Obstructionist Lawmakers Harm Animals and the Economy

The U.S. House of Representatives this morning passed H.R. 1018, the Restore Our American Mustangs Act, by a vote of 239-185. This legislation championed by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) and Representatives Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) seeks to put a stop to the commercial slaughter of wild horses, and to encourage more humane and fiscally responsible management of mustangs on the range through fertility control and adoption. It would save millions of tax dollars each year, and would create a better framework than the current system, which relies on costly round-ups and the keeping of captive horses in federal holding pens where they essentially live on the government dole.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved the Restoring
Our American Mustangs Act today by a vote of 239-185.

But the debate on the House floor this morning underscored that there is a small cabal of out-of-touch lawmakers who take every opportunity to belittle and bemoan animal welfare issues, no matter how moderate and sensible. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is the worst offender, and he spoke against the bill today along with Representatives Steve King (R-Iowa) and Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who said she's a big animal lover but has a record that reflects quite the opposite stance. Boehner and King are the House's worst two members on animal welfare and they routinely defend the nation's worst forms of animal abuse, including horse slaughter and animal fighting. Boehner today called the wild horse protection bill "an insult" to the American people, and said we should spend our time on national priorities other than mustangs.

It was déjà vu from this February when the House approved a public safety and animal welfare bill by Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) to ban the trade in primates as pets, after a pet chimpanzee viciously attacked a Connecticut woman and left her severely disfigured. Representative Rob Bishop (R-Utah) mocked that bill on the House floor, and said the work of Congress is too important to spend time on "monkey bites." Tell that to Charla Nash, whose face and hands were bitten off. We provided similar warnings on keeping large constricting snakes, and now sure enough, there was a two-year-old girl killed in her home two weeks ago after a pet Burmese python escaped from its enclosure. You can be sure Boehner and King will oppose legislation introduced by Representative Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) to crack down on the trade in pythons as exotic pets, no matter the human toll.

A similar scene is now playing out on the opposite coast in California, where California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is using YouTube and Twitter to mock an animal cruelty bill. S.B. 135, introduced by Senate Majority Leader and Food & Agriculture Committee Chairman Dean Florez (D-Shafter), would ban the tail docking of dairy cows. The policy of stopping this painful and unnecessary mutilation is backed by animal welfare groups, veterinarians, and even the California Farm Bureau, and it passed the Senate by an overwhelming margin. But Schwarzenegger dismisses the discussion of "cow's tails" while there's a budget crisis in the state.

We all know there's a budget crisis, and government priorities like creating jobs and fixing the economy. But legislators should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. While they sort out the big subjects, and allow themselves to get locked into partisan battles day after day instead of solving these big problems, they can't ignore the quotidian responsibilities of lawmaking. Animal welfare is just one of the many issues that is important to mainstream Americans, and our elected officials can spend just a little bit of time moving the ball forward for these creatures, as they can do for other important but lower-profile issues. It's not an either-or proposition between animals and jobs, and they can't just expect to pass one bill each week and spend the rest of the time tanning or playing the back nine.

If they were truly concerned about the economy, self-described fiscal conservatives like Boehner, Bishop, and King should have been the first to line up today in support of the mustang legislation. The current program is a fiscal disaster, with the Bureau of Land Management stuck on a treadmill spending millions of tax dollars essentially running captive horse shelters. The Rahall bill maps out a better pathway, and will save American taxpayers at least $6 million each year just by keeping the population numbers in check through fertility control on the range, as an alternative to costly round-ups and long-term horse care.

Saving horses and saving tax dollars shouldn't be a partisan issue. Thirty-three Republicans voted in favor of the bill today, including many fiscal conservatives like Representatives Dan Burton (R-Ind.), John Campbell (R-Calif.), and Thad McCotter (R-Mich.), and we thank them for their support of a more humane and more fiscally responsible policy. Other Republicans, like Representatives Whitfield and Elton Gallegly (R-Calif), are stalwart animal advocates. But the obstinate ones just don't see the big picture, and they will gladly stand in the way of any modest animal welfare reform--even if it means they must continue fleecing the American taxpayers to do it and allowing cruelty to occur without intervention.

