Inside This Issue:
- A Quick Farm Bill & Healthy Dog Importation Act Update
- More Anti-Research News – Coming Together for a Bad Cause
- Hundreds of Dogs Missing from California Transfer Rescue
A Quick Farm Bill & Healthy Dog Importation Act Update
Regarding the inclusion of the Healthy Dog Importation Act in Chairman Boozman’s Farm Bill 2.0 Discussion Draft: NAIA strongly supports this new framework to strengthen health requirements to safeguard animal and public health from the risks associated with the importation of dogs into the United States. See the Farm Bill Discussion Draft here, and click on the link below to read our press release.
Source: NAIA Welcomes Senate Release of Farm Bill Strengthening Public and Animal Health
More Anti-Research News – Coming Together for a Bad Cause
Stock photo of many people's favorite biomedical research rodent.
Roll Call just put out a depressing article on the state of animal research in the United States. As polarized as this nation may be, high-profile figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Lara Trump, Cory Booker, and others have found a cause that crosses party lines: putting an end to life-saving animal research. And this push is finding its way into research funding and legislation.
Hey, we’re all for people getting over their partisan bickering and working together for a greater good. And further, the desire to receive the benefits of life-saving advancements in medicine while using fewer and fewer animal models comes from a good place (we haven’t conducted any polls on this specific topic, but we suspect this is how the vast majority of people feel about biomedical research). What is a crying shame is seeing people from different sides come together to promote wishful thinking wrapped in a lie. There are numerous, impressive non-animal models assisting work in biomedical research, and over time, these models will no doubt be able to answer broader and broader biological questions – and that's great. However, the claim that animal research is no longer a vital component of advancements in medicine is simply not true, and incredibly harmful: it manipulates people’s hopes and good intentions, and when carried out as a matter of policy, is damaging to human and animal health as a whole. Further, eliminating or severely limiting animal research in the US won't stop animal testing elsewhere, it will simply move live model testing to other countries – ones with fewer controls and protections, and ones that will put the US in a position of buying back the results.
Source: RFK Jr.’s moves on animal testing spur Capitol Hill action
Hundreds of Dogs Missing from California Transfer Rescue
Peter and Tinkerbell, two of the missing dogs ~ social media post.
A horrific case of “rescue gone wrong” appears to be unfolding in California, as over 700 animals are missing from a no-kill rescue, while dead animals have been exhumed from the rescue's property. The rescue posted about the need for “context” in this situation last week, and it remains in operation. However, given the findings and the number of agencies involved in this fraud and abuse investigation, you have to wonder how long the rescue’s doors will remain open.
Making matters worse, the hundreds of unaccounted-for animals received by this rescue were transported in from other shelters, a method of shipping around surplus animals that is ripe for cynical abuse. A detective on this case stated in May, rather bluntly, that he believes the rescue owner killed the dogs for money – basically, reducing the number of dogs on site, so he could receive new ones. According to one investigative piece, the transfers produced an estimated income of over $500k, which helps to explain the detective’s suspicions.
The rescue owner, defending himself, has claimed that many of the dogs he received were too aggressive to be rehabilitated, had health problems, and/or were drugged to the point of needing to be carried out of their transports. While you won’t get an argument from us that some rescues set too high a bar for calling a dog “dangerously aggressive,” this seems a pretty extraordinary claim, given the massive number of animals unaccounted for. More news on this story as it unfolds.
Source: FBI exhumes dead animals at NorCal rescue, hundreds more feared missing
Also in the News...
★ Stop Screwworm: Unified Government Response to Protect the United States (Your Weekly Screwworm Update)
★ Prosecutors: Woman charged with animal abuse admitted she had no food for dogs (Neglect & Abuse)
★ 80 cats seized in Oregon abuse investigation now safe in Portland (Elder Abuse; Rescuing from the Rescue)
★ As More Chinese Own Pets, Young People Stand Up for Animal Welfare (Public Protest After Fake Adoption Leads to Abuse)
★ Scientists Can’t Prove It, But These Animals Seem to Have a Sense of Humor (Fun & Funny Lists; We Expected to Find Otters on This List and Were Not Disappointed)
Click here to see what is happening legislatively
