October 12, 2006

Animal Welfare Group Urges Missouri Voters to Choose McCaskill for Senate on November 7th

WASHINGTON —  Citing her track record as a leader on animal welfare policy, Humane Society Legislative Fund announced that it has endorsed State Auditor Claire McCaskill in Missouri’s race for the U.S. Senate.  

“We applaud Claire McCaskill’s work in Missouri to protect animals from cruelty and crack down on abusive puppy mills that treat dogs like they are production machines,” said Sara Amundson, executive director of the Humane Society Legislative Fund.  “In order to pass humane laws, we need to elect humane lawmakers like Claire McCaskill. Missourians who care about animal welfare should support her election to the U.S. Senate.”

As a former Jackson County Prosecutor, McCaskill established a special Domestic Violence Unit to combat domestic violence and child abuse.  In that role, she recognized that in homes where there was domestic violence, there was also often violence directed at animals.  She saw this well established violence link and believes we need strong laws to protect animals and people from cruelty.

In 2004, as state auditor, she released a stinging assessment of Missouri’s implementation of laws to protect puppies.  Missouri has been long-recognized as a state with massive, commercial “puppy mills,” from where dogs are shipped to pet stores or direct to consumers all over the world.  McCaskill said the state routinely performed hasty inspections and failed to punish breeders for practices that could endanger our pets.

In stark contrast to Claire McCaskill’s humane record, HSLF says that incumbent Senator Jim Talent has a terrible record on animal welfare.  Talent was among a small number of Senators who voted last year to continue slaughtering tens of thousands of American horses—ex-racehorses, family ponies, and others—for food exports to French and Belgian gourmands.

Just two weeks ago, a double-decker trailer carrying 41 horses and one mule overturned in Franklin County, Missouri. When it crashed, the truck was hauling the horses from Oklahoma to a Belgian-owned horse slaughter plant in Illinois, where they would have been slaughtered for meat. Sixteen horses died as a result of the crash, which turned the trailer on its side, throwing the horses into one another and against the sides and roof of the trailer. (A web video on the Missouri crash and horse rescue is available at: http://stream.luxmedia.com/?file=/clients/hsus/e-community/mo_horses.wmv&type=wmv.)

Talent has not only supported horse slaughter for foreign delicacies, but has also opposed other animal welfare issues, including the following:

• He voted to continue taxpayer funding to kill predators with cruel methods such as steel-jawed leghold traps, wire neck snares, poisons, explosives, and aerial gunning, all as a subsidy for private ranchers.
• He voted to continue taxpayer funding for the international tuna fishing convention, which allows dolphins to be drowned in tuna nets.
• He voted against legislation that would have helped to protect endangered species on military bases.
• In the current session of Congress alone, he has refused to co-sponsor bills to crack down on illegal animal fighting, to provide better oversight at mass dog breeding “puppy mills,” to stop the sale of “downed” livestock who are too sick or injured to walk, to protect pets from being poisoned by antifreeze, and even to help evacuate pets in disasters.

HSLF supports Claire McCaskill for U.S. Senate and believes she is the clear choice for voters who care about the humane treatment of animals. HSLF is a nonpartisan organization that evaluates candidates based only on a single criterion: where they stand on animal welfare. HSLF does not judge candidates based on party affiliation or any other issue. A complete list of HSLF’s endorsements is available online at www.humanevoting.com.

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Humane Society Legislative Fund (HSLF) is a social welfare organization incorporated under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. HSLF works to pass animal protection laws at the state and federal level, to educate the public about animal protection issues, and to support humane candidates for office. Contributions or gifts to HSLF are not tax deductible. Your donation may be used for lobbying to pass laws to protect animals, as well as for political purposes, such as supporting or opposing candidates. HSLF does not accept contributions from business corporations or labor organizations. On the web at www.hslf.org.