Dear John,

You are receiving this email because of your previous support of the Center for a Humane Economy and our work for animals—by donating, sharing our emails, or taking action of another kind. We are grateful for that support, and we hope you’ll resume your work with us and your support of our life-saving work for animals. This truly is a consequential year and the battle for animals is at a critical juncture, with two key pieces of legislation that have the potential to affect the lives of animals for decades to come. We need your help.

The first piece of legislation is the Farm Bill. Renewed every five years, the Farm Bill is a massive, must-pass legislative package. We have an opportunity to amend it with key pro-animal provisions: amendments to stop the live export of horses for slaughter for human consumption, to end greyhound racing in the United States once and for all, to crack down on the barbaric practices of dogfighting and cockfighting, and more. If we miss this legislative train, we may not otherwise be able to pass these animal protection reforms. We must seize this opportunity. I hope we can count on you.

The second piece of legislation is the EATS Act—a very dangerous and anti-animal bill that, should it be enacted, would undo decades of animal-welfare advances at the state level. It is championed by Big Ag and the politicians beholden to the factory farm lobby as a way to prevent states from adopting meaningful policies to stop the extreme confinement of breeding sows in the pig industry and laying hens in the egg industry.

The EATS Act comes courtesy of the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and from its biggest member—the Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods, which controls the lives of one in six pigs bred on U.S. soil. These major factory-farming players don’t want any animal-welfare rules in law in the U.S. and they want to consolidate their control over American agriculture, wiping out family farmers who give the animals some room to move in their more humane housing systems. The EATS Act is their diabolical legislative package and its first effect is to repeal California’s Prop 12 to protect farm animals. Other dominos would fall, with dozens of animal welfare laws going by the wayside.

The NPPC is shamelessly working to keep pigs in extreme confinement. The trade association lost at the ballot box time and again and they lost in the federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Now the group is pleading with Congress and donating money to lawmakers and asking them to unwind democratically adopted state laws. And they are doing it on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, which is pulling the strings at Smithfield.

We must be sure the Farm Bill includes provisions to protect horses, dogs, roosters, and other animals. At the same time, we must block the EATS Act from hitching a ride on the Farm Bill. It’s a complicated set of actions, but these are pivotal, high-stakes actions for animals. We are fighting them right now. Today. And we need your help.

Thanks to a generous donor, we have secured a matching gift. Each dollar you donate will be doubled up to $25,000, thanks to an anonymous donor who will match your gift. With this matching gift, we can infuse our campaign to defeat EATS with $50,000.

That’s twice the publicity to expose the attempt by China to undercut American elections at the state level. Twice the lobbying power we can deliver on Capitol Hill. Twice the number of emails and social media messages we can deliver to voters in key states. Twice the videos we can show to our Representatives and Senators so they see that confinement crates are so small that the female pigs cannot even turn around. The poor animals are immobilized—for as long as three years.

I assure you, our opponents are not hurting for resources. They have spent millions in the federal courts and at the ballot box. Now they are spending millions in Congress.

While money is important, it will not be the final word. On our side, we have you.

We need you—you and others like you who refuse to see animals lose in the unending contests between cruelty and kindness, and commerce and compassion.

Please consider giving any amount today to help us get the match and to make the difference you and I want for animals.

For the animals,

Wayne Pacelle President Center for a Humane Economy