Downed Animal Protection Act: Calls Urgently Needed!

July 13, 2003

DOWNED ANIMAL PROTECTION ACT: Vote Expected Monday; Calls Urgently Needed!

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on Monday, July 14, on a version of the Downed Animal Protection Act. Representative Gary Ackerman (D-NY) plans to introduce an amendment to the House Agriculture Appropriations bill on the floor to prevent downed animal abuse. If passed, the Ackerman Downed Animal Protection Amendment to the Agriculture Appropriations bill will help curtail some of the most egregious abuses inflicted upon farmed animals by modifying the agriculture industry's treatment of "downed" animals — those who are too sick or injured to walk or even stand. Right now, these animals are routinely shocked, beaten, dragged with chains, and even bulldozed, to move them to slaughter. The Ackerman Amendment would prohibit downed animals from entering the food supply — thereby creating a financial incentive for farmers to treat animals more humanely to prevent them from becoming downed in the first place. Legislators should also feel compelled to support this bill because it will protect public health, since downed animals are among the most likely to be afflicted with “Mad Cow Disease” or other illnesses that could endanger people. In fact, just last month in Canada, a downed animal was diagnosed with Mad Cow Disease!

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Contact your U.S. Representative and urge him or her to co-sponsor the Downed Animal Protection Act and to support the Ackerman Downed Animal Protection Amendment to the House Agriculture Appropriations bill.

All federal legislators can be reached through the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121, and you can identify the name fo your representative at www.Congress.org.

For more information on the Downed Animal Protection Act, see: www.nodowners.org

---------------------"Humans are part of the web of life. What we do to the planet, what we do to other species, and what we do to other people, we end up doing to ourselves." ~John Robbins

"As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony between people. Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together." ~Isaac Bashevis Singer

"Nonviolence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages." ~Thomas Edison

"Don't do nothing because you can't do everything. Do Something. Anything." ~Sasha

Recipes & Cooking Classes: http://www.generationv.org/compassionatecooks.htm---------------------Colleen Patrick-GoudreauSenior Content & Creative DirectorJustGive.orgphone (510) 238-5004fax (510) 238-4809colleenhttp://www.justgive.org