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​# [#]Our Monthly Accomplishments and Update
The Center for a Humane Economy

May-June 2024

Summary

*
Animal
advocates
made
their
presence
known
at
Adidas’s
general
shareholder
meeting
in
Fürth
and
zeroed
in
on
its
sourcing
of
kangaroo
skins.
At
the
meeting,
CEO
Björn
Gulden
signaled
that
a
policy
change
may
be
imminent,
a
key
goal
of
our
Kangaroos
Are
Not
Shoes
campaign.
*
There
has
been
a
drumbeat
of
arrests
of
animal
fighters
and
shutdowns
of
pits.
Still,
more
enforcement
is
required,
and
we
are
asking
Congress
to
pass
the
FIGHT
Act,
now
endorsed
by
the
National
Sheriffs’
Association
and
the
National
District
Attorneys
Association,
together
representing
5,000
elected
law
enforcement
personnel.
*
A
political
committee
formed
by
sister
organization
Animal
Wellness
Action
will
submit
approximately
180,000
signatures
on
July
3
to
qualify
a
November
ballot
measure
in
Colorado
to
ban
trophy
hunting
of
mountain
lions
and
bobcats
and
commercial
trapping
of
bobcats—the
first
statewide
ballot
measure
for
animals
since
Prop
12
(farm
animals)
and
Amendment
13
(ban
on
greyhound
racing
in
Florida)
in
2018.
*
Vermont
banned
trade
in
bear
bile
and
bear
gallbladders,
as
we
press
for
a
national
ban
to
cover
outlier
states
and
imports
and
exports
of
trafficked
bear
parts.
*
The
U.S.
Supreme
Court
declined
to
hear
a
challenge
to
the
newly
implemented
Horse
Racing
Integrity
and
Safety
Act,
allowing
the
national
horse
safety
law
to
remain
in
place
and
protect
horses
in
competition
from
catastrophic
injuries
and
death.
*
We
have
enlisted
132
organizations
and
the
Commission
of
Public
Lands
in
Washington
state
as
we
continue
to
fight
a
plan
by
the
U.S.
Fish
and
Wildlife
Service
to
execute
an
inhumane,
unworkable,
and
costly
proposal
to
spend
nearly
a
quarter
of
a
billion
dollars
to
kill
nearly
a
half-million
barred
owls
over
the
next
three
decades.

KANGAROOS ARE NOT SHOES
Adidas CEO calls kangaroo killing ‘terrible’ and signals that policy change looms
In May, at its general shareholder meeting in Fürth, Germany, Adidas CEO Björn Gulden acknowledged [[link removed]] that the commercial industry of killing kangaroos to make shoes is “terrible” and announced [[link removed]] that the company may “switch faster than you think” toward fabrics not made from kangaroos. Gulden was leading Puma in March 2023 when that company announced it would end its sourcing of kangaroo skins. Nike and then New Balance followed Puma’s pledge. (The Center is cautious about Adidas pledges, since it reneged on a promise 10 years ago to exit the kangaroo-skin trade.)

The Center worked with the German-based Animal Rebellion on the disruption, along with organizing questions from shareholders. Meanwhile, the Center underscored with Adidas [[link removed]] that there are very practical consequences of its sourcing policy. We reported that a jogger rescued a 6-month-old joey from inside the pouch of its decapitated mother in Queensland, Australia. The jogger heard cries coming from the remnants of a commercial killing site—where two adult kangaroos and a wallaroo had been beheaded. We’ve long pointed out that the shooting kills hundreds of thousands of lactating females with dependent young, dooming joeys in the pouch or at the feet of their slain mothers.

ANIMAL FIGHTING IS THE PITS
National Sheriffs’ Assoc. and National District Attorneys Assoc. endorse FIGHT Act
The National Sheriffs’ Association [[link removed]] and the National District Attorneys Association—representing more than 5,000 elected sheriffs and district attorneys in our nation’s 3,100 counties—have endorsed [[link removed]] the FIGHT Act, H.R. 2742 [[link removed]] /S. 1529. Meanwhile, more of their county sheriffs and district attorneys [[link removed]] are busting animal fighting operations, with record numbers of arrests. We continue to point out that trafficking of cockfighting birds is a key feature of America’s border crisis [[link removed]] .

Also in Oklahoma, we defeated all bills [[link removed]] to overturn Oklahoma’s voter-approved anti-cockfighting law [[link removed]] . Remarkably, the state’s leading cockfighting lawmaker, State Rep. J.J. Humphrey, still had the temerity to issue a welcome video for participants at an annual gathering of the World Association of Cockfighting Breeders [[link removed]] . “I appreciate all that you’re doing worldwide to save this industry,” Humphrey says in the video [[link removed]] .

