AZ Candidate Jeff Flake Opposes Animal Welfare Issues
by Karyn Zoldan on Oct. 30, 2012, under Animal Cruelty, Animal Newsfrom the press release
WASHINGTON (Oct. 19, 2012) — The Humane Society Legislative Fund, the nation’s leading political advocacy organization for animal welfare, launched a radio ad campaign in Arizona opposing Jeff Flake for U.S. Senate. The radio ads are running in Phoenix and Tucson.
The announcer tells listeners: “Here in Arizona, we love our pets, and we work to protect all animals from cruelty. But Jeff Flake has fought the most modest animal welfare reforms in Congress…Jeff Flake is out of step with our values on protecting animals from cruelty. He’s too extreme for Arizona.”
The ad tells listeners about several of Flake’s votes on animal welfare issues:
Voted against the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act, to include pets and service animals in disaster plans, after first responders risked their lives to save pets left behind during Hurricane Katrina (H.R. 3858/P.L. 109-308)
Voted against the Veterans Dog Training Therapy Act, to create a program to provide service dogs to veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (H.R. 3885)
Voted against strengthening the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s enforcement of the federal law against dog fighting and cockfighting (H.AMDT .224/H.R. 2673), even though Arizonans voted to ban barbaric, inhumane animal fighting spectacles (Prop 201, 1998)
Voted to use taxpayer dollars to kill wildlife with steel-jawed leghold traps, aerial gunning, and toxic poisons (H.AMDT .471/H.R. 2112), even after Arizonans voted to ban trapping on public lands (Prop 201, 1994)
“Arizona voters have time and time again approved common-sense animal welfare reforms, banning cockfighting, steel-jawed leghold traps on public lands, and inhumane confinement of animals on factory farms,” said Michael Markarian, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund. “Jeff Flake has opposed nearly every animal welfare reform in Congress, and we urge Arizona voters who care about the humane treatment of animals to support Richard Carmona for Senate.”
