Terrible Anti-Animal Welfare Amendment to the Farm Bill Officially Rejected!

If passed, the King Amendment to the Farm Bill proposed by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) would have prevented states from enforcing their own laws regarding the production of “agricultural products”— a term so broad that it could have included not only farm animals but also dogs in puppy mills.

More specifically, as the Animal Legal Defense Fund reprots, the King Amendment, “would have rolled back laws in 8 states that forbid cruel farm animal confinement, rescinded California’s Foie Gras ban, horse slaughter and puppy mill prohibitions, children’s nutritional requirements, and have nullified CA’s Prop 2 and other such ballot initiatives where voters have spoken to demand better treatment for the animals whose products are sold within their own state borders.”

However, after a very long battle, we are happy to announce that the King Amendment has officially been rejected, thanks to the hard work of advocacy organizations, citizen groups, and concerned politicians! Woohoo!

Truly, the opposition to Rep. Kings’ provision was huge, with massive coverage in Time, The New York Times, Washington Post, and many other major media outlets. A full list of opposition voices can even be found on The Humane Society of the United States’ King Amendment fact page right here — a list that perfectly illustrates how struggles can be overcome and victories won when many voices join together to fight for animals.

To take you just briefly down memory lane, a few months ago we shared a video clip of Rep. King defending dog fighting. He apparently “took issue with an amendment to the Federal Farm Bill that would criminalize attending organized animal fights and would impose additional penalties on people who bring children to the events.”

Pretty crazy, right?

Thankfully, King’s very own anti-animal welfare amendment is now gone for good and the current version of the Farm Bill “establishes the first-ever federal penalties for attending an animal fight and criminalizes bringing a child to one of these heinous events … It also ensures that organizers cannot easily escape prosecution by hiding in the crowd when law enforcement arrives, since now everyone in the crowd will be breaking the law,” reports the ASPCA.

In addition to stronger penalties against animal fighting, the whopping 959-page Farm Bill authorizes many different agriculture, Conservation, research, and nutrition programs along with other provisions and amendments. Some of these provisions, seen in more detail at the Fresno Bee, include helping the U.S. olive oil industry, providing funding for specialty crop programs, and changing crop subsidy payments.

The next step in moving the Farm Bill forward is to contact your congressional representatives in both the House and Senate and ask them to vote for the final version of the Farm Bill. It may not be perfect in its entirety, but it’s worlds better now that the King Amendment is dead.

Image Source: Lovecats/Flickr