͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌To prevent cruelty to animals, we promote enacting and enforcing good public policies. To enact good laws, we must elect good lawmakers, and that’s why we remind voters which candidates care about our issues and which ones don’t. If you’d like to unsubscribe, click here. [[link removed]]

​# [#]
Updates on Our Tangible Work on Behalf of Animals

Summary

*
New
Balance
agreed
to
halt
sourcing
kangaroo
skins
by
the
end
of
next
year.
*
The
U.S.
House
approved
our
amendment
to
stipulate
that
$1
million
or
more
will
be
spent
on
enforcement
actions
against
cockfighters
and
dogfighters
under
federal
law.
*
We
launched
a
ballot
measure
in
Colorado
to
end
trophy
hunting
of
mountain
lions
and
trophy
hunting
and
trapping
of
bobcats.
*
We
continued
to
press
to
stop
the
EATS
Act—which
would
repeal
Prop
12
and
Question
3
in
Massachusetts.
*
We
are
building
major
momentum
for
our
Farm
bill
priorities:
the
FIGHT
Act
(animal
fighting),
the
SAFE
Act
(horse
slaughter),
and
the
Greyhound
Protection
Act.
*
The
ADD
SOY
Act
is
now
introduced
in
both
chambers
of
Congress.
*
We
have
requested,
in
partnership
with
our
in-house
and
affiliated
scientists,
an
FDA
rulemaking
action
to
conform
agency
regulations
with
the
plain
language
of
the
FDA
Modernization
Act
2.0
and
its
elimination
of
the
decades-long
mandate
for
animal
testing.

New Balance Says It Will Halt Sourcing of Kangaroo Skins for Shoes
New Balance informed the Center for a Humane Economy at the end of September that it has altered its sourcing policies [[link removed]] to phase out by the end of next year its use of kangaroo skins for its soccer cleats. This major announcement comes six months after Puma and then Nike announced similar policies, with both of those companies ending sourcing and sales of the skins by the end of this year. Since the Center began its Kangaroos Are Not Shoes campaign just more than three years ago, four of the five biggest global athletic shoe brands have announced they are shedding kangaroos from their supply chains (Diadora, based in Italy, is the fourth). Adidas, based in Germany, is the major outlier among the five top brands, though there are some other shoe companies still using kangaroo skins, including Mizuno.

Our friends and partners at Their Turn have conducted multiple protests at Adidas flagship stores in New York City, entering the stores and demanding the company halt its financing of kangaroo killing in Australia. Actor James Cromwell [[link removed]] joined the protest, chanting that “kangaroos are not shoes” in the store and alerting customers to Adidas’s role in a cruel wildlife trade.

TAKE ACTION: Support the legislation here [[link removed]] , and sign the petition for Dick’s Sporting Goods here. [[link removed]]

House Backs $1 million Amendment in Dedicated Funds for Animal Fighting Enforcement
In late September, the U.S. House of Representatives, without dissent, passed an amendment [[link removed]] to require at least $1 million in spending on casework against animal fighting by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General, with the aim to apprehend the people driving this illicit animal cruelty. Animal Wellness Action conceived and successfully lobbied the measure, led by two great champions of our cause — U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., and Vern Buchanan, R-Fla. It was considered as an amendment to H.R. 4368, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, for Fiscal Year 2024

It’s hard to fathom that there may be as many as 20 million fighting birds in our homeland. That’s precisely why we are working to fortify the legal and enforcement framework to shut it all down, including by providing for a private right of action in new federal legislation called the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act. We are building major momentum [[link removed]] for this national legislation, introduced by U.S. Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and John Kennedy, R-La., and U.S. Reps. Don Bacon, R-Neb., and Andrea Salinas, D-Ore [[link removed]] . Already, it has attracted more than 300 organizations and agencies in the animal welfare, law enforcement, gaming, agriculture, and conservation communities. But there is opposition, including from Congressman James Moylan, R-Guam, who introduced H.R. 5650 [[link removed]] to repeal key prohibitions against animal fighting [[link removed]] in the U.S. territories. Animal Wellness Action strongly opposes this outrageous effort to legalize cockfighting, after Congress progressively restricted cockfighting through five separate lawmaking efforts in 2002, 2007, 2008, 2014, and 2018.

