Even though I’m not registered to vote (I think that will be my next project – voting rights for pigs), I do have an opinion on the elections this year. It’s intense primary season as I write this, and I did some digging to see how the Democrats stack up on animal rights. We all know that Bush would be bad on this issue, that’s a given. He’s bad on the environment which affects animals, he’s bad on war which kills animals, and he’s bad on human issues like jobs, health care and education. If he doesn’t care about people, I’m sure he doesn’t care about non-humans.
I did find this fact about his animal rights record: in October 2003, the Washington Post wrote: “The Bush administration is proposing far-reaching changes to conservation policies that would allow hunters, circuses and the pet industry to kill, capture and import animals on the brink of extinction in other countries.” The rationale is that selling endangered animals to the U.S. would provide money to “developing” nations so they can have better animal conservation policies. Excuse me? The irony of that makes my tail curl (pot-bellies have straight tails, by the way).
Endangered species (of which I was nearly a member once), including straight-horned markhor of Pakistan, the blue fronted parrot of Argentina, and Asian elephants, would be sold to circuses and zoos. Worst of all, the ivory trade would resume. You know what that means. Killing endangered elephants for their tusks. Hey, I have tusks too. But don’t tell the Bush administration.
I hope this hasn’t passed or won’t pass to federal legislation. Let’s let Kerry, Edwards and Kucinich know how we feel about this issue. See the chart below to discover how the three vote on animal rights. I think you can tell who I’d vote for, if I could!
I did find this fact about his animal rights record: in October 2003, the Washington Post wrote: “The Bush administration is proposing far-reaching changes to conservation policies that would allow hunters, circuses and the pet industry to kill, capture and import animals on the brink of extinction in other countries.” The rationale is that selling endangered animals to the U.S. would provide money to “developing” nations so they can have better animal conservation policies. Excuse me? The irony of that makes my tail curl (pot-bellies have straight tails, by the way).
Endangered species (of which I was nearly a member once), including straight-horned markhor of Pakistan, the blue fronted parrot of Argentina, and Asian elephants, would be sold to circuses and zoos. Worst of all, the ivory trade would resume. You know what that means. Killing endangered elephants for their tusks. Hey, I have tusks too. But don’t tell the Bush administration.
I hope this hasn’t passed or won’t pass to federal legislation. Let’s let Kerry, Edwards and Kucinich know how we feel about this issue. See the chart below to discover how the three vote on animal rights. I think you can tell who I’d vote for, if I could!
| Congressional Candidate | Pro-animal | Anti-animal | No Action |
| Senator John Edwards (NC) | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| Senator John Kerry (MA) | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (OH) | 9 | 0 | 0 |