FEDERAL LEGISLATION

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TOM VILSAK SECRETARY AGAIN

by NetPlaces Network Staff

New President Joe Biden appoints Tom Vilsack, a politician known to dog owners and NetPlaces subscribers as a non-pet owner, to run the Dept. Of Agriculture.

What does this have to do with dogs? One of our staff asked that question, noting that former President Trump owned no animals. He lived on the 58th floor of Trump Tower. Does animal ownership reflect a person’s lifestyle preferences or is it the other way around?

The politics of pet ownership motivated us to do some research on Tom Vilsack. He was born in Pittsburg in 1950. After 30 years of Republican rule, in 1998 Democrat Tom Vilsack was elected as Governor of Iowa and served for 2 terms. Psychology Today reports Idaho and Iowa as the most dog-loving states “…with 58% of households owning a dog compared to New Hampshire where only 24% of families have a dog.” Iowa is known for ranching and farming so Mr. Vilsack must know something about agriculture.

According to a Newsweek poll, 51% of Republican politicians own a dog and only 38% of Democrats said they owned a dog. The Clintons were politically astute so Hillary was photographed walking her dog… Bush father and son Presidents were both dog owners.

TheDogPlace.org covered White House Dogs ^{{Ref #1}}, including Barack Obama who quickly acquired a dog but that sadly, they didn’t seem to like each other...

In 2008 Vilsack made an unsuccessful bid for the White House and then endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton. So it was that Tom Vilsack, as the national co-chair for Clinton's presidential campaign, was later sworn in as Secretary of U.S. Agriculture.

In 2009 Vilsack banned the slaughter of downer cows for human consumption, something anyone who eats beef would applaud.

In 2013 “USDA secretary Tom Vilsack hired Sarah L. Conant ^{{Ref #2}}, the HSUS lawyer, as director of (APHIS) Animal Plant Health Inspection Service enforcement.” This unhealthy collusion between the United States government and the ‘Humane Society Of The United States’ did not escape the notice of Congress as was pointed out in TheDogPress.com.

In 2016 President Obama appointed Vilsack to address the problem of heroin and opiates in rural communities. Tom Vilsack was also among Hillary Clinton's top picks as a running mate for her 2016 presidential bid.

In January 2017, after many delays, Vilsack approved the USDA rule against “soring” Tennessee Walking Horses with chains or caustic chemicals to make them lift their front legs higher. Shortly after, Vilsack stepped down as Agriculture Secretary and became President of the U.S. Dairy Council. He was out of the news until 2019 when it was noted that he did NOT run for Senate.

In 2020, then-President-elect Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Tom Vilsack to serve as the Secretary of Agriculture for his incoming Biden administration. Vilsak is seen as a “left wing liberal” and has been portrayed as an ‘animal rights whacko’ but does he deserve those labels? It depends on when and where you look for answers.

Tom Vilsak was widely criticized the USDA Secretary of Agriculture due to his alleged ties with Monsanto Corporation. He earned the nickname “Mr. Monsanto” due to his connections and support of that food giant and he caught even more flack from dairy farmers when Monsanto and Bayer merged.

Federal $$$ to farmers are predicted to exceed $45 billion in 2021, higher than any farm subsidies of previous years. Is it because we are importing more food than ever before? Can we bring food from China cheaper than we can grow it in America? And do we simply disregard the safety risk?

The Food Safety Center

The other issue permeating the internet is an observation by the Center For Food Safety which notes "While serving as Secretary under President Obama, Mr. Vilsack supported chemically-dependent industrial agriculture that resulted in millions more pounds of pesticides released into the environment, contaminating our water and soils and harming human health and wildlife.”

The Food Safety Center also noted “Vilsack supported the expansion of pesticide-promoting, genetically engineered crops, and was not a strong supporter of organic agriculture."

So, the question is does Tom Vilsak care about animals? Does he own a dog or any other pet? His favorability score in that connection is weak-to-non-existent. He may know agriculture but he’s a dunce when it comes to animals and we could find no record of him as a pet owner.

In fact he “weakened protections for pets by reclassifying dogs as “farm products”” thereby gaining no favor with dog owners!

As the Biden presidency moves forward, it will be interesting to see if there is any effect on “animal rights” and whether there is any move to bring more food production back to United States. Have we been asleep while the one thing everyone requires every day has been turned over to a potential adversary?

Reference Information: {#1} White House Dogs   ~  {#2} Who Is APHIS Director Sara Conant?

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