ANIMAL ISSUES BULLETIN
January 17, 2011
** Vet Oath Revised to Prevent Suffering
** Virginians for Animal Welfare Alert
** Bacteria Versus Antibiotics – Who’s Winning?
** Congressional Year in Review
** Maryland Lobby Day in February
** Spanish TV Says “No” to Live Bull Fighting
** Potty Training Pigs in Taiwan
** Martin Luther King Jr. on Animal Rights
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-- Vets Pledge to Help Factory Farm Animals -Gene Baur, who is part of change.org’s Changemakers network, reports that in December the Journal of
the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) included an article that heralds a new promise by
vets: “Veterinarian’s Oath revised to emphasize animal welfare commitment: Prevention of animal
suffering also a key addition.” Readers can find the updated oath at
http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/jan11/x110101a.asp . Here is the language:
“Being admitted to the profession of veterinary medicine, I solemnly swear to use my scientific
knowledge and skills for the benefit of society through the protection of animal health and welfare, the
prevention and relief of animal suffering, the conservation of animal resources, the promotion of public
health, and the advancement of medical knowledge."
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has a longstanding record of defending the status
quo when it comes to factory farming practices such as intensive confinement systems like gestation
crates. In 2002, the AVMA adopted a formal position statement endorsing these 2-foot-wide metal
enclosures to confine breeding sows in response to voters in the state of Florida making gestation crates
illegal there.
When a survey conducted by Farm Sanctuary found that more that 80 percent of vets across the country
found gestation crates and other cruel farming practices objectionable, the AVMA finally started to
reevaluate its position. In spite of some positive reforms, the relationship between the AVMA and the
factory farming industry remains close, and the AVMA continues to defend many objectionable
practices. Updating the veterinarian’s oath is an extremely hopeful development that indicates more
progressive change is coming.
Read Baur’s entire article at
http://animals.change.org/blog/view/hope_for_factory_farm_animals_vets_pledge_to_prevent_sufferi
ng . You can also help to make a difference by sharing this story on Facebook and Twitter.
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-- Farm Bureau “Push Back” in Virginia -The following alert is primarily for Bulletin readers who live in Virginia. If you are not a Virginian, please
pass this on to people you know who live in the Commonwealth.
The Virginians for Animal Welfare admits that it does not usually take a position nor alert readers to
take a position on farm animals or equines, but the language of and strategy for a Farm
Bureau/Agribusiness bill (introduced simultaneously in both houses (HB1541-Orrock and SB1026Puckett) with identical language) which would dilute minimum care standards for these animals not only
makes doing so justified and appropriate but also imperative. Here is the message from Virginians for
Animal Welfare which can be read in its entirety by going to
http://triskelionfarm.blogspot.com/2011/01/va-bill-hb-1541-would-weaken.html :
“The language of these bills replaces the animal care standards presently in the Code at 3.2-6500 and elsewhere
with new ‘standards.’ These new standards are no more than enough ‘food to prevent emaciation, water to
prevent dehydration and veterinary care to prevent [but not repair] impairment of health or bodily function, but
none of these are required if the animal is to be humanely destroyed or if an act of God or of a veterinarian or if
‘animal husbandry’ makes any of these requirements unnecessary.’
“This is the pending ‘pushback’ against animal welfare the Farm Bureau/Agribusiness has promised in news
stories.
“The bill strategy is to call these ‘unprecedented care standards’ and offer both through seasoned Agriculture
Committee members in a short session with many momentous issues and no advance collaboration with the
animal welfare community, or any public notice of intent to exempt farm animals from present care standards
other than by warning a ‘pushback’ against care standards was coming.
“A broad and effective response is critical to each of the Agriculture Committee members below before
Wednesday, January 19, 2011, and thereafter until this bill is dramatically changed or defeated. So is a broad
and effective response to all your Delegates and Senators whether serving on the Agriculture Committee or not.
For any who don't know how to do this, please see below or email us for guidance.
