What Farm Bills Passed 2018 For Animals

The sweeping Agriculture Comeback Act of 2018 — an bus federal law passed approximately every five years, commonly known equally the "farm nib" — included several important provisions for animals. It was signed into law on December 20, 2018.

Amongst the victories were the passage of three bills: the Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act, the Canis familiaris and Cat Meat Trade Prohibition Act, and the Parity in Animal Cruelty Enforcement (PACE) Human action.

Beast advocates also cheered an of import omission: the notorious Protect Interstate Commerce Act of 2018 – meliorate known as the Rex Amendment – did not pass as part of the double-decker package.

The PAWS Human activity

The bipartisan Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act expands existing federal domestic violence protections, which assist in the enforcement of state-issued protection orders, to include companion animals. Amid other provisions, the PAWS Human activity broadens the definition of stalking under the criminal code "to include conduct that causes a person to experience a reasonable fright of death or serious bodily injury to his or her pet."

The new police besides urges states to adopt legislation assuasive courts to include companion animals in domestic violence protective orders. As of 2018, 32 states had such laws^[1]. This is important because victims of domestic violence often delay leaving an abusive partner out of the fear — sadly, oft justified — that the abuser volition harm or impale their companion creature equally a means of control and retaliation^[2].

Compounding this upshot, almost domestic violence shelters accept "no pets" policies, which severely limits options for a victim who wants to flee a dangerous state of affairs but not leave her animal behind. These options will, it's hoped, before long be expanded since the PAWS Human activity also establishes a new grant program for programs providing shelter and housing help for domestic violence victims with companion animals.

Senator Gary Peters, who sponsored the nib, said:

Survivors of domestic violence should never have to decide between leaving an abusive relationship or staying and risking their safety to protect their pets. This bill volition help ensure more safe havens for survivors and their pets are available — so together they tin begin a new chapter in their lives.

Despite their legal status as holding, the important place of companion animals in the family unit — for better or worse — is highlighted when they, along with other vulnerable members of the family, become targets of domestic violence.

The Dog and Cat Meat Trade Prohibition Act

The Dog and True cat Meat Trade Prohibition Act makes information technology illegal to slaughter, send, possess, buy, sell, or donate dogs and cats, or their parts, for man consumption.

Previously, information technology was illegal in all 50 states for slaughterhouses to handle dogs and cats, and for stores to sell the meat. However, individuals in 44 states could legally kill and swallow a dog or cat^[3], or sell the meat to other people. The law contains an exception for members of Indian tribes conducting religious ceremonies.

The Footstep Act

The Parity in Animate being Cruelty Enforcement (Footstep) Human activity amends the Animal Welfare Act to extend the existing federal ban on dogfighting and cockfighting to U.S. territories. Senator Susan Collins, who spearheaded the legislation, said: "The PACE Act will clarify federal prohibitions on animal fighting activity and ensure they are extended to all U.S. jurisdictions, including U.South. territories."

Cockfighting in particular is mutual in some U.S. territories. The PACE Act'south passage into law is widely seen as an important animal protection measure out. Merely some observers have noted potential unintended negative consequences.

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Officials in Puerto Rico, which NPR reports has nearly 80 authorities-regulated cockfighting clubs, are concerned about the economic bear on of the ban, which takes effect adjacent twelvemonth, and claim the industry will motion underground, where information technology will be unregulated.

Withal, despite the potential for some illegal activity to go along cloak-and-dagger, bans on cruel animal practices such as cockfighting are important because they give police enforcement the authority to intervene and remove animals from the situation.

The Protect Interstate Commerce Act of 2018

For animals, one of the most meaning things about the farm pecker is what it did non include. Left out was the infamous Protect Interstate Commerce Act of 2018 — unremarkably known every bit "the Male monarch Amendment" — which aimed "to prevent States and local jurisdictions from interfering with the product and distribution of agricultural products in interstate or foreign commerce." In practice, this means states would have been prohibited from enacting or enforcing strong animal protection laws.

This harmful legislation would have nullified recently passed ballot measures in California and Massachusetts that outlawed the nigh extreme methods of confining farmed animals (and, importantly, the auction of products obtained from animals kept in such conditions).

Minimal as these legal protections are — mandating only that significant pigs, calves raised for veal, and hens used for eggs have enough space to plow around, stand up up, lie down, and motility their limbs^[4] — if passed, the King Amendment would have invalidated these and potentially many more creature protection laws. Its exclusion from the 2018 farm bill is therefore a very good thing for animals.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund was a member of a wide coalition of more than 200 groups opposing the King Subpoena, and we asked our members to contact Congress and their vocalization opposition to this bill. Thank you to everyone who spoke up!

For more than information about how you can help pass stronger fauna protection laws — and fight bad laws like the King Subpoena — see our resource: Working with Legislators.