WASHINGTON, D.C. — Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, issued the following statement in response to the release of the draft Farm bill by the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee:
The most significant animal welfare development in the Senate Agriculture Committee’s draft Farm bill is what is not in it. The committee wisely omitted the so-called Save Our Bacon Act, a sweeping federal overreach measure designed to nullify voter-approved farm animal welfare laws in California and Massachusetts that enjoyed massive support from Americans from all political persuasions.
The Save Our Bacon Act has been hemorrhaging support in the Senate. Not a single Democrat supports it, and there is growing and substantial GOP opposition. Lawmakers don’t want to displace American family farmers and allow China’s Smithfield Foods to expand its already massive footprint in the pork industry.
More than 10 million Americans voted in favor of Proposition 12 and Question 3. When it garnered 7.5 million votes in November 2018, Prop 12 amassed more votes than any senate victor in the history of the republic.
At the same time, the draft bill omits several important animal protection priorities that have attracted overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress. We hope the committee will consider these measures during markup or that senators will advance them on the floor, including the FIGHT Act to combat organized animal fighting and the SAFE Act to end the slaughter of American horses for human consumption.
The draft bill also contains troubling provisions, including language that would prop up America’s shrinking and disease-prone mink industry and preserve a decades-old taxpayer subsidy for foreign fashion shows. “This special-interest provision, for a dying industry promoting a luxury product for a handful of foreign consumers in China, is impossible to rationally justify at a time when lawmakers should be focused on public health, fiscal responsibility, and strengthening humane and sustainable agriculture,” added Pacelle. “The law forbidding funding for foreign fashion shows in China has been in place for 30 years, so its inclusion is a radical departure from this long-standing congressional consensus that taxpayers should not foot the foreign advertising bill for the mink industry.”
Animal Wellness Action is calling on U.S. Senators to build in strong animal welfare provisions in the bill if it moves to a committee markup and then to the floor. The FIGHT Act, S. 1454, by Senators John Kennedy, R-La., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., has nearly 1,200 endorsing agencies and organizations and broad bipartisan support, with 10 Republicans and 11 Democrats as cosponsors. S. 775, by Senators Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., to forbid the slaughter of American horses for human consumption also has broad bipartisan support. And the House provision to ban greyhound racing should be replicated in the Senate. Just two struggling dog-racing tracks remain, with 58 other tracks closing in the last three decades.