Oink Oink! 2002 Farm Bill Is Signed

Early Monday morning, May 13th, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the 2002 Farm Bill. Sec. 1051 is now law; rats, mice, and birds are permanently excluded from protection under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

Eadie's House would like to sincerely thank Senator John McCain and Senator Jon Kyl for voting against the 2002 Farm Bill.

In addition to Sec. 1051, Eadie's House would like to point out the 2002 Farm Bill requires $45 billion in new spending, a 26% increase over programs currently in place. Yet, somehow, the money just wasn't available to fund any additional APHIS inspectors and paperwork required if rats, mice, and birds had been granted AWA protection. We may be vegetarian, but we still recognize pork when it waddles across our path!
A Bucolic Congress. . .
Don't forget! Write a 'thank you' note if your Congressperson voted against the 2002 Farm Bill. If your wishes were not represented, let your Congressperson know how disappointed you are with their choice. Most importantly, get out there and vote in the next election!
The Final Vote : 2002 Farm Bill
The 2002 Farm Bill has passed through the Conference Committee process - with Sec. 1051 intact. For Sec. 1051 to not go into effect, the Senate must vote against the entire 2002 Farm Bill, a very difficult proposition. Please call or fax both your state senators, and let them know you are opposed to the 2002 Farm Bill and Sec. 1051 in particular. The issue has grown more urgent in the wake of the 'robot rat' experimentation - the ultimate expression of man's vision of animal as insentient machine.
2002 Farm Bill : Conference Committee
The 2002 Farm Bill is currently in Conference Committee. To learn more about the Committee process, check on the daily status of the Farm Bill, and even listen to live discussions about elements of the proposed bill, we recommend the following web site:

http://agriculture.house.gov/farmbill.htm

And don't forget to call or fax the key members of the Conference Committee: Ag Chairman Larry Combest (Texas), Charlie Stenholm (Texas), Dick Lugar (Ind.), and Tom Harkin (Iowa) in addition to contacting your personal representatives in Congress about removing Sec.1051 from the final version of the 2002 Farm Bill. Participate in your democracy, and learn how very strange Congress can be (on April 18th a hot issue was how to define 'fresh fish').
Action Needed To Protect

Rats, Mice & Birds
Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina has proposed an amendment to the 2002 Farm Bill (Sec. 1051) permanently banning rats, mice, and birds from protection under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). The text of the proposed amendment follows:

SEC. 1051. DEFINITION OF ANIMAL UNDER THE ANIMAL WELFARE ACT.

Section 2(g) of the Animal Welfare Act (7 U.S.C. 2132(g)) is amended by striking "excludes horses not used for research purposes and'' and inserting the following: "excludes birds, rats of the genus Rattus, and mice of the genus Mus bred for use in research, horses not used for research purposes, and'' (emphasis provided).
Two major flaws are inherent in the Helms proposal. First, rats, mice, and birds constitute approximately 95% of the living animals used for testing purposes in American laboratories. The Department of Agriculture excluded rats, mice, and birds from protection under the AWA by arbitrarily defining them as 'non-animals'. Bob Dole, previous Senate Majority Leader, has clearly stated his position on the exclusion of rats, mice, and birds from AWA protection:
I would hope the Bush administration and Members of the present Congress, some of whom stood with me in 1985 in advancing my amendments, will recognize that all the animals used in experimentation deserve the benefit of the modest requirements of the Animal Welfare Act (3/19/2002 Dole letter to John McArdie, Alternatives Research & Development Foundation).
Second, the AWA does not only provide protection for animals used in research. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) also has a duty to ensure compliance with the AWA through inspections of animal wholesaler facilities, where thousands of animals, including rats and mice, are held and distributed to the pet trade and prey mammal market. A loophole was created when the USDA defined rats and mice as non-animals; in essence, APHIS inspectors will ensure the humane care of every rodent in a facility, but ignore the rats and mice. During 1999, rats and mice were a 235 million dollar per year industry in the United States. A completely unregulated industry, where abuse is rampant and tolerated. If, during the course of an inspection, an APHIS inspector witnesses an act of cruelty towards a rat, mouse, or bird, he/she is not required or expected to take any action. For additional information on the abuse inherent in the small animal trade, please see "Know Your Source" found at the following link:

http://www.ratlovers.org/articles/source.html

In the state of Arizona, rats and mice have been documented as arriving from mass breeders with the following conditions: crushed jaws, open and infected sores, mites, missing body parts, popped eyeballs, malnourishment/starvation/dehydration, lice, fleas, lacerations, respiratory disease, severe temperament disorders, and internal parasites. The previous list is certainly not exhaustive, and does represent the typical 'offering' of mass breeders into the Arizona stream of commerce. No one has jurisdiction over the rats and mice held in wholesaler facilities. There are no inspections, paperwork requirements, or humane housing guidelines. Law enforcement is unable to act without a reported incident of animal cruelty, and prosecution would not be possible without clear evidence the cruelty occurred (e.g. a dated, unaltered, videotape of an employee pithing live rats with an ice pick). To the best of our knowledge, no wholesaler has ever been prosecuted in the state of Arizona for the abuse of rats or mice - even with the acknowledged flow of ill and dying animals. USDA/APHIS has turned a blind eye to the current state of rats and mouse welfare, refusing to count rats and mice as animals who deserve the establishment of, "acceptable standards of humane animal care and treatment" (http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ac/).
Let your Congressional representatives know the current state of the AWA protection for rats, mice, and birds is not acceptable. Call both your Senators and your Representative in Congress or send a fax stating you want the Helms animal research amendment dropped from the 2002 Farm Bill.

If you are not aware of who your Senators and Representative are, call the Capitol switchboard at the following number:

202.224.3121

In addition, if you would like to share with Senator Helms your personal feelings on Sec. 1051, his contact information can be located at the following link:

http://www.senate.gov/~helms/

please note: above link to Helms' office is no longer valid (July 2003)