“We oppose this bill and ask that you do as well for your own reasons or those which follow:
“1) There are presently standards in the Code of Virginia for animals at 3.2-6500 and elsewhere, and penalties
for cruelty violations;
“2) There is Virginia case law upholding these standards and violations thereof, all decided in local Virginia
courts and by the Virginia Supreme Court, among which is Sullivan v. Commonwealth;
“3) To demonstrate the need for or merit of new ‘standards,’ an Attorney General Opinion could have been
sought or issued as to the adequacy of the present (or even the new) standards, or whether there were any
enforcement defects in the present standards, but no such Opinion was requested;
“4) There is a long history of successful enforcements under the present standards;
“5) The widely accepted veterinary standards used in prosecutions of animal cruelty cases are nowhere to be
found in these new ‘standards,’ and are in fact superseded thereby;
“6) The new ‘standards’ are both vague and exculpatory, and as such are putatively unenforceable and
unconstitutional on these grounds;
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“7) It appears that no Commonwealth's Attorney or law enforcement groups (VACA or Sheriffs) were consulted
about the enforceability or desirability of these new ‘standards’;
“8) The bill was introduced ‘under the radar,’ without fanfare (the manner in which the legislation was
proposed and absence of full and complete disclosure to animal welfare groups and the general public of its
need, purpose and content speaks of its patently self-serving character);
“9) The bill mirrors and implements a national Farm Bureau ‘pushback’ strategy;
“10) The bill is another step in the promotion of animals as creatures without any feelings, awareness or
susceptibility to pain and suffering, is a stark reminder of the treatment of chattels under slavery laws, and
likewise unwisely promotes the notion that ‘animal husbandry’ is tantamount to care or compassion.”
For find your Virginia legislator, go to:
http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform
For the bill, go to the following)
http://leg6.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?111+ful+HB1541
http://leg6.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?111+ful+SB1026
Be sure to send your first emails (or contacts) to House Ag Subcommittee members:
Harvey Morgan -- DelHMorgan@house.virginia.gov
Bobby Orrock -- DelBOrrock@house.virginia.gov,
D.W. Marshall -- DelDMarshall@house.virginia.gov
Charles Poindexter -- DelCPoindexter@house.virginia.gov
Barry Knight -- DelBKnight@house.virginia.gov
Richard Bell -- DelDBell@house.virginia.gov
John Cox -- DelJCox@house.virginia.gov
James Shuler -- DelJShuler@house.virginia.gov
Mark Sickles -- DelMSickles@house.virginia.gov.
Since a separate bill is in the Virginia Senate, the Senate Agriculture Committee should also be contacted
promptly.
Senator Ticer -- district30@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Whipple -- district31@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Hanger -- district24@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Watkins -- district10@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Reynolds -- district20@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Puckett -- district38@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Ruff -- district15@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Blevins -- district14@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Obenshain -- district26@senate.virginia.gov
Senator McDougle -- district04@senate.virginia.gov
Senator McEachin -- district09@senate.virginia.gov
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Senator Petersen -- district34@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Northam -- district06@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Stuart -- district28@senate.virginia.gov
Senator Marsden -- district37@senate.virginia.gov
Here is a draft email message to these legislators. Remember that a personalized message has more
impact.
Dear Agriculture Committee Member:
As a Virginia resident, I am disappointed to hear that the Virginia Assembly may consider legislation that
would weaken standards for farm animal care. Case law – law upheld by the Virginia Supreme Court –
stands by the current standards. Changes are not needed, especially changes that are passed without
adequate public notice and the opportunity for animal welfare advocates and organizations to
comment. The proposed changes also ignore or are vague on accepted standards of veterinary care as
well as the public’s insistence that farmed animals be treated with compassion and provided with
adequate food and housing. I oppose any hasty action to overturn adequate and progressive standards
of animal care in Virginia.
[your name and address]
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-- The Antibiotics Crisis in America –
On January 12, none other than Dan Rather posted an article on “The Antibiotics Crisis” in the
Huffington Post [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-rather/the-antibiotics-crisis_b_807887.html ].
