05/24/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/24/2024 11:18
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. House Agriculture Committee has passed its long-awaited $1.5 trillion Farm Bill, including dangerous provisions that would directly impact billions of farm animals, dogs, cats, and other animals. The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) denounced the passage of the House Farm Bill, which would overturn existing state and local animal welfare laws, with disastrous consequences for farm animals and higher-welfare farmers. Additionally, the bill not only fails to provide critically needed enforcement advancements to protect dogs in puppy mills, but actually makes it harder to help dogs who are suffering. It also fails to provide support to the tens of thousands of American horses who are exported for slaughter each year.
"The Farm Bill has the power to impact U.S. agriculture policy for decades to come, and the House Agriculture Committee has squandered this opportunity to advance much-needed reforms, choosing instead to pass a disastrous proposal that attacks state protections for farm animals, puts dogs in puppy mills at even greater risk, and fails to address the horse slaughter crisis," said Nancy Perry, senior vice president of Government Relations for the ASPCA. "Congressional leaders have a responsibility to reject the predatory systems that perpetuate cruelty to animals, and we urge them to pass a final Farm Bill that upholds state farm animal protection laws, institutes much-needed funding and transparency measures to support a more humane food system, and includes both Goldie's Act and the SAFE Act, bipartisan bills that are critical to ensuring the welfare of dogs, horses, and other animals."
The House Farm Bill includes the following dangerous animal-related provisions:
In addition to weakening existing protections for farm animals and dogs in puppy mills, the House Farm Bill also fails to include a bipartisan prohibition on horse slaughter. Despite congressional efforts that have effectively blocked the operation of horse slaughterhouses on U.S. soil since 2007, tens of thousands of American horses continue to be shipped to Canadian and Mexican slaughterhouses that supply other countries with horsemeat. The Save America's Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act would expand the Dog and Cat Meat Prohibition Act - which passed as part of the 2018 Farm Bill - to include equines, prohibiting the commercial slaughter of horses in the U.S. and ending their export for that purpose abroad.
The House Farm Bill must now pass the House floor. Once the Senate releases and passes its own Farm Bill, then House and Senate leaders will need to concur on a single bill that must be approved by both chambers before it can be shared with President Biden to be signed into law.
Members of the public are encouraged to contact their U.S. representatives to urge them to reject the dangerous provisions in the House Farm Bill that threaten animal welfare and instead pass a more humane Farm Bill that protects animals, people, and the planet. To contact your member of Congress, please visit www.aspca.org/FarmBill.