Bipartisan pair can be a winning team for animal welfare in U.S. House
Washington, D.C. — Animal Wellness Action (AWA), a national policy and political organization seeking to enhance and advance legal protections for animals, has endorsed Republican Rep. Young Kim for re-election in the race for California’s 40th congressional district, and Democratic challenger Derek Tran in his effort to unseat incumbent Rep. Michelle Steel in the neighboring 45th district. AWA announced an independent expenditure for Derek Tran, given his strong pledges on animal welfare and Michelle Steel’s abysmal performance on animal welfare in the 118th Congress. You can see a copy of the AWA commercial here.
“Young Kim has been a solid supporter of animal welfare in Congress, and we are especially pleased that she is actively opposing efforts by fellow Republicans in Congress to overturn California’s Prop 12 that advances farm animal welfare,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action. The state’s voters approved Proposition 12 in a landslide election in 2018, and it passed by double-digit margins in Orange and Los Angeles counties.
The group lauded Rep. Kim for signing a letter of opposition to the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act (H.R. 4417), which would federally overturn Prop 12 and a similar animal housing law in Massachusetts known as Question 3. Rep. Kim also won praise for co-sponsoring key animal welfare legislation this term, including the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act (H.R. 2742) to crack down on organized dogfighting and cockfighting, the Greyhound Protection Act (H.R. 3894) to phase out greyhound racing in the United States, and the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act (H.R. 3475) to end the slaughter of horses for human consumption.
Mr. Tran pledged that if elected, he would also co-sponsor the FIGHT Act and SAFE Act, as well as the FDA Modernization Act 3.0 (H.R. 7248) to promote animal-free testing in drug development and the Minks in Narrowly Kept Spaces (MINKS) are Superspreaders Act (H.R. 7670) to address the public health threat posed by domestic mink farming.
“It’s time for voters who want to see action to stop animal cruelty to oust Rep. Michelle Steel and to put Derek Tran in her place,” added Mr. Pacelle. “Steel’s colleagues on the right and the left introduced 70 pro-animal welfare reforms in the118th and the congresswoman has not co-sponsored a single one. That tells us all we need to know about her indifference to animal cruelty. Acts of animal cruelty are often markers of a deeper social pathology that often flares up in other forms of social violence and criminal conduct. Animal Wellness Action urges California voters in the 40th congressional district to back Rep. Young Kim this fall, and we urge voters in the 45th district to send Derek Tran to Congress to join her,” Pacelle said.
The full endorsement letter for Rep. Kim may be viewed here, and the full endorsement letter for Mr. Tran may be viewed here.