dog and cat bloggers have joined together to spread the word for the Democratic ticket on Bark Obama! (this week they highlighted the Humane Society Legislative Fund’s endorsement). Activist canines are showing their support at rallies across the country with doggie t-shirts such as Mutts for Obama or Mutts for McCain.

When Sarah Palin’s friends told Good Morning America that the vice presidential nominee doesn’t like cats, The New York Times’ columnist Paul Krugman gave us Cats Against Palin. These might be the same cats who can be seen showing their candidate preference on Cats for Obama. And the infamous convention joke about hockey moms and a certain maligned dog breed has led to Pit Bulls Against Palin, a t-shirt campaign featuring Vivian, a four-year-old rescued spokesdog.

The next president will have an enormous impact on the lives of pets, and will oversee federal agencies that combat dogfighting, inspect puppy mills, and confront other abuses. It’s no surprise that pet lovers are speaking out, and over the next 40 days we can expect to hear more from the Demo-cats, Re-pup-licans, and Inde-pet-dents.

Of course, it's not just the presidential race that is bringing pets out on the stump, but state elections as well. California pooches are rallying around the state at "Pet out the Vote" events for Proposition 2, sending the message that all animals deserve humane treatment, including animals raised for food. They've got their own t-shirts, too, for both the Demo-cats and the Re-pup-licans supporting Prop 2. Check out these photos from the canines for Prop 2 in Bakersfield, Sacramento, Santa Monica, and elswewhere.