USA: Urge Congress to Protect Animals in the Farm Bill

U.S. Farm Bill

ASPCA Position: Support Pro-Animal Provisions

Congress is working on the long-delayed Farm Bill, a huge piece of legislation that identifies national agricultural priorities and reaffirms the responsibilities of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), impacting farm animals, companion animals, and horses. This bill also dictates how our food and farm systems operate and how funding is allocated, which means that it has the potential to improve or worsen the lives of animals, people, and the environment.

Congress can choose to include language from pending federal bills into the Farm Bill — this is where we need your help. To build a better world for animals, there are two critical bills that Congress must include and one terrible bill we’re fighting to keep out of the Farm Bill. Learn more about each bill and take action below!

❌EATS Act—Terrible for Animals, Food Safety, Farm Workers, and the Environment
Including any part of the EATS Act in the Farm Bill would be devastating. The EATS Act is a direct response to the success of animal welfare bills like Proposition 12, which was recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Existing bans on cruel farming practices, including gestation crates for pigs, battery cages for egg-laying hens, and veal crates for calves could be undone if the EATS Act passes. Additionally, good laws related to food safety, farm worker protections, environmental standards and even puppy mills may all be at risk. The House preview of the Farm Bill included EATS Act language – help us keep this dangerous provision out of the final bill!

✔️Goldie’s Act—Helps Prevent Puppy Mill Cruelty
Goldie’s Act would ensure that the USDA is doing its job to protect animals in federally regulated animal businesses like puppy mills and zoos. The USDA licenses and inspects people and entities that breed or house dogs and other animals for commercial use, but far too often, the agency turns a blind eye to blatant cruelty and suffering.

Goldie’s Act would require the USDA to:
•   Conduct better inspections of licensed facilities.
•   Provide lifesaving intervention for suffering animals.
•   Impose meaningful penalties for violations.
•   Promote timely communication with local law enforcement in circumstances of suspected cruelty and neglect (cross-reporting).

✔️SAFE Act—Bans the Slaughter of America’s Horses
Every year that passes without a federal ban on horse slaughter dooms tens of thousands of equines — work partners, athletes, trusted friends — to unnecessary and inhumane deaths. Approximately 20,000 American horses went over our borders last year to be slaughtered for human consumption around the world.

SAFE Act would simply add equines to an existing, uncontroversial law banning the slaughter of dogs and cats for meat. Nothing could be easier or make more sense: Americans overwhelmingly oppose horse slaughter, and it is way past time to give them the same protection we give our cat and dog friends. Passing the SAFE Act through the Farm Bill will give at-risk horses a chance to find loving homes and humane care.

What You Can Do

Please use the form below to send a pre-drafted message to your members of Congress, urging them to pass a Farm Bill that reforms our farming system and reflects Americans’ concern and compassion for billions of animals.

Advocacy Alert

Your Message

Subject The Farm Bill Must Address Critical Animal Welfare Needs

Dear Lawmaker,

Message

As your constituent and someone who cares about the welfare of animals, I am eager for a Farm Bill that will increase protections for billions of vulnerable animals and prevent mass suffering.

The Farm Bill gives Congress the rare chance to improve farm animal welfare and help our nation transition to a more humane food system. It also presents an opportunity to protect hundreds of thousands of dogs trapped in cruel puppy mills from inhumane treatment and finally end the inhumane practice of slaughtering American horses for human consumption.

I urge you to:

- Support the inclusion of language that would ensure the USDA protects animals under its care and oppose language that would make it harder to aid animals in urgent in need of help. The purpose of the Animal Welfare Act is to ensure humane care and treatment of animals in federally licensed facilities. This law should be strengthened--not weakened--so that innocent animals, like dogs in puppy mills, don’t suffer and die.

- Oppose the inclusion of the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act--or any variation of that bill--in the Farm Bill. The EATS Act is a dangerous overreach of federal power that would eliminate existing state and local animal welfare laws, including widely popular bans on cruel confinement of farm animals, and prevent states from passing new laws in the future. Including language based on the EATS Act in the Farm Bill would infringe on states’ rights while ignoring the will of voters, all to give unfair advantage to large industrial agriculture instead of independent, higher-welfare farmers in the marketplace.

- Ensure that the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act, which enjoys significant bipartisan support, is included in the Farm Bill. The SAFE Act would permanently prohibit the cruel slaughter of horses for human consumption in the U.S. and end their export for that same purpose abroad. This legislation is supported by at least 83% of Americans and is urgently needed to protect horses, their owners, and the horse industry itself.

- Animal protection is a major priority for me, and I urge you to take this opportunity to improve the welfare of billions of animals and help build a more humane food system.

Sincerely,

[First Name] [Last Name]
[Your Address]

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