‘Boehner never met an animal protection  law he’s liked’

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12:59 PM Friday, November 13, 2009

House Minority Leader John Boehner has one of the worst records on animal cruelty in the entire Congress. He was even the only one of Ohio’s 18 House members who voted in 2007 against tough penalties for dogfighting and cockfighting crimes.

Animal fighting not only fosters unspeakable cruelty to animals, but also spawns other criminal activity, such as narcotics traffic, illegal gambling, public corruption and violence toward people. But Boehner apparently preferred to give dog-fighters and cock-fighters a free pass, rather than strengthen the federal government’s enforcement of laws to combat animal fighting. Boehner took a stance at odds with law enforcement, public health and animal health, and Ohio’s mainstream values.

It wasn’t the only time he voted against common-sense, mainstream animal welfare reforms. He voted to allow wealthy American trophy-hunters to shoot rare polar bears in Canada and import their heads and hides — even though polar bears are now listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. He voted to allow the long-distance transport of American horses to Canada and Mexico, where they are slaughtered to supply the foreign demand for horse meat. He voted to allow the killing of dolphins in tuna nets, and to give a multi-million-dollar subsidy to the luxury mink coat industry. He voted to allow the trade in dangerous pet primates, even after a chimpanzee mauled and severely disfigured a woman this year.

Now he’s gone so far as to claim that people who want to phase out the extreme confinement of farm animals in small crates and cages where they cannot even turn around and stretch their limbs are “extreme.” But Boehner has never met an animal protection law he’s liked, and it’s clear to Ohioans who is really out of step.

Michael Markarian

Executive vice president and chief operating officer

The Humane Society of the United States

Washington, D.C.

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