Senate confirmation hearings are in full swing this week for President-elect Obama's Cabinet choices. Lawmakers are asking the nominees to lay out their vision for leading the federal agencies, and to explain how they will execute Obama's plans for confronting the major challenges facing the nation.
Obama's nominees will almost certainly be confirmed by the Senate, and will assume their new posts shortly after the inauguration. But before they become immersed in the quotidian needs of running our government, we hope they will take a step back and look at the big-picture reforms that are needed.
When it comes to animal protection, more than a dozen federal agencies have a direct impact on the lives of millions of pets, farm animals, laboratory animals, and wildlife. In years past, some of these agencies have functioned largely as an annex to industry, and have been inattentive to the wishes of Americans who care about animal welfare, food safety, and environmental protection.
Rather than politics as usual, it's time for change. The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund have developed a change agenda for animals, with 100 immediate steps the executive branch can take to advance the humane treatment of animals. Here are some of the most critical reforms needed:
- The Agriculture Department must improve enforcement at slaughter plants, puppy mills, research laboratories, and wild animal exhibits, and crack down on abusive practices such as animal fighting, horse soring, and puppy imports. It should apply basic humane slaughter protections to poultry so that nine billion birds per year have a merciful death, and finalize its pending rule to prohibit the slaughter of downed cows who are too sick or injured to stand up. The agency should work to stop the export of horses for slaughter in other countries, and should shift the focus of its Wildlife Services program to effective nonlethal methods rather than the use of aerial gunning, cruel traps, and toxic poisons.
- The Interior Department must renew and restore its commitment to the Endangered Species Act, and work to protect listed species and their habitat. It should reject attempts by trophy hunters to reopen the import of heads and hides from threatened polar bears, and should list the entire species of chimpanzees as endangered, bringing an end to their use in research. The agency should also revamp its Wild Horse and Burro Program, and encourage the broader use of immunocontraception and other alternatives to rounding up wild horses and holding them in pens at taxpayer expense.
- The Environmental Protection Agency must ensure that factory farm emissions are not exempt from federal environmental laws, including new laws addressing climate change. It must also invest in promising alternatives to animal testing that offer more rapid, efficient screening of pesticides and other chemicals.
- The Commerce and State Departments must make the protection of marine mammals and ocean life a priority both domestically and internationally, working to stop commercial whaling, seal hunts, shark finning, dolphin drive fisheries, and other abusive practices.
- The Health and Human Services Department must expedite the retirement of all federally-owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries, honor and maintain its moratorium on breeding chimps for research, and work to phase out use of chimps in invasive experiments. It should also prioritize the development of alternatives to animals in toxicity testing, and take urgent steps to address the overuse of antibiotics for nontherapeutic purposes on factory farms.
- The Justice Department must begin collecting data on animal cruelty crimes as a separate offense category in federal databases, so that law enforcement officials can analyze the trends and connections with other violence. The agency should also enforce the longstanding federal law limiting long-distance transport of farm animals to 28 hours or less, and create a new Animal Protection Division to ensure strong enforcement of animal protection laws.
- The White House should appoint an Animal Protection Liaison to help coordinate animal welfare concerns (policy issues, regulations, and positions on legislation) that cut across many different federal agencies.
President-elect Obama has already indicated his support for many of the issues on our change agenda, when he filled out the HSLF presidential candidate questionnaire on pending bills and funding matters. Now it's time for the agencies to put these ideas into action, and make a key difference in strengthening animal welfare and reducing animal suffering. You can read our entire change agenda for animals by clicking here, and join us in advocating for these much-needed reforms.
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In these tough time and lack of FPA I come to the state of mind to consider Killing my dinner myself. Which bring this matter full front to my ideals. I am sure the physical experience of the killing and handling would bring face to face my ownership of my actions instead of the easy way out. Do I or don't I.
Much like I did in 1966 when I served in the Pentagon instead going Aire Born Ranger. Yet, as Bin Laden pointed out so clearly does the easy way out exept you?
A cow enjoys LIFE as much as a dog, cat, pig, horse or a human. And has as much right once man start multiply and subduing the earth as WE. Sorry RED NECK, I drink my beer too
After the Westland Hallmark 143 million pound “beef” recall in 2008, many people were (and still are) relieved the #2 supplier to the school lunch program was busted and that such unethical despicable behavior has been halted. Don't be fooled. Nothing has changed. Cows are still being fed ground up cows. The meat and dairy industries will do what they want. It was (and still is) against the law to drag cows around with forklifts, yet they did it anyway. Laws are a waste of time. Attitudes change the times, and then laws follow. We have had laws on the books since 1906; yet, they are not followed and are only in place to appease those who don’t have ice running through their veins from objecting.
Case in point:
The four primary requirements of the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 were:
Mandatory inspection of livestock before slaughter (cattle, sheep, goats, equines, swine, chickens);
Mandatory postmortem inspection of every carcass;
Sanitary standards established for slaughterhouses and meat processing plants;
Authorized U.S. Department of Agriculture ongoing monitoring and inspection of slaughter and processing operations.
After 1906, many additional laws to further standardize the meat industry and the USDA's methods of inspection were passed.
Yet, in 2008, we have this garbage going on:
http://hsus.feedroom.com/?fr_story=346bfda2cbbf061e88fa57cbef243b30d049b3b7
The USDA is in deep denial regarding the presence of Mad Cow in the USA
http://veganschool101.blogspot.com/2008/12/with-mad-cow-disease-only-thing.html
Most of the HSUS steps are great, but a few are under-thought and vague. Especially #27, which shows a lack of basic understanding about differentiation in animal species, and it has a big gaping hole: Who gets to decide what is a "dangerous exotic species"? If it's animal rights activists of HSUS or politicians, it'll most certainly be wrong, and unfortunately, those parties are really the only two with a voice in the issue thus far.
#12 would need some thought, as most importers don't want anything to do with animal care. Their aim is to move the animals to the wholesalers as quickly as possible. If a mandatory quarantine period was enacted, it would have to have something that allowed animals to get into the hands of qualified people, or we'd likely see animals kept in deplorable conditions until the quarantine period ended. Legal animal importing is big business and changes to it need to be sensible and made by educated people, or the industry will simply go underground. Illegal importation of animals is already third to drugs and weapons, and making legal means of importing difficult would contribute further to that.
I've submitted my concerns and hopes on the President-elect's change.gov site; many others have as well, and I encougarge others to make their voices heard.
(My kitty runs with the local deer herd of 7 that visits our home, too!)