 

Follow Michael Markarian on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mmarkarian

Comments

[slush]

I've never quite understood this thing about the mustangs. Their are about 60,000 mustangs, half of which are penned by the feds. Meanwhile there are millions of sheep and cows on federal lands yet the mustangs are over grazing?

[wallyone]

i don't like tail docking in dairy cows, but there is no indication that it is painful. The current mustang policy is a huge waste of tax dollars. The ban on horse slaughter is arguably the cause of tremendous horse suffering from neglect, abandonment and starvation. It is happening NOW.

[RightWingMarine]

I read an article that cited a study that adult cows feel pain during the docking process but for calves it was very mild. At the same time I see no point in performing the activity. From what I have read tail docking does has a negligible impact on health of dairy workers and no discernable impact on cow or udder health. With that evidence I am hard put to list a reason that I would practice such an activity if I were a dairy farmer. But I hesitate to state that the practice should be banned as we are not all knowing and our good intentions have a habit of adversly affecting those we try to help as in the horse example you cite.

[elbzee]

Tell ya what Wally, why don't you lop off your ring finger and let us know how little pain is associated with chopping off that one appendage. Once you've tested your theory, let us all know how it went. K?

[Jaywalkker]

I worked very manual labor in a vet clinic as a teen. One of my duties was to assist, by restraining, very young puppies for tail docking and dew claw removal. I still have very vivid memories of exactly how their screams sounded. My boss, the vet, cried during the process, but continued to do it, because if she refused like many clinics did, these puppies would suffer a backyard butchery job. I witnessed that too, someone tied a string off on a year old dog's tail to block blood flow and the tail would rot off, but it turned gangrenous and had to be amputated.

Tail docking is incredibly painful and a horribly needless action.

[elbzee]

I rescued a 4 year old shephard that we think was abused that way. She frantically whines, barks, chases, chews, and lick the stump. It breaks my heart.

[dayala]

it's time for the likes of Boehner to be trounced out of office at the next election cycle.

he's done absolutely nothing for the people he serves except to say 'no,no,no' much less advocate for any form of animal welfare legislation...the only word in his vocabulary in 'NO'.

[KaylaVeg]

Thank you, thank you for speaking up for animals. They have no voice, so we must speak for them.

[LADawson]

So what makes one non-native species released to the wild worth "saving" and "protecting", while another has to be eradicated, and banned from being imported and kept in captivity? Fur? Warm blood? Maybe it's the length of time it's been "wild"? Though, that still doesn't change the fact that it doesn't really belong there. Seems more likely the amount of money put into lobbying for it is the main reasoning... and it sure is easier to raise money for cute animals that people aren't generally afraid of.

[Sinick]

More:

"Our task must be to free ourselves...by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty."
--Albert Einstein (physicist, Nobel 1921)

"Not to hurt our humble brethren (the animals) is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission--to be of service to them whenever they require it... If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men."
--Saint Francis of Assisi (mystic and preacher)

"Love of animals is a universal impulse, a common ground on which all of us may meet. By loving and understanding animals, perhaps we humans shall come to understand each other."
--Dr Louis J.Camuti (1893-1981)

"Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character; and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man."
--Arthur Schopenhauer (philosopher)

"The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different."
--Hippocrates (philosopher)

"In studying the traits and dispositions of the so-called lower animals, and contrasting them with man's, I find the result humiliating to me."
--Mark Twain (author)

[DamaskinosWasRight]

Good article.

[patianneb]

I'd like to see Schwarzenegger spend a day in a Tulare County "happy cow" feces/urine swamp with 10,000 or more cows with his hands tied behind his back having to survive swarming flies and insects with absolutely nothing to provide even the most meager relief.
I have serious words for Foxx, particularly since I live in North Carolina, but they are not words that would be published in this forum.
I have no use whatsoever for people who have no empathy for anyone or anything other than their own pathetically selfish interests, especially when any animal, human or otherwise, who suffers under their indifference has no opportunity or choice to do anything to combat their callousness.