WASHINGTON (Sept. 24, 2014) -- The Humane Society Legislative Fund, the nation’s leading political advocacy organization for animal welfare, announces its endorsement of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., for re-election to the U.S. Senate. Citing her support of animal protection legislation, the HSLF urges Louisiana voters to support Sen. Landrieu in November’s general election.
“Most people love animals, but Senator Landrieu fights for them in the U.S. Senate like few others do,” said Sara Amundson, executive director of the HSLF. “Though she’s been a strong advocate on a wide range of anti-cruelty issues, she’s been the leader to prevent the re-establishing of horse slaughter plants in the United States. She knows that Americans love horses, and they don’t want them randomly collected, and inhumanely transported and slaughtered, and sent to foreign markets for human consumption.”
The HSLF publishes an annual Humane Scorecard of Congress to give voters a snapshot of every federal legislator's record on animal protection issues; Sen. Landrieu three times achieved a perfect score of 100 for votes in favor of animal welfare measures before the U.S. Senate. Sen. Landrieu was also awarded the HSLF’s Legislator of the Year Award in 2013, as well as The Humane Society of the United States’ 2011 Humane Horsewoman of the Year award.
Among her other efforts, in the 113th Congress, Sen. Landrieu:
- Is the prime sponsor of the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act (S. 541) to prohibit the slaughter and export of horses for human consumption overseas.
- Co-sponsored the Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act (S. 1406) to strengthen the federal law against the “soring” of show horses—using caustic chemicals and other painful substances to injure the horses’ hooves and legs to induce a high-stepping gait.
- Co-sponsored the Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments (S. 820) to ban barren battery cages in the egg industry and improve the treatment of hundreds of millions of laying hens.
- Co-sponsored the Animal Fighting Spectator Prohibition Act (S. 666), which was included in the 2014 Farm Bill, making it a federal crime to attend or bring a child to a dogfight or cockfight.
- Co-sponsored the Captive Primate Safety Act (S. 1463) to prohibit the interstate commerce in chimpanzees and other primates in the exotic pet trade, which poses a danger to animal welfare and to public health and safety.
- Sponsored a successful Agriculture Appropriations amendment to bar USDA expenditures on horse slaughter inspection to prevent any efforts to spend tax dollars allowing the resumption of horse slaughter for human consumption on U.S. soil.
- Co-signed a group letter opposing the dangerous and overreaching “King amendment,” which threatened to nullify hundreds of state and local laws on food safety, animal welfare and agriculture, and was nixed from the 2014 Farm Bill.
- Supported efforts to provide adequate funding for the enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act, Horse Protection Act, Humane Methods of Slaughter Act and federal animal fighting law, as well as for programs to address the needs of animals in disasters and to ease a shortage of veterinarians in rural and inner-city areas and at the U.S. Department of Agriculture through student loan forgiveness.
- Supported efforts to assist in the permanent placement of government-owned chimpanzees retired from research laboratories to the national chimpanzee sanctuary system at Louisiana-based Chimp Haven, and to give the National Institutes of Health the much-needed flexibility within its budget to continue funding these less-costly sanctuaries. Facilities such as Chimp Haven provide better care to chimps and save taxpayer dollars.
Media Contact: Martin Montorfano, (202) 676-2347, mmontorfano@hslf.org
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HSLF is a nonpartisan organization that evaluates candidates based only on a single criterion: where they stand on animal welfare. HSLF does not judge candidates based on party affiliation or any other issue.
The Humane Society Legislative Fund is a social welfare organization incorporated under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code and formed in 2004 as a separate lobbying affiliate of The Humane Society of the United States. The HSLF works to pass animal protection laws at the state and federal level, to educate the public about animal protection issues, and to support humane candidates for office. Visit us on all our channels: on the web at hslf.org, on our blog at animalsandpolitics.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/humanelegislation and on Twitter at twitter.com/HSLegFund.
Paid for by Humane Society Legislative Fund and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. HSLF, 1255 23rd Street, NW, Suite 455, Washington, DC 20037.