He makes clear that bacteria are gradually overcoming the medical breakthroughs of the past: “Every
year, more than ninety thousand Americans die from … infections that have become resistant to
antibiotics. That stunning figure is higher than the death toll from AIDS, car accidents and prostate
cancer combined.” And the reason for these deaths is accepted without argument by the world’s
leading medical authorities: Americans just use too many antibiotics! And people are not the only ones
taking them. “About seventy percent of all antibiotics purchased in the United States are for farm
animals, which are fed these drugs by the ton in order to help them grow faster.” The United States
should take a look at a country like Norway which uses only one third the amount of antibiotics that
America uses.
Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., are leading the effort to try to curb
overuse of antibiotics in factory farms. Their legislation and frequent communications with agency
officials encouraged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to testify at committee hearing on Capitol Hill that overuse
of antibiotics is a serious problem. Unfortunately although these agencies testified, they did not
specifically embrace relevant legislation being considered in the 111th Congress.
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) just reported on the FDA’s latest actions on this problem:
“In a stunning report issued last [December], the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released figures
on the amount of antibiotics and related drugs used in animal agriculture that vindicate 10-year-old UCS
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estimates. It was the first time the U.S. government has ever released statistics on antimicrobial use in
agriculture. According to the report, 28.7 million pounds of drugs were sold for use in animal agriculture
in 2009 for all purposes, including treatment of disease and nontherapeutic purposes such as growth
promotion and routine dosage in feed additives to fend off illness caused by unhealthy living conditions.
In comparison, UCS's 2001 report, Hogging It!, estimated that 24.6 million pounds of these drugs—
nearly eight times the amount used to treat illness in humans—were used just for nontherapeutic
purposes, a practice understood by the scientific community to lead to the development of antibioticresistant bacteria that can infect humans. UCS and our activists advocated for the law that mandates the
FDA's annual collection and release of these data. These data strengthen the case for Congress and the
Obama administration to act swiftly to curtail antibiotic overuse in animal agriculture in order to keep
these life-saving drugs working to treat disease. Read the FDA's report [
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/ForIndustry/UserFees/AnimalDrugUserFeeActADUFA/UCM231851.pdf ]
and a blog by a public health reporter [ http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/news-break-fdaestimate-us-livestock-get-29-million-pounds-of-antibiotics-per-year/ ] about the FDA's figures.”
New legislation will undoubtedly be introduced again in the new Congress, so stay tuned.
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-- Congressional Year in Review -The Humane Society Legislative Fund published a Congressional Year in Review for Animals on January
13. Many of the victories for animals (such as the ban on crush videos) approved by lawmakers in the
111th Congress had been covered in the Bulletin, but here are a few we missed:
The Shark Conservation Act was approved. The new law closes loopholes that allowed domestic shark
finning to continue despite an earlier ban passed in 2000. The U.S. will also have more leverage to urge
other countries to pursue effective shark conservation policies.
Two new bills will help wildlife. First the U.S. Postal Service was authorized to issue and sell a
Multinational Species Conservation Funds Semipostal Stamp to generate funds for conservation
programs that will help elephants, great apes, tigers, and other species. Also a bill to ensure the safe
disposal of controlled substances, including dangerous pharmaceuticals that can hurt wildlife when
dumped in the trash or flushed away, was made law.
Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rep. Madeleine Bordallo, D-Guam, organized
letters co-signed by 15 senators and 66 representatives, urging President Obama to require that U.S.
officials at international meetings vote to uphold the long-standing ban on commercial whaling, in
response to the Administration’s earlier work on a plan that involved lifting the ban. With the legislators
joining an international grassroots outcry, the whaling moratorium was thankfully sustained.