Note: We also saw the first prosecution under the Big Cat Public Safety Act [[link removed]] , which we worked to pass in 2022 in partnership with Big Cat Rescue.

TAKE ACTION: Easily write to your legislators here [[link removed]] . Part of an organization or group willing to endorse the bill? Go here [[link removed]] .

Animal Wellness Launches Measure to Ban Trophy Hunting, Trapping of Big Cats
Cats Aren’t Trophies (CATs) [[link removed]] , a new political committee in Colorado, has filed 2024 ballot language to ban trophy hunting of mountain lions and trapping or hounding of bobcats or lynx. Mountain lion trophy hunters use a pack of dogs — up to eight — fitted with GPS collars to keep track of the pack as it chases a fleeing cat up into a tree. The “hunter” then finds the location with high-tech telemetry equipment, walks up, and shoots the cat off of a tree limb. Trophy hunting guides offer these “guaranteed” kills for a bucket list trophy tom, collecting fees of up to $8,000 for a highly commercialized exercise for their clients.

This campaign, thanks to Animal Wellness Action, marks the return of the ballot initiative process in the animal movement, after two cycles with no statewide campaigns in the United States. With our guidance, CATs worked to place a column in the Denver Post [[link removed]] to frame the issue and that same piece ran in papers throughout the state, including the Greeley Tribune [[link removed]] , Boulder Daily Camera [[link removed]] , and Longmont Times Call [[link removed]] . Two of our spokespersons conducted an interview on KGNU radio [[link removed]] , and the Denver Post [[link removed]] (if you cannot read it behind paywall, a replica of that story ran in the Spokesman Review [[link removed]] ) ran a feature on the campaign, and a couple of days before that, so did the Grand Junction Sentinel [[link removed]] . This ballot measure will draw national attention given that trophy hunters and trappers kill 500 lions and 2,000 bobcats a year in Colorado.

TAKE ACTION: Live in Colorado and want to volunteer? Go here [[link removed]] .

Congressional Effort to Repeal Prop 12, Question 3 on Life Support
Animal Wellness Action, the Center for a Humane Economy, and key allies have the proponents of the EATS Act — a measure to repeal key state laws to help animals, mainly Prop 12 in California and Question 3 in Massachusetts — on the defensive. We helped organize letters from 171 House lawmakers [[link removed]] and 30 Senators [[link removed]] in August urging Agriculture Committee leaders to reject the EATS Act as an amendment to the Farm bill, with additional Congressional opposition soon to follow. A number of news reports indicate that the backers of the EATS Act are facing an uphill fight [[link removed]] to pass the measure, given our fierce defense of Prop 12 and Question 3. You can read Wayne Pacelle’s exposé of the China-NPPC connection [[link removed]] and Dr. Jim Keen’s essay against the EATS Act in the Des Moines Register [[link removed]] .

The Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action released a new August 2023 report [[link removed]] on EATS, Prop 12, and Question 3, conducting this virtual press conference [[link removed]] and this news release [[link removed]] announcing key findings in that report. The report reveals that the industry has been in transition [[link removed]] for more than two decades since Florida banned the use of gestation crates in 2002 and that it has existing capacity to supply gestation-crate free pork to states and companies that are demanding an end to extreme confinement of sows.

TAKE ACTION: Go here [[link removed]] to send an email to lawmakers and oppose the EATS Act.

