"Today, Tennessee Walking Horses are known throughout the industry
as the breed that shows abused and tortured horses."

~ Jim Heird, Ph.D., Do Right By The Horse, February 2010

"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity,
you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men."

~ St. Francis of Assisi

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

NEWS - H.R. 1518 Moved to C&E Committee Subcommittee - New Letters Needed!; Farm Bill Update; Justice Blog Entry Concerning Animal Abuse

H.R. 1518, or the PAST Act, has been moved to the Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee entitled Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade.  Here's the list of the subcommittee members that we need new letters and calls for to support HR 1518.  PLEASE NOTE: Marsha Blackburn is in with the Lickers, so writing to her might not be helpful.

Please remember: calls are more effective than emails!  However, contacting them through all channels is always a good idea!  We've linked the person's contact page to their name.  A ** means there are multiple offices listed on the contact page.  If you want to contact them through their page or even visit their office, use the zip code provided when asked for it.  If it asks you for an address, use the zip code and find a local cemetery or library as your address.  The computer certainly doesn't know the difference.  MelissaData is a great place to look up more information about addresses and zip codes.

Chairman: Lee Terry (R-NE)  (402) 397-9944, zip 68154
Vice Chairman: Leonard Lance (R-NJ)  (908) 518-7733, zip 07090**
John Barrow (D-GA)  (912) 489-4494, zip 30458**
Joe Barton (R-TX)  (972) 875-8488, zip 75119-7489**
Gus Bilirakis (R-FL)  (727) 232-2921, zip 34689-1299**
Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)  (931) 503-0391, zip 37043-5399**
G.K. Butterfield (D-NC)  (919) 908-0164, zip 27701-3204**
Donna M. Christensen (D-VI)  (340) 778-5900, zip 00840**
John D. Dingell (D-MI)  (313) 278-2936, zip 48124-2429**
Brett Guthrie (R-KY)  (270) 842-9896, zip 42101-1217**
Gregg Harper (R-MS)  (601) 823-3400, zip 39601-3341**
Bill Johnson (R-OH)  (740) 376-0886, zip 45750-3123**
Adam Kinzinger (R-IL)  (815) 431-9271, zip 61350
Billy Long (R-MO)  (417) 889-1800, zip 65804-4583**
Jim Matheson (D-UT)  (801) 486-1236, zip 84008
David McKinley (R-WV)  (304) 232-3801, zip 26003**
Jerry McNerney (D-CA)  (925) 754-0716, zip 94531-6209**
Pete Olson (R-TX)  (281) 494-2690, zip 77478-4918**
Mike Pompeo (R-KS)  (316) 262-8992, zip 67207
Bobby L. Rush (D-IL)  (773) 224-6500, zip 60619-2304**
John Sarbanes (D-MD)  (410) 295-1679, zip 21401-1907**
Ranking Member: Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)  (773) 506-7100, zip 60640-5660**
Fred Upton (R-MI)  (269) 982-1986, zip 49085-1118**
Henry A. Waxman (D-CA)  (310) 652-3095, zip 90036-4315**
Peter Welch (D-VT)  (802) 652-2450, toll free (888) 605-7270, zip 05401-5206

Feel free to use a link to the FTTWH press package in your emails, or mail one specifically to their office.  And again, the FTTWH press package is free for anyone to use!

Here are the reasons why we need new letters.

First, the supporters of the Farm Bill are scrambling to put it back into Congress to get it voted on again and try to get it passed.  I've copied and pasted the article at the end of this blog post; click here for the full article.  The problem with the Farm Bill is if the King Amendment is included in it, it will give farmers and people who abuse livestock more free rein to do so.  It would hinder investigations into animal abuse, and this will lead to probable health issues concerning the care of food animals.

However, there is still hope.  The Department of Justice had an excellent post on their blog concerning the reasons why we need to be concerned about animal welfare.  Again, I've copied and pasted it below, but click here for the full post.  Specifically, the post talks about a listening session that went on April 30th of this year presented by experts in the field explaining why we need to focus on animal cruelty cases. Their examples are as follows.

...investigators have documented child abuse cases where the perpetrators threatened to kill the child’s pet in order to enforce the child’s silence and compliance.  Surveys of domestic violence shelter residents reveal that batterers sometimes harm or threaten to harm pets as part of their strategy for controlling the behavior of family members.  And research suggests that acts of animal cruelty committed by young people may predict violent behavior in the future.  Intervening to address animal cruelty may be key to changing patterns of conduct for positive long-term effects.

Through raids and criminal prosecutions, we have also learned firsthand that certain forms of animal cruelty – such as dog and cockfighting – can be part of a highly organized interstate criminal industry that not only harms animals, but also threatens public safety.  Dog and cockfighting ventures frequently attract other criminal activities, including drug trafficking, unlawful possession of firearms, illegal gambling, stolen vehicles and property offenses, and child endangerment.

This is an excellent resource that you can send to the subcommittee members.  If I can find the transcript of the listening session, I will post it on the blog.

**********
After stunning defeat, lawmakers scramble to salvage farm bill
By Mike Lillis and Russell Berman
June 22, 2013

Supporters of a five-year farm bill are scrambling to pick up the pieces after the measure went down in stunning defeat in the House.

Thursday's 195-234 vote to kill the $940 billion package blindsided proponents, who were confident of the bill's success and are now struggling in search of a plan to resuscitate it.

GOP leaders say they've made no decisions about the next step, but the heads of the House Agriculture Committee – Reps. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) and Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) – spoke Thursday afternoon in an early show that they're still hoping to prevent the need for any short-term extensions of current farm policy.

