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At the end of May, the House Agriculture Committee passed the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024, otherwise known as the Farm Bill, which guides the nation's food and agriculture policy for years. Not only does this version miss opportunities to help animals, promote public health, and protect the environment, but several provisions blatantly make things worse and threaten to undo long-fought protections for farmed animals and others. Tell Congress to refuse to accept the new provisions in the Farm Bill that empower animal agribusiness to keep tormenting and killing billions of animals.
 

The Farm Bill aims to strike down the already meager progress for animal welfare by blocking state laws that protect farmed animals from extreme confinement, including Prop 12 which banned the sale of products made from intensively confined mother pigs, egg-laying hens, and calves raised for veal in California, re-establishing the horrific confinement of these animals in more than a dozen states. It also continues the use of “ventilation shutdown” which is a barbaric method of killing thousands of animals at once by sealing off oxygen and pumping in heat to suffocate and roast them to death over hours. This is an attempt to curb the bird flu catastrophe that animal farming has created.

In Defense of Animals, in partnership with Free from Harm, urges you to take a stand against a $259,000,000,000 industry that profits off of forcibly impregnating and confining animals, only to kill them at a fraction of their natural lifespan. Congress must stop giving billion-dollar bailouts to animal agribusiness, paid for by taxpayers, to continue spreading zoonotic diseases like the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus. It has now infected dairy cows and at least three humans, putting us all at risk for another pandemic. Meanwhile, animal agribusiness gets billions more in subsidies to continue business as usual. All of this is for an inherently brutal, environmentally destructive, and unnecessary industry that profits off the exploitation of animals.

A study by the Environmental Working Group stated that, since 1995, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has rewarded cattle and sealife “producers” with over $59 billion. Since 2001, only $124 million has gone to support plant-based products. Studies published by Stanford University, University of Oxford, University of California, Berkeley, and others have convincingly argued that phasing out animal agriculture represents our best and most immediate chance to reverse the trajectory of the climate crisis.

The proposed policies currently being negotiated, using similar language to the EATS Act, will only increase the abject suffering of farmed animals, in addition to supporting puppy mills and mink farming. In addition, “ventilation shutdown” has been banned in Europe, cited as “inhumane” by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Yet this cheaper method of killing animals is still used in the United States.

By engaging animal advocates on the ground across the country, with protests, letters, and calls to attract the attention of lawmakers and the media, we aim to shift the narrative away from using animals as resources and toward a slaughter-free, plant-based food system.

Activists with In Defense of Animals and Free from Harm staged disruptions at animal agribusiness conferences in March and June, to protest the billion-dollar “bird flu” bailout.

We are also working with the Plant-Based Treaty, moving governments and other institutions toward a plant-based food system.

Raise your voice now against the provisions in the Farm Bill that so heavily privilege animal agribusiness over cruelty-free, healthier, environmentally sustainable plant-based alternatives.

Letter to Decision Maker(s) for reference:

Subject: Reject Animal Cruelty in the Farm Bill

As your constituent and one of more than 250,000 In Defense of Animals supporters who care about animals and the environment, I implore you to reject the inclusion of new language in the Farm Bill that threatens decades of progress for animal welfare.

This bill contains a number of troubling provisions that harm animals and put public health at risk, with the most concerning being Sec. 12007, which blocks state laws banning the sale of products produced from animals subjected to intensive confinement, including mother pigs, egg-laying hens and calves raised for veal.

This would undo important measures, such as California’s Prop 12, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, and Massachusetts’ Question 3. This bill must not be allowed to stop states from taking steps to protect animals, public health and the environment.

Measures that allow the sale of meat from custom slaughterhouses, expand the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Livestock Indemnity Program for producers that have no disaster preparedness in place, prop up puppy mills, make international dog rescue more difficult, and subsidize mink farming should also be opposed.

Instead of slashing protections for farmed animals, while creating more conditions for the spread of zoonotic disease, please stop bailing this industry out and redirect your funding to endorse a plant-based food system. An Environmental Working Group study found the USDA has awarded $59 billion in subsidies for cattle and seafood producers since 1995 while giving a meager $124 million since 2001 to support plant foods and meat, dairy, and fish alternatives.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has stated that “a well planned, whole food plant-based diet is healthy for all stages of life”, while studies published by Stanford University, the University of Oxford, the University of California, Berkeley, and others convincingly argue that phasing out animal agriculture represents our best and most immediate chance to reverse the trajectory of the climate crisis.

Animal agriculture is a cruel, environmentally destructive, and unnecessary industry. Support a slaughter-free, safe, and sustainable plant-based food system.

Thank you for your attention on this urgent issue.

Sincerely,

Signed

Victory! This alert made a difference for animals! Click here to learn more.