The Humane Society Legislative Fund is also letting us know that animal welfare advocates still have our
work cut out for us in the 112th Congress. Here is the Fund’s list of “unfinished business”—we must still
work to pass legislation that will:
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ban interstate and foreign commerce in primates for the pet trade;
permit felony-level penalties for egregious intentional violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty
Act;
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enhance programs for marine mammal rescue and disentanglement;
develop and implement more effective recovery plans for southern sea otters, whose
population is in steep decline despite their listing under the Endangered Species Act;
authorize grants for local conservation projects to help marine turtles; great cats and rare canids
; cranes ; and neotropical migratory birds;
restore the prohibition on the commercial sale and slaughter of wild horses and burros (a
protection undercut by a rider in the FY 2005 omnibus spending bill) and promote improved
range management, including broader implementation of fertility control as a more humane
and less costly alternative to roundups, removal, and warehousing of these animals;
prohibit interstate transport of horses in double-decker trailers and other vehicles with multiple
stacked levels ; and
establish a pilot program at Veterans Administration medical centers in which patients with
post-deployment mental health issues would train service dogs as a form of therapy, and the
trained dogs would assist veterans with disabilities;
close a loophole in the Animal Welfare Act by requiring that puppy mills selling puppies online
and directly to the public be licensed, regulated, and inspected, and also require exercise for
dogs at all commercial breeding facilities;
direct federal agencies, as part of their procurement specifications for the military, federal
prisons, school lunches, foreign aid, and other programs, to purchase pork, veal, and egg
products only from sources that raise the animals without intensive confinement;
close the loophole that allows slaughter of downed calves and otherwise strengthen the USDA
ban on slaughter of downed animals; and
prohibit the use of animals for Armed Forces training in the treatment of severe combat trauma
injuries and chemical and biological casualties.
Key funding provisions awaiting final approval for FY2011 were lost when Congress abandoned its
annual appropriations bills and instead passed a “continuing resolution” in December 2010 to keep the
government funded until March 4, 2011. However, some good provisions for animals remained:
language promoting alternatives to animal testing through the NIH; the FDA review of antibiotic
resistance and the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals; an NIH investigation of potential
violations by a federally-funded laboratory of the agency’s moratorium on breeding of chimpanzees for
research; and a speedier phase-out by NIH of federally-funded research using random-source dogs and
cats from Class B dealers, notorious for obtaining animals through pet theft and other disreputable
means.
Also on the plus side, because the continuing resolution holds the line on most decisions made in the
prior year’s appropriations bills, it should maintain the FY10 prohibition on USDA spending money to
inspect or allow horse slaughter for human consumption. But it also may unfortunately maintain an
FY10 prohibition on EPA collecting greenhouse gas emissions data from the largest factory farms, as the
agency had earlier announced plans to do.
It remains to be seen how the 112th Congress will resolve the federal budget for the balance of FY11,
from March 4 through September 30, 2011, or address future spending.
For further information about the Humane Society’s Congressional Year in Review, go to
http://hslf.typepad.com/political_animal/2009/12/2009-humane-scorecard.html.
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-- Maryland Votes for Animals -Would you like a state-wide spay/neuter fund in Maryland? Would you like greater penalties for animal
cruelty in Maryland? Are you sick of the killing and the suffering and willing to do something about it?
The Humane Society of the United States and Maryland Votes for Animals invites members, supporters,
and other animal advocates to join them for Maryland Humane Lobby Day on Thursday, February 17 in
Annapolis.
RSVP at the website, www.VoteAnimals.org, to help make a difference for Maryland’s animals.
Note: Deadline to RSVP is February 10, 2011.
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-- Spain Bans Live Bullfighting on TV –
Spain's state broadcaster, TVE, has banned live bullfighting from its schedule, angering matadors and
bullfighting fans who are already smarting over a ban in the eastern region of Catalonia. The broadcaster
has decided bullfighting contravenes its code of conduct for programs before Spain's 10 pm watershed
hour, after which children are no longer expected to be in front of the television.
See Matadors and fans outraged as Spanish state TV bans live bullfights
The Guardian, January 9, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/09/spanish-state-tv-banlive-bullfights
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-- Taiwan Pig Farmers Fight Pollution –
Toddlers can learn, cats can be taught, so why not take the next step and potty-train livestock? Taiwan’s
Environmental Protection Administration is encouraging its pig farmers to do just that with the
countries’ six million pigs. The move will clean up the farms and help prevent water pollution.
See Potty trained pig’s help keep Taiwanese rivers clean, Discover Magazine, January 6, 2011
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2011/01/06/potty-trained-piggies-help-keep-taiwaneseriversclean/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DiscoverDiscoblog+%2
8Discoblog%29
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-- What Martin Luther King Had to Say –
"One day the absurdity of the almost universal human belief
in the slavery of other animals
will be palpable. We shall then have discovered our souls and
become worthier of sharing this planet with them."
(Martin Luther King, Jr)
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