The following statement regarding the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry’s advancement of the Farm Bill and its potential impacts on state farmed-animal protection laws may be attributed to Holly Spainhower, Senior Policy Specialist at Mercy For Animals:
The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry’s decision to advance the Farm Bill without the Save Our Bacon Act (H.R. 4673) or a similar provision overriding state farmed-animal protections is welcome news. Laws such as California’s Proposition 12 and Massachusetts’ Question 3 reflect years of work to establish basic protections for farmed animals, and Congress should not use the Farm Bill to undermine that progress.
The threat, however, is not over. Similar language remains in the House version of the Farm Bill, and efforts to introduce a provision in the Senate are continuing. We urge lawmakers to reject any attempt—on the Senate floor or as the House and Senate bills move toward a final agreement—to override existing state animal-protection laws or prevent states from adopting stronger protections in the future.
Mercy For Animals will continue working to ensure that the final Farm Bill protects, rather than rolls back, hard-won progress for farmed animals.
— Holly Spainhower, Senior Policy Specialist, Mercy For Animals
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