The farm bill could do more for animals than any legislation in recent history

 Kathleen Parker

...Whatever one thinks of the circumstances surrounding Pacelle’s resignation from HSUS, no one would argue that he wasn’t the hardest worker in the office. Three reforms included in the farm bill bear his fingerprints and are testament to his dedication. One provision is a crackdown on dogfighting and cockfighting in the five U.S. territories — American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Although animal fighting is already outlawed in all 50 states, such activities are still permitted in the territories and are typically defended as cultural expressions. Phooey. It’s long past time to acknowledge that cultural equivalency is a lie and all forms of animal cruelty, whether as entertainment or cultivation for human consumption, should be outlawed. Another reform is a ban on dog and cat meat in the United States, not that anyone other than a few soulless mercenaries (and a few million coyotes) much care. Alas, there are those who do kill dogs and cats and then sell the meat in a small yet horrific underground market. Globally, more than 30 million dogs and cats are victims of food purveyors and others who celebrate their consumption. Notorious is China’s annual Dog Meat Festival, where man’s best friend is slaughtered and consumed to celebrate the summer solstice. The bill also includes a provision — or rather a commitment — to add kennels and other animal shelters at domestic violence centers, reasoning that pets are also at risk in violent households. Moreover, abusers will often use pets as leverage to keep a spouse or partner in place, according to Animal Wellness Action. What’s clear with the farm bill is that Washington is recognizing through legislation that America’s relationship with its animals, both wild and domestic, is shifting to norms that the recently departed President George H.W. Bush would describe as both kinder and gentler. Additionally, as Pacelle wrote in his book “The Humane Economy,” kindness pays dividends in a culture of increasingly enlightened consumers.  Perhaps the most important feature of the bill, not to exclude legalization of industrial hemp used in CBD oil, is the elimination of the so-called King Amendment, about which I’ve written before. Named for Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), the amendment would have allowed states to scrap regulations banning such cruel practices as confining an animal so that it can’t move or turn around...MORE

 Thanks to the Republicans in the Senate, little fluffy and thousands of bambies will suffer horrible deaths in wildfires that will sweep the West, but in between these cruel roastings they will be treated ever so gently.

It is a shame the headline didn't read, The farm bill could do more for humans than any legislation in recent history