Author:
Cassie King
Published on
November 8, 2018

Recent Animal Protection Rollbacks





  Brown bears in Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.
Brown bears in Lake Clark National Park, Alaska.




Rolling back Alaska Wildlife refuge protections for mother bears and wolves

  • Trump signed legislation passed by Congress nullifying Obama-era regulations that banned cruel hunting methods in the massive Alaskan wildlife refuges.
  • These methods include shooting sleeping wolf families in their dens and trapping bears in steel-tooth traps.
  • “On 3 April 2017, President Trump signed H.J. Res. 69, a joint U.S. House and Senate resolution nullifying Obama-era regulations banning the use of “predator control” hunting methods on the 76.8 million acres of federally-protected national wildlife refuges across Alaska.”
  • Removing protections for animals suffering from lead bullets, allowing hunters to use them
  • President Trump’s Secretary of the Interior repealed a regulation banning poisonous lead bullets in hunting, citing respect for “gun owner’s rights.”
  • “It was intended to prevent fish, birds and other animals from being poisoned by the lead left behind in carcasses, on the ground or in water. Hunting groups rallied against the ban, calling it an "assault on gun owners' and sportsmans' rights."”
  • Rolling back WOTUS rule to protect factory farms
  • The US EPA has delayed by two years (with the intent to eventually destroy the rule) an Obama-era rule that allows the federal government to regulate small waterways, preventing the federal government from regulating water pollution from factory farms.
  • This is part of a larger push by animal ag to deregulate the industry.
  • Rolling back the Animal Welfare rule of the organics program
  • The USDA has cancelled a rule requiring that organic-certified animals have basic welfare requirements.
  • “The rule, created under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), would require [organic certified” poultry to be housed in spaces large enough to move freely and fully stretch their wings. Livestock would be required to have some access to outdoor space year-round. The USDA officially overturned the rule Monday, after delaying its implementation three times. It was first created in 2016 and built on seven years of deliberation.”
  • King Amendment
  • Republican congress members introduced a law that would have banned states from regulating animal products to “protect interstate commerce.”
  • NC Hog waste tort immunity statute
  • The North Carolina legislature passed a law making it harder for people hurt by factory farms to sue for damages by setting limits on how much affected people can collect.
  • Individuals can only collect damages up to the “fair market value” of the factory farm, regardless of how much they have been hurt.
  • Dairy pride acts
  • A Democratic Senator from Wisconsin introduced a bill that bans plant-based milks from using the word “milk.”
  • Meat pride acts (or equivalent, basically saying you can't label vegan protein "meat')
  • Missouri has banned plant-based meats from using the term “meat.”

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