ANIMAL RIGHTS WATCH

URL: http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/opinion/article/0,1375,VCS_125_5300365,00.html

Animal cruelty laws making major gains

By Wayne Pacelle
January 24, 2007

The Democrats have now taken control of Congress because, as President Bush memorably put it, Republicans took a "thumpin'" in the fall elections. But that wasn't the only "thumpin'" that occurred in November.

In congressional contests and statewide ballot campaigns, the 2006 election brought decisive victories for the cause of animal protection — and left the callous to lick their own wounds for a change.

In Arizona, despite the best efforts of the National Pork Producers Council and other agribusiness interests, 62 percent of voters approved a measure to ban inhumane factory farming practices. In Michigan, meanwhile, the National Rifle Association puffed up its chest to promote a referendum to allow shooting of mourning doves for sport. Sixty-nine percent of voters answered with a firm "no," routing the NRA in one of its own supposed strongholds.

Throw in the defeat of two longtime opponents of animal welfare — California's Richard Pombo, the chairman of the House Resources Committee, and Montana Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana — and you have the markers of a reform movement on the rise. To borrow an image from our opponents, they make mighty impressive trophies on the wall.

Focused historically on direct care of animals in need, the animal protection movement has amped up its political engagement in recent years. State lawmakers in 2006 passed nearly 70 laws to improve the welfare of animals, inspired in large part by the Humane Society of the United States with its nearly 10 million members and constituents and an annual budget of $120 million.

Add to that some 6,000 other animal welfare groups, including a few others with large operations and multimillion- dollar budgets, and the growing influence of the cause becomes even more apparent.

As I pointed out once in a friendly exchange with political strategist Karl Rove, the HSUS alone has about 20,000 members and constituents in every congressional district. That's more even than the NRA, and the convictions of animal advocates run deep.

Rove didn't seem quite convinced. But when a traditionally conservative state like Arizona votes to prohibit the cruelty of mass confinement hog farming, and a "sportsmen's" state like Michigan votes overwhelmingly (and in all 83 counties) to impose a ban on shooting doves, maybe he and other political operatives will take note.

Ballot issues are perhaps the best measure of the appeal of any cause because they focus the debate and call for a straight up-or-down vote on a given matter. And in the last decade, when animal-protection issues have been put to voters, the people of this country have consistently taken the side of reform — passing 19 statewide measures in recent years to outlaw such abhorrent practices as cockfighting, bear baiting, hound hunting, horse slaughter, aerial hunting of wolves, use of steel-jawed leghold traps and confinement of animals in crates on factory farms.

Few other causes have a record of such success. Despite the enormous financial advantages of animal-use industries and their trade groups, they don't seem to welcome open debate and direct democracy. They do best in the clubby comfort zones of backrooms and big-time lobby firms.

Arizona illustrates the dangers for these industries when their practices are brought into full view. There HSUS championed a measure banning the merciless confinement of veal calves and pigs in cages so small that the creatures cannot even turn around. Factory farm interests across America made the defeat of this reform their highest priority, holding nothing back.

Yet, for all the industry's money, all its propaganda, and, in the final weeks, all its disreputable tactics, in the end, it came down to a simple question of humanity. The great majority of Arizonans saw factory farming for the cruel and dishonorable thing it is, and voted for a better way.

Opposition to animal cruelty is, after all, a universal value, and the goal of animal advocates is to hold this compassionate country to its own professed standards. And in so many cases, it couldn't be an easier call.

In the coming congressional session, we will urge lawmakers to make staged animal fighting a federal felony; to outlaw the slaughter of 100,000 healthy American horses as delicacies for foreign restaurants; to crack down the abuse of dogs in puppy mills; and to ban the trade in primates and other exotic animals for the pet trade, among other reforms.

All of these initiatives are aimed at needless and tawdry industries — what decent person would care to defend them? And who would wish to continue such cruelties except the people who profit by them?

The politics of animal protection are sometimes complex, but the principles are always simple: Cruelty to animals is wrong and inexcusable. When animal suffering can be prevented, the law should not be silent. Kindness to animals makes us better people, and laws protecting animals from cruelty make us a better country. Politicians across American share this conviction, and they can be certain that voters stand ready to support them.

We have always known that the prevention of cruelty is a worthy cause. Now we know that it is a winning cause as well.

— Wayne Pacelle is the president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, the nation's largest animal protection organization.