Summary

• Within days, 4.5 million voters will receive their ballots in Colorado and then soon decide the outcome on Prop 127, which forbids trophy hunting of mountain lions, bobcats, and other native wild cats.


• In a proceeding that started in the farthest territorial outpost in the United States, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected a former politician’s pleading to nullify the application of the national animal fighting law to the Northern Mariana Islands. That punctuates years of legal wrangling and affirms that animal fighting is forbidden on every inch of U.S. soil.


• We worked with leading animal welfare Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House to introduce the Snowmobiles Aren’t Weapons Act, in the wake of a key panel in Wyoming seeming to clear the way for individuals to use snowmobiles to run over wolves and other wildlife. The federal bill begins our legislative march to pass a federal law to ban chasing down and running over animals in motorized vehicles.


• Nine U.S. senators introduced legislation, as a companion measure to a similar House bill, to give FDA a precise timeline to implement the FDA Modernization Act 2.0, passed nearly two years ago. We are working to usher in a new era of human-biology drug screening in place of primate and dog testing.


• As our latest maneuver in our plan to end the trade in kangaroo parts and quash the mass slaughter of the marsupials in their native habitats, we worked with two U.S. Senators on new legislation to ban any domestic trade in kangaroo skins and other parts. This is the first time ever that the Senate has taken up this legislation, and it’s already creating reverberations in the athletic shoe industry across the world.


• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formally approved its plan to massacre 450,000 barred owls, a North American native species engaging in human-induced range expansion. We promptly announced our plan to sue the federal government to stop it.

HALTING TROPHY HUNTING
Prop 127 is only the second trophy hunting measure ever on the ballot in U.S.
Under the banner of Cats Aren’t Trophies (CATs), Animal Wellness Action and the Center helped form a coalition in Colorado to ban trophy hunting and commercial trapping of mountain lions and bobcats. It is the only statewide animal welfare ballot measure in front of voters in 2024.

Jim Keen, D.V.M., Ph.D., senior veterinarian for the Center for a Humane Economy, issued reports here underscoring that lion populations are self-regulating and also here providing evidence that lions play a role in dramatically limiting the spread of a deadly and incurable brain- wasting prion, causing Chronic Wasting Disease, that threatens the future viability of deer and elk populations in 34 states and provinces. Meanwhile, opponent of 127 are working to whitewash the term “trophy hunting” from their literature and promotions, and we have answered their obfuscations, including in this essay. In addition to 100 organizations, former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Dan Ashe, legendary actor Robert Redford, Jane Goodall, nearly two dozen professional wildlife scientists, politicians across the political spectrum (including former Democrat Senator Mark Udall and former GOP Congressman Tom Tancredo), and a raft of hunting enthusiasts have endorsed Prop 127. The campaign website is www.CatsArentTrophies.org. Please forward this electronic postcard to Colorado voters.

ANIMAL FIGHTING IS THE PITS
Federal courts affirm animal fighting is a crime on every inch of U.S. soil
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit tossed aside a challenge by a political leader on the Northern Mariana Islands, affirming that the national animal fighting law applies to every inch of U.S. soil. The loss represents the final chapter in a years’ long effort by cockfighters in Guam, Puerto Rico, and the CNMI to keep cockfighting alive in the U.S. territories. All three legal efforts have resulted in unambiguous losses at the District Court and federal appellate court levels. The federal courts noted that Congress, lobbied by Animal Wellness Action on this point, has determined that cockfighting is bound up with interstate commerce and it is a matter of national interest because cockfighters have repeatedly spread avian diseases at great cost to American taxpayers and to bird life.

Meanwhile, we continue to build unprecedented and extraordinary support for the FIGHT Act, which provides a provision to create a private cause of action to allow private citizens to bring animal fighters to court. It has now attracted nearly 750 endorsing agencies and organizations, building on the prior endorsements from the National Sheriffs’ Association, the National District Attorneys’ Association, 17 state sheriffs association, the United Egg Producers, and the American Gaming Association.

