Political Action for Animals (PA4A), the Wetlands initiated animal legislative action project has had an explosion of activity in recent months, as it pursues its campaigns to end the torture of New York's wildlife.
Trapping Campaigns
While over 88 counties and an ever increasing number of states have banned the cruel steel-jaw leghold trap, the device described as "the cruelest invention ever created by man" by no less than Charles Darwin, is completely legal in New York State. The equally cruel Conibear trap, which crushes animals' bodies, is also legal in New York. Political Action for Animals is working on a number of bills that will help to put an end to the use of these cruel traps. Under current law, the power to ban trapping is reserved by the state Department of Environmental Conser-vation and the state legislature. When Rockland and Suffolk Counties tried to ban trapping on a county-wide level, they were sued by the state Attorney General on behalf of the DEC.
In response, Assemblyman Pete Grannis has sponsored legislation that would grant individual counties the power to ban trapping. The legislation has been supported by groups like The Fund for Animals and Wildlife Watch. On the advice of Grannis aide Mike Lenane, PA4A will be focusing our efforts in support of this bill on lobbying Republican state senators to sponsor a companion bill in the state Senate.
In the last legislative session, legislation that would ban the steel-jaw leghold trap, co-sponsored by Assemblyman Scott Stringer, unfortunately died without being voted on. PA4A activists recently met with Stringer aide Julie Greenberg to propose the introduction of a new bill that would ban both the leghold and Conibear traps
On Election Day, PA4A activists canvassed voting sites in the district of Sheldon Silver, speaker of the New York State Assembly and the state's most powerful Democrat. Activists wearing sandwich boards reading, "Voters: Help Ban Cruel Traps," handed out hundreds of fact sheets and collected signatures on petitions.
Campaign Against Lowering the Hunting Age
Despite the rising tide in childhood shootings, Governor Pataki is pushing an initiative that will put more guns in kids’ hands. Pataki's proposed state budget includes a provision to lower the hunting age for big game from 16 to 14. This move panders to the hunting industry's desire to recruit younger kids, recognizing that kids who aren't taught to hunt when they’re kids will never pick up this disgraceful "sport."
PA4A has been supporting efforts by the Fund for Animals to keep the lowering of the hunting age out of the budget that the legislature actually passes. PA4A activists, following a strategy developed by the Fund, have been contacting gun control and anti-violence groups to garner their support against this bill. We are in the process of setting up a meeting to bring together anti-gun violence, animal rights activists, and a representative from Speaker Silver's office to express the importance of opposing an initiative that will put kids at risk and expand the base of the recreational animal killing industry.
Because of Speaker Silver's tremendous influence on this and every other bill in the Assembly, PA4A has been putting a great deal of effort into building a base in Silver's district. Canvassers have been leafleting and collecting signatures in that district, while scouting out high traffic spots for future canvassing.'
PA4A will continue our efforts through out this year's legislative session, and expects major successes to result from consistent, strategic effort.
Activists Meet With Anheuser-Busch Representatives
For years, Wetlands has boycotted Anheuser-Busch products as a result of a range of practices that abuse animals, harm the environment, violate human rights, and limit democracy. Recently, we were pleased to meet with two representatives of Anheuser-Busch's local distributor to address some of these concerns. Representatives of numerous activist groups addressed many issues: the confinement of marine mammals in Anheuser-Busch-owned Sea World, advertising in rodeo arenas and Mexican bullrings, sponsorship of the third-party-excluding presidential debates and soft money contributions to political campaigns, environmentally destructive grazing of cattle on public lands, and Sea World's expansion into pristine parklands. The company reps admitted that they could not directly affect company policy on these issues, but said they would do whatever they could to promote further dialogue between activists and the company. While activists remain skeptical of the commitment to change on the part of company leadership, they were impressed by the local reps willingness to listen to harsh criticism of their own company and sympathize with the activists' concern. Since our meeting the Anheuser-Busch reps have tried to learn more about our concerns, and recently informed us that Anheuser-Busch was giving in to our demands with regards to public lands cattle grazing. It is our hope that the company will follow this positive step with additional reforms.
