I wrote last year about California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s misguided plan to add a sales tax to veterinary services as part of a larger set of proposals to deal with the state’s multi-billion dollar budget shortfall.
I spent yesterday at the Liberation Christian Center in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago’s south side, where Michael Vick spoke to at-risk youth and urged them not to get involved in dogfighting.
Congressional town hall meetings are erupting in violence over the health care issue. A lobbying firm for the coal industry forged letters supposedly from local groups unhappy with climate change legislation. It seems that grassroots lobbying is getting a bad rap these days.
This fall, for the first time in more than 15 years, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a major animal protection case. The high court will decide whether to uphold a 1999 federal law that bans the commercial sale of videos depicting extreme and illegal acts of animal cruelty, such as dogfighting and other deliberate and malicious acts.
It’s been a good week for marine life. The House of Representatives emphatically passed two bills to protect sea otters and turtles.
The Hill, a “must read” newspaper for Washington policy makers, this week published a special edition on animal welfare for the first time in its 15 years of publication.
Legislation can move slowly in Congress, but there are several wildlife protection bills moving with the speed and grace of a cheetah.
The bond between people and animals is a strong one—and can even be a healing one. Pets are good for our emotional and physical health, and studies show that having a pet can lower your blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Caring for a companion animal provides a sense of purpose and fulfillment and lessens feelings of loneliness and isolation in people of all ages.
The U.S. House of Representatives this morning passed H.R. 1018, the Restore Our American Mustangs Act, by a vote of 239-185.
Yesterday’s coordinated dogfighting raids across eight states vividly demonstrate why we worked so vigorously and for so long to pass a federal law making animal fighting a felony crime.
