Washington, D.C. – Animal Wellness Action announced endorsements for U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (1st District) and Ann Kuster (2nd District) in their re-election efforts in New Hampshire, hailing him as two of the leading lawmakers on animal welfare in the Congress. Rep. Kuster is one of the co-leaders of the Bear Protection Act in the 117th Congress.
“Ann Kuster and Chris Pappas are two of the leading animal welfare advocates in the U.S. House, and we recommend voters re-elect them to their House seats,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action. “Mistreating animals boomerangs against us in the form of social violence, zoonotic disease transmission, and other adverse outcomes that make all of us less safe.”
Pappas and Kuster are cosponsors of a raft of mainstream animal welfare policies, and they consistently vote in favor of animal welfare when measures come to the floor.
- Reducing Animal Testing: Pappas and Kuster are cosponsors of the FDA Modernization Act to stop needless, costly, and inhumane animal testing. The measure would end an animal testing mandate for all new drug development protocols and allow for alternative methods when validated, helping reduce drug costs and time to market for palliatives and cures. The Senate passed the version led by Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., and now the House is expected to back the measure they’re backing.
- Ending Mink Farming and preventing new COVID variants from spawning: Rep. Pappas is a cosponsor of the MINKS Are Superspreaders Act that would bring an end to mink farming in the U.S. as mink have proven to be the number one superspreader of COVID besides humans. Mink pelts produced in the U.S. are produced solely for the purpose of selling archaic ‘luxury’ garments to the Chinese elite and while at least 5 variants of COVID has been spawned at mink farms around the globe, including one in the U.S.
- Halting the Bear Parts Trade. Kuster is a lead sponsor of the Bear Protection Act, and Pappas is a cosponsor of the measure, to halt the killing of bears for their gall bladders and bile. The bipartisan legislation addresses two problems: 1) thousands of bears in China are cruelly confined in small cages while bile is extracted from their gallbladders to be used in cosmetics and Chinese medicine, and 2) and in the U.S., federal and state officials have revealed that poachers kill American bears for their viscera, putting species at risk and causing inhumane treatment to supply this illicit market.
- Stopping Horse Soring: Representatives Kuster and Pappas are cosponsors of the Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act and voted in support of the measure in July of 2019 that would end one of the most egregious abuses in the equine show world, the painful practice of ‘soring’ Tennessee Walking Horses.
- Keeping horse meat off the table: The lawmakers are both cosponsors of the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act that would permanently end horse slaughter of U.S. soil and the transport of horses and other equines across state and federal lines for that purpose.
- Greyhound Protection Act: The lawmakers arecosponsors of the Greyhound Protection Act that would end greyhound racing in the U.S. by closing out the last remaining pockets of this abusive and archaic enterprise.
- Halting Shark Fin Sales: Kuster and Pappas are cosponsors of the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act to ban the trade in the fins of sharks destined for soup pots. Both forms of wildlife trade involve killing an animal for one small body part for commercial trade.
Animal Wellness Action is a non-partisan organization. While it has endorsed these two Democrats for the U.S. House in New Hampshire, it has endorsed a raft of Republicans who are supporters of animal welfare policies.