"We'll figure it out," Peterson said to Lucas just after the vote.

Whether that's possible in the face of a divided House, a recalcitrant GOP conference and the thorny politics surrounding the package, however, is by no means certain.

Farm bills have historically won overwhelming support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. But despite pressure from GOP leaders, 62 Republicans opposed the package Thursday – many more than supporters expected – while only 24 Democrats backed the measure.

The vote was an embarrassing defeat for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), reviving doubts about his decision to consider the bill via regular order and, more broadly, his ability to rally his own troops behind legislation of any significance.

Deflecting those questions, House Republican leaders on Friday continued to blame Democrats for the bill’s failure, accusing Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in particular of undermining support.

"We expected Democrats to produce the votes they promised on a long-negotiated bipartisan measure to get us to conference, rather than Nancy Pelosi using her opposition to common-sense work requirements as an excuse for playing politics," said Rory Cooper, spokesman for Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), "so we haven't decided the next step yet."

Both Pelosi and Peterson said many more in their party would have backed the final product, but two last-minute conservative amendments – one championed by Boehner, the other by Cantor – scared the Democrats away.

"Those two [amendments] cost us a lot of votes," Peterson said Thursday, "and I would guess it didn't get them a damn thing."

Indeed, Pelosi on Wednesday had warned that Democrats would flee if the package became more conservative.

“If they change it on the floor, then all bets are off," she told The Nation.

Cooper said there was “no timetable” for a decision on the way forward for the legislation. The House leaves for a weeklong recess after next week.

A Boehner spokesman referred questions to Cantor's office.

Dale Moore, executive director of public policy at the American Farm Bureau Federation, said supporters of the package were left "kind of stunned" by its defeat, and that lawmakers haven't moved far beyond "the wound-licking process."

"I know what the Spurs felt like after Game 6," Moore said, referring to San Antonio's come-from-ahead loss Tuesday night in the NBA playoffs.

If they decide to take another stab at the bill, GOP leaders would face the central question of whether to shift the package to the right to attract more Republicans, or shift it to the left to lure more Democrats.

"There's the penultimate question, and candidly I'm not sure" of the answer, Moore said.

Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said Friday that the future of the bill remains up in the air, but he doubted that efforts to attract more conservatives would bear fruit.

"Clearly, they need more Democratic votes, so going to the right would not be an option," Hammill said.

Supporters of the five-year proposal are quick to note that the timing of Thursday's vote – which came more than three months before the current farm bill expires – gives lawmakers plenty of cushion for finding a solution and avoiding a short-term fix.

"It's way too early to talk about extensions," Moore said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), the head of Senate Agriculture Committee who shepherded a bipartisan farm bill through the upper chamber earlier this month, is awaiting a conference with a House version.

Peterson, who spoke with Stabenow Thursday, said the worst-case scenario would be a short-term extension of current law. He predicted lawmakers simply won't have the appetite to revert to the 1949 farm bill, as would happen on Oct. 1 if Congress doesn't act at all.

"The current law we can live with," he said. "So without a bill we'll end up with an extension, because there's no way we can go back to '49 law."

**********
The Intersection Between Animal Cruelty and Public Safety
April 30th, 2013
Posted by The Department Of Justice
The following post appears courtesy of Acting Associate Attorney General Tony West and Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs Mary Lou Leary.

The images that emerge from animal cruelty cases are both difficult to look at and impossible to turn away from.  We don’t encounter animal cruelty every day, but the Justice Department has charged at least 190 defendants with animal cruelty offenses during the past six years, and has assisted state and local prosecutors in many others.  Some of these cases involved flagrant abuses of show horses, complex underground dog fighting schemes, and stolen animals sold for medical research.  Just last month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas charged the ringleaders of a multi-state dog fighting scheme with felony animal fighting.  More than a dozen federal, state and local agencies helped with the investigation and rescued 79 dogs.

Since we know there are established links between animal cruelty and different types of violent behavior, including domestic violence, child abuse and elder abuse, today we had the unique opportunity to host a listening session on the intersection between animal cruelty and public safety.  We were joined by experts from a wide range of disciplines, including federal and state prosecutors, forensic scientists and veterinarians, judges, law enforcement officers, as well as representatives from the elder abuse, domestic violence, children services and animal welfare fields.  Today’s listening session also drew wide interest across the department – from our own research and policy advisors, to our criminal prosecutors and civil litigators.

Both in scale and scope, this conversation was the first of its kind in the department.  It is part of a broader dialogue that we will continue to have about preventing animal cruelty and better understanding its intersection with interpersonal violence and organized crime.

For example, investigators have documented child abuse cases where the perpetrators threatened to kill the child’s pet in order to enforce the child’s silence and compliance.  Surveys of domestic violence shelter residents reveal that batterers sometimes harm or threaten to harm pets as part of their strategy for controlling the behavior of family members.  And research suggests that acts of animal cruelty committed by young people may predict violent behavior in the future.  Intervening to address animal cruelty may be key to changing patterns of conduct for positive long-term effects.

Through raids and criminal prosecutions, we have also learned firsthand that certain forms of animal cruelty – such as dog and cockfighting – can be part of a highly organized interstate criminal industry that not only harms animals, but also threatens public safety.  Dog and cockfighting ventures frequently attract other criminal activities, including drug trafficking, unlawful possession of firearms, illegal gambling, stolen vehicles and property offenses, and child endangerment.

We still have more to explore and learn about these connections, and our Office of Justice Programs’ Animal Cruelty Working Group has been working to do just that.

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