HALTING TROPHY HUNTING
We’re submitting 180,000 signatures for anti-trophy-hunting ballot measure
Cats Aren’t Trophies (CATs), a political committee formed in Colorado by sister organization Animal Wellness Action, is on the cusp of submitting 180,000 signatures of registered voters to qualify a ballot measure to ban trophy hunting of mountain lions [[link removed]] and commercial trapping of native bobcats [[link removed]] . If this measure qualifies, it will be the first animal welfare ballot measure [[link removed]] to appear on a statewide ballot since Prop 12 (anti-confinement measure in California) and Amendment 13 (greyhound racing ban in Florida) in 2018. A major fight will ensue between our groups and the NRA and Safari Club International.

By creating a law—like statutes to oppose cruelty to animals or animal fighting—Animal Wellness Action can stop trophy hunters [[link removed]] and commercial trappers [[link removed]] from slaying as many as 2,500 native cats a year in Colorado. If enacted, the policy will spare 25,000 wild cats over the next decade.

PROTECTING BEARS
Vermont bans trade in bear bile and gallbladders
The Center helped lead passage of legislation in Vermont [[link removed]] to prohibit the sale of bear bile and other internal organs used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The measure aligns Vermont with more than 40 other states to restrict trade in gallbladders and bile to halt poaching.

A key partner organization—Protect Our Wildlife Vermont—documented trafficking of bear gallbladders and bile within the borders of the Green Mountain state, and that revelation motivated the legislative fight. The extraction of these bodily fluids involves killing wild bears or “farming” bears and keeping them in extreme confinement, driving poaching in the wild.

The Center is supporting national legislation to forbid any interstate or foreign trade in bear gallbladders and bile. In 2022, the Chinese Ministry of Health controversially endorsed bear bile as a palliative treatment for COVID-19, potentially exacerbating the exploitation of bears worldwide. Bear farms, notorious for their inhumane practices, continue to operate in China and other countries and pose a threat to both captive and wild bear populations.

NO DOPING IN HORSE RACING
SCOTUS lets key federal appellate court ruling stand on national horse safety law
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge [[link removed]] to the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA), rejecting an appeal from horse-racing interests who do not want to submit to comprehensive anti-doping rules. As a result, track safety standards for Thoroughbreds in competition remain in place across most of the nation. The continued implementation of the national law that Animal Wellness Action worked to pass in 2020 is vital for the well-being of horses, jockeys, and drivers. America’s racetracks should not be routine crash sites.

Several horse racing industry groups challenged HISA by filing the appeal that came to SCOTUS from the Sixth Circuit ruling. Since Thoroughbred tracks began complying with HISA, racing-related deaths have declined significantly—by 38 percent according to one metrics report for 2024. Racetracks operating under HISA’s rules and running races in the first quarter reported 0.84 racing-related equine fatalities per 1,000 starts, compared to 1.35 racing-related equine fatalities per 1,000 starts in the first quarter of 2023.

Not all Thoroughbred tracks are under HISA control, however, as racing commissions in several states refuse to comply, including those in Texas, Louisiana [[link removed]] , and West Virginia. In those racing jurisdictions, deaths continue to mount. It’s our goal to see that tracks in those states and the harness-racing industry opt into the track safety program. Nine accidents have occurred at eight harness-racing tracks since May 8, leading to the deaths of seven horses and trips to the hospital for seven drivers.

SPARING OWLS
We stand against a federal plan to kill half-million barred owls
The list of organizations signing our letter in opposition to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan to kill nearly 500,000 barred owls in the Pacific Northwest has now swelled to 132 [[link removed]] and now includes 20 local Audubon society chapters, including several in Washington State. The Fish and Wildlife Service says the goal is to reduce competition with spotted owls, and the agency seems hellbent on proceeding with this awful plan.

In late June, we won the support of Hilary S. Franz, Commissioner of Public Lands for Washington state, who planned this impractical idea [[link removed]] . “I don’t believe that a decades-long plan to kill nearly half-a-million barred owls across 14 million acres of land represents a solution that is absolutely viable, affordable or capable,” she said in a video [[link removed]] that was part of a June 20 webinar for Animal Wellness Action.

