14/06/2024
Karen Adelman Perry
MRC Legislative Chair :
https://www.akc.org/legislative-alerts/u-s-senate-ask-senators-oppose-harmful-proposals-senate-farm-bill-legislation/
June 14, 2024
Dear Club, Officers, Legislative Liaisons and Delegates, We are reaching out to you specifically because your Senator(s) is a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Farm Bill. Please share this alert immediately with club members and other dog enthusiasts in your state.
The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee is currently considering proposals for inclusion in the Senate Farm Bill. Right now, animal rights/ “protection” groups are actively lobbying your Senator(s) to include two proposals that could harm responsible dog breeders.
Your action is urgently needed NOW to stop the animal-rights supported Better CARE for Animals Act (S. 2555) and Goldie’s Act (S. 4033) from being attached to the Senate Farm Bill.
PLEASE ACT TODAY!
Even if your Senator(s) already shares these concerns, it is important that they hear from YOU, their constituents. Your individual contact makes a difference.
Easy ways to make a difference:
Call, email, or write to your U.S. Senators – A personalized call, voice mail, or email is more effective than a preformatted message.
Alternatively, you can share your concerns with a preformatted message. Click here to send a message now.
Easy steps to send a personalized message:
Visit AKC’s Legislative Action Center legislator contact page at https://akcgr.org/officials and type in your address/ state to find the names and contact information for your U.S. Senators.
Explain you are a constituent. Respectfully share your experience and concerns as a dog owner/breeder/expert.
Ask them to oppose language from Better CARE for Animals Act and Goldie’s Act in the Farm Bill. These measures do nothing to improve the wellbeing of dogs, will create confusion in enforcing the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), and undermine prioritizing proper care and conditions for dogs.
Instead, ask them to support:
Additional resources for USDA to better enforce the Animal Welfare Act (AWA)
Requiring USDA to report to Congress on existing enforcement with recommendations on improving enforcement, and enhancing educational programs and outreach.
Requiring any inspector finding unrelieved suffering by animals to report that immediately to local authorities who have jurisdiction over animal welfare in their communities.
Language from the Healthy Dog Importation Act, which addresses public health threats related to the import of unhealthy dogs into the U.S., and requires all dogs imported into the United States to have a valid health certificate from a veterinary agency recognized by the USDA. Certificates would demonstrate that dogs being imported are microchipped and fully vaccinated or protected against contagious diseases and pathogens of concern to the USDA, including rabies.
Summary of ‘Better CARE for Animals Act’ (H.R.5041/ Senate Bill 2555)
Circumvents enforcement of dog breeder licensing under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and shifts authority to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). This shift would move oversight authority from an agency staffed by animal experts that focuses on improving animal husbandry; and instead place it with one with little or no animal expertise that focuses on violations as potential federal crimes.
Empowers the DOJ to file charges, seize animals and impose penalties regardless of whether USDA has determined or even alleged that there has been a violation of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).
Could potentially undermine or remove current exemptions from licensing for small hobby breeders, thereby requiring them to be licensed and comply with USDA standards for high volume commercial breeders that are not appropriate for hobbyists.
Summary of “Goldie’s Act” (S. 4033)
Goldie’s Act (HR 1788/ S 4033) establishes government mandates that:
Redefine AWA violations and undermine priority for the care and wellbeing of animals. Proponents claim that the bill is designed to crack down on violators of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA), but in fact it will do the opposite. By removing the distinction between care and welfare (direct) violations and paperwork/non-welfare related (indirect) violations the measure will make enforcement of animal care violations more difficult. While zero violations of any rules or laws should be the goal, the care and wellbeing of animals must always be a priority. Reporting paperwork errors in the same manner as care violations also creates a misleading perception about breeder licensees and creates a new target for animal extremists who use those public databases to identify breeders.
Require inspectors to destroy or remove an animal if they believe it is experiencing physical or “psychological harm”. The bill does not define or determine how “psychological harm” would be determined, or by whom. This creates an environment for abuse and unnecessary euthanasia of animals.
State the intent to expand enforcement of federal breeder licensing requirements, but in fact it throws out recent enforcement enhancements currently undergoing a 3-year implementation process, scheduled for completion in October 2024. Instead of improving enforcement of the AWA, it creates confusing and onerous new mandates, and undermines recently established enforcement efforts. Constantly changing arbitrary rules create a confusing, expensive, and potentially harmful environment for animal care in which neither licensees nor regulators may be certain of requirements.
For more information, contact AKC Government Relations at [email protected] or visit www.akcgr.org.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
The American Kennel Club
