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AZ Candidate Jeff Flake Opposes Animal Welfare Issues

by on Oct. 30, 2012, under Animal Cruelty, Animal News

from 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.”

 



  • TucsonTerpFan

    The links in the above press release are worthless as they do not provide the text of the bill or indicate if the measure was a stand alone bill or a rider to another measure. This is nothing but a re-write of the press release that was sent to members of the Humane Society; I am a member and received same. However, the release is not telling the entire story.

    The headline, “AZ Candidate Jeff Flake Opposes Animal Welfare Issues” would be like saying that “Grijalva opposes visitors to Arizona” for his boycott over SB 1070. The “Tucson Citizen” site, too often, is a joke.

  • http://www.facebook.com/howard.hail Howard Hail

    This tactic of lying or flaming someone is the norm with members of the animal rights cults like HSUS. These votes saved Arizona from some very expensive stupid laws that had nothing to do with animals. And this article is nothing but a flagrant misrepresentation of what these votes stand for and what bills these laws were attached to. If animal rights was legitimate then they would not have to denigrate others, lie, and commit violent acts against people who raise animals. No this philosophy is anti human and can only be enacted through lies and force of violence. Arizona has laws against cruelty and dog fighting. So nothing in these votes would inhibit those laws. But if you read the whole bill you will realize this rep thinks about the whole picture. These bills take away states rights and saddle the citizens with more taxes and billions of dollars of debt.

    12 Things You Didn’t Know About The HSUS

    1. The Humane Society of the United States scams Americans out of millions of dollars through manipulative and deceptive advertising. An analysis of HSUS’s TV fundraising appeals that ran between January 2009 and September 2011 determined that more than 85 percent of the animals shown were cats and dogs. However, HSUS doesn’t run a single pet shelter and only gives 1 percent of the money it raises to pet shelters, and it has spent millions on anti-farming and anti-hunting political campaigns.

    2. HSUS receives poor charity-evaluation marks. CharityWatch (formerly the American Institute of Philanthropy) reissued HSUS’s “D” rating in December 2011, finding that HSUS spends as little as 49 percent of its budget on its programs. Additionally, the 2011 Animal People News Watchdog Report discovered that HSUS spends about 43 percent of its budget on overhead costs.

    3. Six Members of Congress have called for a federal investigation of HSUS. In April 2011, six Congressmen wrote the IRS Inspector General showing concerns over HSUS’s attempts to influence public policy, which they believe has “brought into question [HSUS’s] tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status.” [Ed: Link to Legislators that Get It: http://www.keepouranimals.com/legislators-that-get-it.html

    4. HSUS regularly contributes more to its own pension plan than it does to pet shelters. An analysis of HSUS’s tax returns determined that HSUS funneled $16.3 million to its executive pension plan between 1998 and 2009—over $1 million more than HSUS gave to pet shelters during that period.

    5. The pet sheltering community believes HSUS misleads Americans. According to a nationally representative poll of 400 animal shelters, rescues, and animal control agencies, 71 percent agree that “HSUS misleads people into thinking it is associated with local animal shelters.” Additionally, 79 percent agree that HSUS is “a good source of confusion for a lot of our donors.”

    6. While it raises money with pictures of cats and dogs, HSUS has an anti-meat vegan agenda. Speaking to an animal rights conference in 2006, HSUS’s then vice president for farm animal issues stated that HSUS’s goal is to “get rid of the entire [animal agriculture] industry” and that “we don’t want any of these animals to be raised and killed.”

    7. Given the massive size of its budget, HSUS does relatively little hands-on care for animals. While HSUS claims it provides direct care to more animals than any other animal protection group in the US [Ed, not in their own facilities – there are none), most of the “care” HSUS provides is in the form of spay-neuter assistance. In fact, local groups that operate on considerably slimmer budgets, such as the Houston SPCA, provide direct care to just as many or more animals than HSUS does.

    8. HSUS’s CEO has said that convicted dogfighting kingpin Michael Vick “would do a good job as a pet owner.” Following Vick’s release from prison, HSUS has helped “rehabilitate” Michael Vick’s public image. Of course, a $50,000 “grant” from the Philadelphia Eagles didn’t hurt.

    9. HSUS’s senior management includes a former spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a criminal group designated as “terrorists” by the FBI. HSUS president Wayne Pacelle hired John “J.P.” Goodwin in 1997, the same year Goodwin described himself as “spokesperson for the ALF” while he fielded media calls in the wake of an ALF arson attack at a California meat processing plant. In 1997, when asked by reporters for a reaction to an ALF arson fire at a farmer’s feed co-op in Utah (which nearly killed a family sleeping on the premises), Goodwin replied, “We’re ecstatic.”

    10. Americans are now requesting the FTC to investigate the misleading advertising of the HSUS. Heart-wrenching and misleading ad campaigns imply to the public that this is a true “humane society” that houses strays and unwanted or abused pets, and needs “your” $19/mo to do so. FACTS: Contrary to public, celebrity and legislator opinion, the HSUS is NOT a humane society. They do not own or operate ONE pet shelter in the entire country; despite their misleading name, they are not a government arm that systematically trickles donations down to the local shelters that to all the actual work. If they shelter NO PETS, how can they be considered the “experts” on pet care practices? Their vegan agenda, now unspoken because it wasn’t bringing in donations, is for the eventual extinction of both domestic animals, and all animal use, via legislation.

    11. At the request of over 6,000 grassroots voting letter-writers, representing all 50 States, the IRS is currently investigating the HSUS as to its under-reporting and over-lobbying activity as a 501©(3) organization. Millions in back-taxes and penalties could be assessed if the IRS would conclude this 3-year old investigation.

    12. Congressmen are now urging the Justice Department to investigate HSUS non-compliance with the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, as anyone that attempts to influence legislation via continued contact with Congress and/or staffers is required to register as a lobbyist. HSUS has never done this.

  • Reenie

    Charity Navigator givesThe Humane Society of the United States 4 out of 4 stars. That’s higher than they give the American Red Cross.

    What’s with the Republicans and animal abuse and cruelty?

    Mitt Romney’s name was listed by two national animal cruelty registries
    used to track animal abuse offenders,” the Dogs Against Romney statement
    announcing the video said. “Both registries are maintained so that
    animal welfare organizations, Humane Law Enforcement officials, animal
    shelters, rescue operations, and breeders can share information about
    animal abuse offenders and conduct background checks before allowing
    people to adopt or purchase a pet.”
    Ann Romney was in a lawsuit because of a horse drugging case. The horse was drugged to mask it’s lameness so she could sell it. It settled out of court.

    If animal welfare is not important to you, go ahead and vote for Jeff Flake because it sure isn’t important to him either.