New Haven, CT – Animal Wellness Action announced its endorsement of U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., for his tremendous leadership and effective action on animal protection issues. He has helped to pass several major laws during the six-year term that ends this year, and he may play a major role in passing at least one more major statute in the lame-duck session of the 117th Congress.
In the current Congress, he is close to helping secure passage of the Big Cat Public Safety Act. He is working with Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, as co-authors of the Big Cat Public Safety Act, to clear the bill in the Senate, not long after the U.S. House passed it 274 – 137. The measure would ban the practice of ‘cub petting,’ and the private breeding and ownership of dangerous big cats like tigers and lions.
“Senator Blumenthal is one of the most effective legislators in Congress in securing new legal standards to prevent cruelty to animals,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and a native of New Haven. “He understands that violence is violence, and that animal cruelty is often an antecedent to other forms of social violence.”
• The Senator is a cosponsor of the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act to ban the trade in the fins of sharks destined for soup pots. This bipartisan legislation has cleared the Senate as an amendment to a larger legislative package and also stands a chance of enactment before year’s end.
• The Senator is a cosponsor of the Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act that would end one of the most egregious abuses in the equine show world, the painful practice of ‘soring’ Tennessee Walking Horses. Blumenthal has supported this measure for the better part of a decade since it was first introduced by former Senator Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.
Earlier in his term, he had a hand in helping enact other key statutes:
- The Senator was a cosponsor of the Rescuing Animals With Rewards (RAWR) Act that was signed into law in 2019 and created a rewards program at the U.S. Dept. of State to help bring terrorists to justice that engage in wildlife trafficking, one of top revenue streams for terror-driven groups around the world.
- Blumenthal was also the co-author of the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act that passed the Senate three times by Unanimous Consent before the House took action and saw its enactment in November of 2019. This is our national anti-cruelty statute.
- The Senator led, with Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J., the effort to secure passage of the Parity in Animal Cruelty Enforcement (PACE) Act that was signed into law in 2018 as a provision of the Farm bill , banned dogfighting and cockfighting in every jurisdiction in the United States, including the U.S. Territories.
- The Senator was a cosponsor of the Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act that was signed into law in 2018 and created a federal grant program for shelters to allow battered women to bring their pets with them as pets are often held hostage by abusers and used to keep the victims with them.
“I urge the people of Connecticut who care about animals and the safety of our communities to support Senator Blumenthal’s re-election,” added Pacelle.