͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌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]]

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U.S. Senate Passes FDA Modernization Act 2.0
In the biggest legislative action for animals in the 117th Congress, the U.S. Senate passed [[link removed]] our FDA Modernization Act 2.0 on Sept. 29, taking a major step [[link removed]] toward a national policy that will dramatically reduce testing on dogs, primates, and other animals and that may trigger similar policy initiatives in other major industrialized nations.

Introduced by Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky. and Cory Booker, D-N.J. our FDA Modernization Act 2.0 (S. 5002) will eliminate a federal mandate for animal testing for new drugs and biosimilars, including an anti-testing provision added by Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M.

In June, the House passed its original version of the FDA Modernization Act, H.R. 2565 [[link removed]] , led by Reps. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., Elaine Luria, D-Virg., Buddy Carter, R-Ga, Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., as an amendment to a larger FDA legislative package. At about the same time, a key Senate committee amended and passed its version of the FDA Modernization Act, S. 2952 [[link removed]] , also as part of a larger package.

But final action on that broader FDA reform bill has been delayed. Bringing the right level of urgency to the problem of needless animal testing in drug development, Sens. Paul and Booker pushed S. 5002 as a stand-alone measure, with Sens. Mike Braun, R-Ind., Susan Collins, R-Me., Angus King, I-Me., Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, Alex Padilla, D-Calif., Mike Crapo, R-Idaho Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., as cosponsors. It passed in an extraordinary show of bipartisan support [[link removed]] for a substantive animal welfare reform. Senate HELP Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Ranking Member Richard Burr, R-N.C., played instrumental roles in the successful maneuver.

The House won’t be in session until after the election, but we expect to have that chamber clear the bill so it can be signed into law in November or December. We’ve ratcheted up attention on the issues with pieces in the Baltimore Sun [[link removed]] , Louisville Courier-Journal [[link removed]] , Kansas City Star [[link removed]] , and Boulder Daily Camera [[link removed]] . The Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of the largest television networks in the nation, also did a major investigation [[link removed]] that exposed the problem just before the Senate vote. Our coalition is 200 organizations and corporations strong, including our partners at the Michelson Center for Public Policy.

Weeks before, we celebrated the Department of Justice’s legal demand for a contract-breeding lab to release 4,000 beagles mistreated, but we were mindful that this one-off action is no solution. Other contract breeders will increase production because the federal testing requirement makes demand for beagles inelastic. That’s why the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 is so vital.

Reach your Member of Congress today! [[link removed]]

Read more [[link removed]]

Senate Still Considering Big Cat Public Safety Act
Thanks in large part to our supporters, the Center for a Humane Economy can celebrate that the United States now only has two private, commercial cub-petting operations. Not long ago, that number was about 60. The downsizing of this tawdry sector of roadside animal attractions is a good thing for animals, and it came about through steady pressure from our organization and others working diligently on this problem.

But two commercial cub-petting operations is two too many. What’s more, there is still an epidemic of private citizens owning lions, tigers, cougars and other big cats — undomesticated predators who have no place outside of licensed facilities and under the care of trained professionals. The typical best-case scenario is their owners eventually must relinquish care of the animals when they become too big and dangerous to keep, turning them over to rescues where the lifelong cost of care for a single big cat can reach $1 million. The worst-case scenario is that the animals escape and pose a real and present danger to neighbors, requiring the emergency intervention of first responders which often ends in a cat with a bullet to the torso or brain.

We reported that the House took up and passed the Big Cat Public Safety Act, H.R. 263, at the end of July, and we immediately moved to have the Senate take up the measure after the August recess. We did so in early September, and three Senators placed “holds” on the bill. Two of those Senators lifted their holds after we lobbied them directly. Now just one Senator, James Lankford, R-Okla., is holding up the bill, even though his state has been at the center of the national controversy. (Joe Exotic, the big-cat owner in “Tiger King,” claimed he had 200 tigers at his Oklahoma facility before he was imprisoned for illegally killing some of the animals.)

We are continuing to work [[link removed]] with partners like Big Cat Rescue and the National Sheriff’s Association to persuade Sen. Lankford to help us remedy this national crisis of private ownership of big cats in the wrong hands. The bill builds on the Captive Wildlife Safety Act, passed unanimously in 2003, banning commercial cub petting and breeding for the pet trade.

Congress Must Take Up Animal Cruelty Enforcement Act
Our senior veterinarian, Tom Pool, D.V.M., who is the former Territorial Veterinarian for Guam, wrote for the Pacific Daily News [[link removed]] that he refused to sign import permits for adult roosters coming onto the island because he knew that they were illegal shipments with cockfighters at both ends of the transaction. An Animal Wellness investigation found 11,500 birds had been illegally shipped to the island [[link removed]] from the states. The federal government, which has stepped up enforcement in certain areas, must have more capacity to address the scale of the animal cruelty problem in our nation and the Animal Cruelty Enforcement (ACE) Act, H.R. 1106, can deliver on that promise. The ACE Act seeks to create an Animal Cruelty Crimes section at the Department of Justice to allow for dedicated attention to animal fighting and other animal cruelty issues.

