Congressman deserves support for steadfast leadership on numerous animal welfare issues.
Washington D.C. — Animal Wellness Action, a national policy and political organization seeking to enhance and advance legal protections for animals, has announced it is launching an independent expenditure campaign to help re-elect Don Davis in the race for North Carolina’s 1st congressional district. The group cited his crucial role in promoting mainstream anti-cruelty policies and efforts to protect animal health in North Carolina’s major poultry industry.
The ad that the organization released to voters in the 1st district may be found here.
“Don Davis knows about proper animal care, and he is one of the leaders on animal welfare in the U.S. Congress,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action. “He is fighting to combat cockfighting, working to stop vicious cruelty but also the threat of disease transmission to the millions of birds in poultry and laying hen houses. Infection of these flocks drive up prices for chicken and eggs for consumers, disrupt production agriculture, and cause preventable suffering to these animals.”
This term, Rep. Davis co-sponsored the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act (H.R. 2742) to combat illegal animal fighting and to protect North Carolina’s poultry industry from trafficked fighting birds. There have been 15 outbreaks of virulent Newcastle Disease (a type of bird flu) in recent decades in the United States, ten of which have been tied to smuggled fighting birds from Mexico.
Because of these serious disease threats and the cruelty associated with staged fights, the United Egg Producers has also endorsed the FIGHT Act. So, too, have the National Sheriffs’ Association, the National District Attorneys’ Association, and dozens of county sheriffs throughout North Carolina, largely because they know that animal fighting crimes are bound up with narcotics trafficking, illegal immigration, money laundering, and other crimes.
Rep. Davis has also co-sponsored the FDA Modernization Act 3.0 (H.R. 7248) to reduce animal testing in drug development, the Greyhound Protection Act (H.R. 3894) to end greyhound racing in the United States, the Cease Animal Research Grants Overseas (CARGO) Act (H.R. 4757) to stop taxpayer funding of animal experiments in foreign countries, the Minks in Narrowly Kept Spaces (MINKS) are Superspreaders Act (H.R. 7670) to end domestic farming of minks for their fur (also a major zoonotic disease threat), and the Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act (H.R. 3656) to address helicopter roundups of horses and burros.
“Rep. Don Davis finds a balance between production agriculture and animal welfare, and he’s one of the lawmakers that can bring us together in the nation on animal care. We urge voters in the 1st congressional district of North Carolina to return Rep. Davis to Congress this fall,” Pacelle said.
The full endorsement letter for Rep. Davis may be viewed here.