We cats are outraged by animal cruelty against our fellow predators or any animals. We also note with sadness that some people put oil company profits above protecting diversity of life on our planet. We think that all animal lovers, hunters, environmentalists and wildlife activists should be able to agree that the issues discussed in this post are unethical and deeply disturbing. We hope you will vote with the clear animal advocates in this election, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
ANIMAL RIGHTS VOTING RECORDS
We looked up the animal rights and wildlife voting records of Obama and McCain. In 2007, Obama voted in support of legislation backed by organizations like the Humane Society of the United States, the American Humane Association, and the Fund for Animals 75% of the time while McCain only voted with those organization's positions 25% of the time. Senator Biden also voted with animal rights and wildlife organizations 75% of the time.
The kinds of animal rights and wildlife issues dealt with in the US Senate include: protections for animals used in research, cruelty issues like the banning of dogfighting, legislation on pet food safety, farm animal issues like antibiotics overuse, legislation to make statements against whaling and seal hunting in other countries, and wildlife protections such as computer aided remote hunting, trade in primates, and protecting Alaskan wolves from aerial hunting.
Although overall the cats behind this blog believe the issues of this campaign should focus primarily on the positions of the presidential candidates, we've noticed that the selection of a vice presidential running mate says a lot about the values of a presidental candidate as well.
AERIAL HUNTING OF WOLVES
Maybe you've already heard that as Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin has supported the killing of wolves from airplanes and helicopters. In addition to supporting this existing practice, in 2007 she introduced a bounty of $150 for the left foreleg of wolves killed through the aerial hunting program, she introduced legislation to make it even easier to use aircraft to hunt wolves and bears, and she approved the use of state funds to promote the practice.
Shooting animals from aircraft is not humane - a hunter cannot kill an animal quickly and humanely under those circumstances and its obviously not fair chase hunting. As felines, we're hunters by nature and we also know quite few human hunters. The hunters we know have a strong sense of ethics and sportsmanship. Key among those ethics are the "clean kill" - killing with a minimum of suffering - and "fair chase" - the hunter should not have an unfair advantage in stalking his prey. At the heart of this issue is the question of whether or not you assume that a wolf deserves the same humane death as other game species, or whether as a predator it should be killed by whatever means is most efficient to control its population. We may just be cats from Colorado, but it seems to us that more humane methods of managing Alaska wildlife must be available.
The Defenders of Wildlife have put together a video on this issue. Please be warned, it is disturbing. If you don't see the embedded video below, click here to view on YouTube.
POLAR BEARS
Sarah Palin has also been actively working to block the Polar Bear from being listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Just this August, Alaska filed a suit against the federal government for listing the polor bear as threatened because that would harm oil development in the state. Palin wrote a statement to accompany the suit. Since a perponderance of evidence shows that oil and gas development in Alaska will do next to nothing to reduce gas prices or to decrease our dependence on foreign oil, the motivation appears to be entirely to benefit oil companies. You can read more about the Polar Bear's predicament at the National Wildlife Federation website. As is eloquently expressed in Our Polar Bears, Ourselves, "preserving other species is not an act of charity; it is essential to our own survival."
Michael Markarian who blogs for the Humane Society Legislative Fund has written two informative posts covering the records of the VP candidates in even more detail. In particular, he discusses Joe Biden's long record in support of animals and Sarah Palin's record of inhumanity toward animals.
- Midnight, Starbuck, & Apollo
www.Cats4Obama.com
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