To support the ACE Act, go here. [[link removed]]


TAKE ACTION [[link removed]]


For Queen Elizabeth II, Animals Were Central Feature of Her Life
The sad loss of British monarch Queen Elizabeth II captured headlines and produced remembrances throughout the world, including her passion for animals. [[link removed]] Just two years ago, the Queen recognized AWA executive director Marty Irby [[link removed]] for his work to stop the barbaric practice of horse soring. The Queen’s passion for horses has also been a motivator to address not only soring, but horse slaughter and the mistreatment and removal of wild horses and burros throughout the West.

We are on the cusp of introducing comprehensive legislation to rewrite the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, which is badly in need of an upgrade after 50 years of government mismanagement. [[link removed]] We are also taking an especially deep dive into the transport of horses to Canada and Mexico for slaughter and are redoubling our efforts to halt this miserable animal trafficking. Our team members are also featured in “Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West,” which just won Best Documentary at the Boston Film Festival.

Kangaroos Are Not Shoes
We reported to you last month that The Los Angeles Times [[link removed]] featured our lawsuit against Soccer Wearhouse — a retail outlet with multiple stores illegally selling kangaroo-based shoes in California even though we had long ago notified the company about its violations of law. We’ve been engaged with ongoing settlement talks with the company so we can ensure that they will never stock this contraband again, but also to make sure that entities involved in the supply chain are held accountable. In the meantime, other companies [[link removed]] are breaking the law and we’re taking them to court, too.

The goal of our global Kangaroos Are Not Shoes [[link removed]] campaign is to convince Nike, Adidas, and other shoe retailers to stop killing native wildlife in their habitats for shoes. One key strategy is to stop the sale of these prohibited products in California, so that the companies recognize that they’ll have to pursue a complicated, bifurcated marketing strategy given that the products are illegal in the biggest state in the nation. Meanwhile, our campaign is catching fire throughout the world, with the Dutch Animal Party demanding an end to the kangaroo parts trade in the Netherlands and with the RSPCA in Australia taking pet food with kangaroos off its shelves.

More information is available here. [[link removed]]

Will you support our work with even $10 a month? [[link removed]]
DONATE NOW [[link removed]]


Pigs, Prop 12 and SCOTUS
The U.S. Supreme Court actively debated a case of momentous importance to animals. National Pork Producers Council v. Ross is a challenge from the pork industry over the constitutionality of Proposition 12, a voter-backed California state law that bans the in-state sale of pork from cruelly confined sows, regardless of where the animals are raised. The plaintiffs argued that cutting off the California market for their inhumanely treated animals amounts to an “extraterritorial” action by California, compelling pig producers in Iowa and other states to mend their ways and give the animals room to move. The plaintiffs made their outlandish arguments in the District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and both Courts rejected the factory farmers’ arguments.What’s shocking to us — and to many other groups that support not just animal-welfare progress but states’ rights — is that the Biden administration is supporting the agribusiness trade associations and seeking to nullify the votes of 7.5 million California voters who favored the issue (along with 2.2 million Massachusetts voters who passed a nearly identical ballot measure two years prior to Prop 12’s adoption).

Our senior attorneys and our two top agricultural veterinarians filed pleadings in this case, which may have the indirect and cataclysmic effect of a wide range of state laws that seek to protect states from commerce in products that are morally repugnant or unsafe or unhealthy. The states simply restrict the sale of their products within their jurisdiction, allowing pork farmers in other states to access the market as long as they give the animals a little space to move. Prop 12 and Massachusetts’ Amendment 3 were not radical anti-farming manifestos; they were welfare-oriented measures that address the most extreme forms of confinement and allow animals built to move to move.

You can read more here: *
Amicus
Brief
of
the
Center
for
a
Humane
Economy
[[link removed]]
,
et
al.,
in
support
of
Prop
12
can
be
read
here.
[[link removed]]
*
Amicus
Brief
of
Farm
Animal
Veterinarians
in
support
of
Prop
12
can
be
read
here.
[[link removed]]
*
Wayne
Pacelle’s
take-down
of
the
Big
Ag’s
arguments
is
here.
[[link removed]]


This work is important — and expensive. Will you help today? [[link removed]]
DONATE NOW [[link removed]]


Animal Wellness Action in the News

3 Branches of Government: Where does Animal Protection Stand in 2022? [[link removed]] (Patch.com)

Bill headed by Ky. Senator to end animal testing mandates passes Senate [[link removed]] (Fox 56 TV)

FDA Modernization Act 2.0 Is A Welcome Reprieve For Puppies, But More Comprehensive Reform is Urgently Needed [[link removed]] (CATO Institute)

Carole Baskin asks Oklahomans for help regarding Big Cat Public Safety Act [[link removed]] (KFOR TV)

Actually, Wild Horses and Burros Deserve a Home in the West [[link removed]] (Adventure Journal)
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Animal Wellness Action
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