KANGAROOS ARE NOT SHOES
U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Cory Booker, D-N.J. introduced legislation in September to cut off the U.S. marketplace to parts of kangaroos, who are commercially slaughtered in their native habitats for export, mainly to make athletic shoes. The bill is partially aimed at Adidas, which continues to be a massive contributor to kangaroo killing, given the volume of skins needed just to make a small set of soccer shoe models. Last year, the Center for a Humane Economy secured commitments from Nike, Puma, and New Balance to stop their sourcing of kangaroo skins for soccer cleats. Earlier this year, the U.K.-based Sokito halted sales.

In the wake of the introduction of the landmark Senate legislation, the Japan-based ASICS told us that the company is “actively testing and evaluating alternatives that meet our stringent quality and performance standards, with the goal to eliminate the use of kangaroo leather.” We applaud the company for announcing its intention to exit the kangaroo skin trade, but no more “testing and evaluating alternatives” is needed. Big brands are already kangaroo-free, and our read-out on the shoes worn by the world’s top soccer players shows very few wear kangaroo-skin shoes any longer. Back in 2022, the Center for a Humane Economy determined that the vast majority — 94.6 percent — of all World Cup goals scored that year were from players wearing shoes made from human-made fabrics, and just 5.4 percent were scored with kangaroo-based shoes.

PROTECTING ALL FOREST OWLS
We’ll do all within our power to prevent this largest-ever attack on raptors anywhere
The Fish and Wildlife Service formally approved its plans at the end of August to proceed with the largest-ever plan to slaughter raptors anywhere in the world. With a coalition of organizations now nearly 200 strong, we announced that we’ll be leading a legal challenge to that plan to stop the shooting of 450,000 barred owls in three Pacific Coast states. The plan includes hunters entering America’s some of America’s most iconic national parks — including Crater Lake NP, Olympic NP, and Redwoods NP — and shooting North American owls engaging in human- induced range expansion. Our coalition includes Audubon societies throughout the Northwest and the rest of the nation, opposing the measure.

PROTECTING WOLVES
Lawsuit filed to restore protections for wolves in the Northern Rockies
In response to Wyoming’s insufficient response to the problem of people crushing wolves and other wildlife with motorized vehicles, Animal Wellness Action worked with a bipartisan set of lawmakers to introduce the Snowmobiles Aren’t Weapons (SAW) Act. Reps. Nancy Mace, R- S.C., Don Davis, D-N.C., Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Troy Carter, D-La., authored the bill, which is now endorsed by more than 125 groups, including the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Running over a wolf or a coyote with a snowmobile is an act of sadism, and anyone who commits this kind of malice is a threat to the well-being of other animals and even people. There is already a federal law — the Airborne Hunting Act — that restricts the use of aircraft in aiding hunting of wildlife.

Awareness of the barbaric and cruel practices of “whacking” or “thumping” came to light after revelations about a wolf torture incident committed by Cody Roberts. The Wyoming mountain lion trophy hunter and cattle rancher used a snowmobile to run over and capture an adolescent female wolf. Roberts publicly tormented the wolf in front of patrons at a bar, celebrated the abuse on social media, and shot the animal to death in Daniel, Wyo. Since then, other footage of snowmobile-related torment of animals has surfaced — including this video (graphic) of a snowmobiler repeatedly running over a coyote. Meanwhile, we are in federal court suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its failure to assure minimum protections for gray wolves in the West, in violation of the ESA and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

MODERNIZE TESTING
Nine senators introduce legislation to compel FDA action on 2022 animal testing reform
Nine senators — five Democrats, four Republicans — introduced legislation in September to demand that FDA get on with implementing the FDA Modernization Act 2.0, which Congress passed, and the president signed, in 2022. New legislation is needed because the technocrats and scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, seemingly apathetic about the suffering of beagles, primates, and other animals used in drug testing experiments, have stubbornly refused to update its regulations to conform to the new law. The FDA was created to protect the public from dangerous drugs getting onto pharmacy shelves, but its leadership today exhibits such ossified thinking that it’s undermining that mission and standing in the way of a more humane future. It’s time now to turn the page on the primitive era of inhumane animal experiments, along with the breeding and collecting of animals that precedes invasive procedures. The bipartisan group of senators, including Cory Booker and Rand Paul, strongly criticized the FDA for disregarding Congress’s directive and slowing progress toward a new era of non-animal testing.

Wayne Pacelle President Animal Wellness Action