“How can we prevent the surviving barred owls from simply recolonizing and repopulating the very areas we are trying to preserve?” said Commissioner Franz, who manages three million acres of land in Washington. “I think we can do better, and we have too many questions that need to be answered.” Her letter is posted here [[link removed]] .

Our webinar [[link removed]] also featured former USFWS wildlife biologist Kent Livezey, who pegged the cost of the kill plan at $235 million—making it one of the most expensive endangered-species management projects ever. He noted in one of his dozen peer-reviewed publications that the biggest-ever raptor killing plan by the federal government targeted 40 birds of prey. But that was in 2010, before the Service started killing barred owls. The current plan targeting barred owls is 12,000 times more than that. “To say that this is unprecedented is an understatement,” he said.

UPDATES ON ITEMS FROM PRIOR REPORTS

*
Banning
Bear
Baiting.
The
Biden
Administration
has
banned
bear
baiting
on
21
million
acres
of
national
preserves
in
Alaska—with
a
collective
land
area
matching
the
size
of
South
Carolina.
While
this
is
an
unmistakable
gain
that
we
advocated
aggressively
to
secure,
the
Administration
stripped
out
a
series
of
other
measures
to
protect
animals
in
our
nation’s
biggest
and
wildest
state.
The
final
rule
[[link removed]]
omitted
provisions
to
ban
killing
wolves
and
bears,
including
their
pups
and
cubs,
in
their
dens;
the
shooting
of
swimming
caribou;
and
the
use
of
dogs
in
hunting
bears.
While
it’s
a
moment
to
celebrate
the
ban
on
baiting
of
black
bears
and
brown
bears,
no
National
Park
Service
lands
should
permit
other
extreme
practices
targeting
predators.
We
are
disappointed
the
agency
backtracked
so
much
from
its
original,
well-justified
proposal.
*
Cage-Free
Future.
In
spite
of
our
organizing
sign-on
letters
from
more
than
200
Democrats
and
Republicans
in
Congress
opposing
the
EATS
Act—which
would
overturn
Prop
12
and
other
state
farm
animal
protection
laws—the
House
Agriculture
Chairman
has
inserted
it
[[link removed]]
into
his
version
of
the
Farm
bill.
That
Farm
bill
will
have
a
tough
time
advancing
with
our
opposition
to
it,
along
with
opposition
from
other
key
stakeholders.
*
Protecting
Wolves.
In
July,
we’ll
work
with
allies
in
Congress
to
introduce
legislation
to
ban
using
snowmobiles
and
other
ground-
based
motor
vehicles
to
run
down
wolves
and
other
wildlife
on
federal
lands,
after
Cody
Roberts
ran
down
a
wolf
and
grievously
wounded
her
in
Daniel,
Wyo.
The
Snowmobiles
Aren’t
Weapons
(SAW)
Act
is
modeled
on
a
prohibition
in
place
in
Minnesota
since
1986
that
bans
the
horrific
practices
of
“whacking”
wolves
and
coyotes.
Hunting
writer
Ted
Williams
has
already
penned
columns
[[link removed]]
in
the
Northern
Rockies
noting
that
a
prohibition
using
snowmobiles
and
trucks
to
run
down
animals
is
overdue.
*
Rescuing
Dogs.
In
May,
the
U.S.
Centers
for
Disease
Control
and
Prevention
issued
a
final
rule
[[link removed]]
,
tightening
restrictions
on
imports
of
dogs.
The
final
rule
“requires
for
all
dog
imports:
a
microchip,
six-month
minimum
age
requirement
for
admission,
and
importer
submission
of
a
CDC
import
form
(CDC
Dog
Import
Form)
.”
While
this
policy
brings
a
major
benefit—a
practical
ban
on
the
import
of
puppy
mill
dogs
from
foreign
nations—it
also
imposes
substantial
burdens
on
charities
[[link removed]]
doing
international
dog
rescue
and
seeking
a
new
chance
for
dogs
in
the
United
States.

In addition, it places a burden on Foreign Service and military personnel [[link removed]] struggling to hold onto their pets as they return to their country. With this rulemaking, the CDC has made a haywire risk assessment [[link removed]] , taking a hyper-protective approach to the low risk of imports of rabies-infected animals while doing virtually nothing to address acute domestic risks from U.S.-based mink farms and illegal cockfighting farms. Mink farms are known to spread SARS-CoV-2 variants and H5N1, while Mexico-based cockfighting farms have launched 10 documented U.S. outbreaks of virulent Newcastle Disease. U.S.-based cockfighters pose a threat in further spreading H5N1, which already lays claims as costliest zoonotic disease outbreak in American history.
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