The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has denounced the animal-related provisions in the $1.5 trillion Farm Bill unveiled by the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, which would directly affect millions of farm animals, dogs, cats, and horses. The ASPCA said in a press statement that the draft bill includes dangerous provisions that would overturn existing state and local animal welfare laws, with disastrous consequences for farm animals and higher-welfare farmers.
Furthermore, it said, the bill not only fails to provide critically needed enforcement advancements to protect dogs in puppy mills, it actually makes it harder to help dogs that are suffering. The organization also said the bill fails to protect tens of thousands of American horses which are exported for slaughter each year.
Founded in 1866, the ASPCA was the first animal welfare organization established in North America. Today it serves as the USA’s leading voice for vulnerable and victimized animals. As a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation with more than two million supporters, it is committed to preventing cruelty to dogs, cats, equines, and farm animals throughout the USA.
“We are incredibly disappointed to see that the House Agriculture Committee has squandered this critical opportunity to provide meaningful reforms to systems that have long perpetuated cruelty to dogs in puppy mills and billions of animals raised for food on factory farms,” said Nancy Perry, senior vice-president of government relations for the ASPCA. “The draft Farm Bill attacks state protections for farm animals, puts dogs in puppy mills at greater risk, and fails to address the horse slaughter crisis.”
Calling it “too harmful to support”, Perry urged Congress to ensure that the final Farm Bill “upholds state farm animal protection laws, institutes much-needed funding and transparency measures to support a more humane food system, and includes both Goldie’s Act and the SAFE Act, bipartisan bills that are critical to ensuring the welfare of dogs, horses, and other animals”.
The House Farm Bill includes the following animal-related provisions:
- Puppy Mills: Instead of advancing protections for dogs in puppy mills, the language included in the Farm Bill allows the U.S. Department of Agriculture to continue lax enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act, the ASPCA said. These provisions codify some of the department’s worst practices, all of which lead to animal suffering being ignored. The ASPCA urged Congress to include the full text of Goldie’s Act in the final Farm Bill to require the USDA to conduct frequent and meaningful inspections, provide lifesaving intervention for suffering animals, issue penalties for violations, and communicate with local law enforcement to address cruelty and neglect.
- Farm Animals: The House bill includes so-called “compromise” language based on the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression Act, a dangerous overreach of federal power that would eliminate existing state and local animal welfare laws, including bans on cruel farming practices. This language is a transparent attempt to acquiesce to the demands of industrial agriculture interests, steamrollering states’ rights and ignoring the will of voters, the ASPCA said. If this language stays in the Farm Bill, millions of farm animals will be forced back into cages while thousands of independent, higher-welfare farmers will be further disadvantaged in a marketplace unfairly dominated by factory farming.
The House’s version of the Farm Bill could be voted on by the House Agriculture Committee as soon as Thursday. The ASPCA urged members of the public to contact their U.S. representatives to urge them to pass a more humane Farm Bill that protects animals, people, and the planet.
Source: PR Newswire