Farm Bill May Be Vehicle for Key Policy Reforms for Animals Action
With five years having passed since the last Farm bill, Congress is due to pass this new Farm bill and, because of hard work and an outpouring of grassroots concerns, more than a half-dozen animal welfare policies could find their way into the final version of it [[link removed]] . Three measures, if enacted, would close out what many people view as horrid practices that have endured for decades in the United States. *
Animal
Fighting.
The
FIGHT
Act
[[link removed]]
would
ban
shipping
roosters
by
U.S.
mail
for
fighting,
would
allow
private
citizens
to
sue
dogfighters
and
cockfighters
when
federal
law
enforcement
fails
to
act
on
known
information
about
ongoing
criminal
fighting
ventures,
and
outlaw
online
gambling
on
dogfighting
and
cockfighting.
More
than
300
groups
and
agencies
have
endorsed
the
FIGHT
Act,
including
the
American
Gaming
Association
[[link removed]]
,
Small
and
Rural
Law
Enforcement
Executive
Association
[[link removed]]
,
Rose
Acre
Farms
[[link removed]]
,
Indiana
State
Poultry
Federation
[[link removed]]
,
Pennsylvania
Sheriffs’
Association,
Vital
Farms,
and
the
United
Egg
Producers.
We’ve
noted
the
murder
and
mayhem
[[link removed]]
associated
with
animal
fighting,
along
with
infectious
disease
threats
from
cockfighting
[[link removed]]
.
*
Horse
Slaughter.
The
SAFE
Act
[[link removed]]
comes
just
months
after
we
partnered
with
Animals’
Angels
on
a
North
American
investigation
[[link removed]]
documenting
that
the
extraterritorial
slaughter
of
American
horses
is
rapidly
waning
but
still
a
merciless
journey
for
around
20,000
American
horses
a
year.
New
York
State
is
poised
to
join
California,
Illinois,
New
Jersey,
and
Texas
in
banning
horse
slaughter
for
human
consumption
[[link removed]]
,
underscoring
that
big
border
states
want
to
end
the
live
export
of
horses
for
slaughter
to
Canada
and
Mexico.
*
Greyhound
racing.
The
Greyhound
Protection
Act
[[link removed]]
would
end
gambling
on
live
racing
in
the
United
States
and
ban
foreign
tracks
from
simulcasting
their
races
here
at
home.
A
generation
ago,
there
were
60
greyhound
racing
tracks.
Today,
tracks
hang
on
in
just
two
small
cities
in
West
Virginia.
The
industry,
battered
by
an
unyielding
movement
to
ban
racing,
has
shed
tracks
one
at
a
time
and
also
in
larger
bunches
as
now
42
states
have
banned
greyhound
racing.

Key Lawmakers Working to End Milk Mandate and Give Kids Choice
Animal Wellness Action, the Center, and Switch4Good lauded U.S. Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., John Kennedy, R-La., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., for introducing the ADD SOY Act [[link removed]] to give kids a nutritionally equivalent, plant-based milk option to cow’s milk in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Reps. Troy Carter, D-La., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced the companion bill some weeks ago because perhaps half of the 30 million kids participating in the NSLP are lactose intolerant.

Under law, the USDA spends $1 billion a year of taxpayer dollars to fulfill a “milk mandate” in public schools, even though 70-95 percent [[link removed]] of Black, Pacific Islander and Asian, Native American, and Latino individuals are lactose intolerant. In fact, the National Institutes of Health reports [[link removed]] the majority of all people have a reduced ability to digest lactose after infancy, and lactose intolerance “is also very common in people of West African, Arab, Jewish, Greek, and Italian descent.” This “milk mandate” leads to millions of kids getting ill in the classroom (making the learning experience more difficult) and also to extraordinary food and fiscal waste. According to the USDA’s findings, 29 percent of the cartons of milk served in our schools are thrown in the garbage unopened, sending at least $300 million in tax dollars into the trash. Another study found that kids discard 45 million gallons of milk each year. The Soy Nutrition Institute Global “advocates for the removal of this specific requirement to ensure the foods and beverages in school meals serve all children.”

TAKE ACTION: Let your lawmakers know you want to ease the suffering of dairy cows by going here [[link removed]] . Part of an organization or group willing to endorse the bill? Go here to add your team’s name.


For the animals,

Wayne Pacelle [[link removed]] Wayne Pacelle
President
Animal Wellness Action
[[link removed]] DONATE NOW [[link removed]]
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