Uncategorized

Woodrow Wilson was in the White House. The Spanish flu pandemic swept the globe. World War I was just ending. A lot has happened since 1918, but one thing has stayed the same for these 93 years: Mourning doves have been protected in Iowa. Sadly, that may change this fall, under a new bill fast-tracked through the capitol this week, with hardly a word of debate. It’s one of the most cynical and underhanded maneuvers of political gamesmanship that I have seen in any state legislature.

Hunting advocate and environmental writer Ted Williams recently wrote a feature story for Audubon magazine, titled “Real Hunters Don’t Shoot Pets,” exploring the so-called “canned hunts” that allow paying customers to shoot tame animals stocked in fenced pens for guaranteed trophies.

Last month, in response to a legal petition filed by The HSUS, the U.S. Department of Agriculture tentatively approved new rules to protect downed calves—those unable even to stand up on their own—from abuse. Under current federal law, slaughter plants have the option of setting aside calves who are too weak or injured to stand—so-called “downer” calves—and slaughtering them later.

At the start of this year’s state legislative season, the Colbert Report singled out a Utah bill by Rep. Curtis Oda, R-Clearfield, for raising the bar on legislative lunacy. Oda’s bill, HB 210, would allow people to kill cats, dogs, and other animals believed to be feral, through shooting, blows to the head, or decapitation.

The House last weekend passed its version of a “Continuing Resolution” (CR) to fund federal government programs through the end of Fiscal Year 2011 (which runs from October 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011). The government is now operating on a CR passed in December that funds the government through next Friday. The House bill would cut $61 billion from a variety of programs, and it’s not clear yet how the House and Senate will reach agreement in order to prevent a government shutdown.

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

State legislatures have convened around the country for the 2011 sessions, and some lawmakers are taking aim at one of the oldest forms of animal abuse first targeted by the early humane movement.

The 111th Congress turned out to be a very productive session that ushered in several major policy reforms for animal welfare that were top priorities for HSUS and HSLF. This occurred despite the challenges of moving legislation forward in a competitive and often polarized climate. Though several good bills were left undone, animals won important victories in the 111th Congress, which ran from January 2009 to December 2010. Today I provide a wrap-up of how animal protection fared overall in the congressional session that just ended, and what’s ahead in the coming year.

I wrote in July about a misguided federal agency plan to transfer about 200 government-owned chimpanzees from a warehouse facility in New Mexico to an active research laboratory in Texas—and now I can convey some good news on this front.

It has been a tremendous couple of weeks for national animal protection issues, as the U.S. Congress rushed to finish business in this lame-duck session. We are on our way to having three federal policies enacted in December that have long been priorities for HSLF and HSUS, and coupled with the other achievements in Congress and the 97 new animal protection laws at the state level, they are marking 2010 as a great year for animals.