WATERTOWN, NY – Today Animal Wellness Action announced its endorsement of U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-NY-21, in recognition of her solid advocacy for horses, dogs, wildlife, and other animals at risk of cruelty. She’s one of the leaders on animal welfare in the U.S. House and particularly important as Chair of the House Republican Conference. She also was a leader in helping secure the enactment of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act to end doping in American horse racing, an important part of the economy in Saratoga Springs.
“Elise Stefanik is a hero to millions and a tireless advocate for animals who continues to back legislation to protect the voiceless we all care so deeply about,” said Marty Irby, executive director at Animal Wellness Action. “We applaud Stefanik’s work and hope the voters that care about animals will send her back to Washington, D.C. for another term. She’s the best member of Republican leadership on animal protection in the Congress, and was a key player in securing the enactment of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act.”
Stefanik has backed numerous animal protection measures in the U.S. House:
- Stefanik was instrumental in getting the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, that took effect in July of this year, signed into law to ban the use of race day doping in American horse racing. The measure created a uniform national standard for drug testing and track safety overseen by the private non-profit Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority that will provide much needed certainty for the industry.
• Stefanik cosponsored and voted for the Big Cat Public Safety Act that passed the House in July of this year and would ban the private ownership of dangerous big cats as well as the practice of ‘cub petting’ that continues to fuel overbreeding and unfunded mandates on animal rescues. - Stefanik is a current cosponsor of the Animal Cruelty Enforcement (ACE) Act and voted in support of an Animal Wellness Action-conceived appropriations amendment to provide $2 million for the establishment of an Animal Cruelty Crimes Unit at the U.S. Dept. of Justice to help enforce the laws she’s previously supported.
- Stefanik was a cosponsor of the PAWS for Veterans Therapy Act that was signed into law in 2020. The new law requires the “Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to implement a five-year pilot program to provide canine training to eligible veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as an element of a complementary and integrative health program.”
- Stefanik was a cosponsor of the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act that was signed into law by President Donald J. Trump in 2019 – the first ever anti-cruelty statute in American history that outlawed the most egregious of animal abuses on the federal level.
- Stefanik cosponsored and voted for the U.S. Senator Joseph D. Tydings Memorial Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act in July of 2019 that would end one of the most egregious abuses in the equine show world, the painful practice of ‘soring’ gaited horses.
- Stefanik was a cosponsor of the Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act that was signed into law in the 2018 Farm Bill and created a grant program to help shelters provide opportunities for battered and abused women and their pets that abusers have held hostage.
- Stefanik cosponsored and voted for the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act that passed the U.S. House in the Fall of 2019 that would end the trade in shark fins.