EATING OUR DOGS? HOUSE BILL 1406

by Stella Starr, Pet Perspectives © TheDogPlace.org, May 2018

Do we have so many people from foreign lands that we now eat dogs and cats? State legislators have now made laws to keep us from eating our pets!

My editor emailed asking if the cat fancy was aware of the House of Representatives Farm Bill. She said they received a heads-up from legislative watchdog Simone Furhman. It is H.R.1406 - Dog and Cat Meat Trade Prohibition Act of 2017.

This is not a joke. While our President makes headway with North Korea, our House leaders and the Agriculture Committee spent time studying and approving an amendment offered by Congressman Jeff Denham (R-CA). Is he pandering to the animal rights people or is this really a national problem?

I’ve written about which animals to eat ^[1] but still, I found that only 6 states actually ban eating dogs or cats. They are Georgia, Hawaii, Michigan, New York, Virginia and California. They told me that any state could prosecute the practices under animal welfare laws.

Congressman Denham introduced H.R. 1406, the Dog and Cat Meat Prohibition Act into the House of Representatives Farm Bill. Now we all love our pets and we want our leaders to always act on their behalf but according to a site called Prognosis, the “Dog Meat Bill” has only a 3% chance of being enacted.

The dog meat bill was authored by Congressman Alcee Hasting (D-FL) and Congressman Vern Buchanan (R-FL), and there were 240 co-sponsors. Well of course! Who wants to be seen as favoring eating our pets? With all that’s going on in the world and our highways crumbing, I hope it did not take long to read and approve a bill to “prohibit the slaughter, trade or import/export of dogs and cats for human consumption in the United States.”

What apparently sparked the bill was that eating the flesh of dogs and cats it is still legal in 44 states. Who would think eating dogs needs to be banned now in the 21st century? Answer is, Mr. Ching.

Marc Ching, founder and President Emeritus of the Animal Hope and Wellness Foundation, the sponsors of H.R.1406 ^[2]. Mr. Ching says it is a huge victory “to ban this horrible practice in our country and internationally”. What? Is there really an “international practice of torturing and butchering of dogs and cats for human consumption”?

Am I having a nightmare?

 
I have come to the opinion that this is all just a charade. We, the state and federal tax-paying animal owners, are supporting this kind of self-aggrandizing “work” that our handsomely paid and donation-supported politicians do. Or don’t do. We all love animals and I am aware that cats are also ‘on the menu’ so to speak. But a cat-friend laughed when I tried to get her interested on this preposterous waste of tax-payer money. “I’d like to see them catch a cat” she quipped.  Another friend wondered if they are adopting shelter animals for food? Ralph blasted back “Are you ladies from the looney bin on Steven Street?” I think he had the right perspective! There may be restaurants that serve cat or dog flesh in this country but I doubt that a federal law would apply to them and it might be politically incorrect to make an issue of it. I can’t believe I said that!

[1] Which Animals To Eat  [2]  H.R.1406 Dog and Cat Meat Prohibition Act

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