This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.

With a new presidency comes the prospect of a new and fresh start for animal and environmental protections in the U.S. Disappointingly, President-Elect Joe Biden has set his sights on Tom Vilsack — a known enabler of the dairy industry and of Big Ag — as the new Secretary of Agriculture. This is despite the fact that Vilsack held this position under former President Barack Obama for eight years, with animal welfare across the country deteriorating dramatically on his watch. Demand that Biden choose a friend of animals, such as Marcia Fudge, as the new Secretary of Agriculture!

Vilsack has a proven track record of neglecting the needs of suffering animals and failing to implement the Animal Welfare Act on numerous occasions. Under his previous tenure, he:

• Prioritized the needs of the deadly meat and dairy industries — responsible for the deaths of 29 million cows every year and unfathomable environmental destruction — and continuously played-down their contribution to the current climate crisis;
• Moved forward with removing food safety inspectors from bird-killing slaughterhouses, which would have enabled the carcasses of sick chickens to be sold for food. Not only this, but the higher speed of production would have caused even more stress and pain for imprisoned chickens, as well as putting slaughterhouse employees at increased risk of injury;
• Defended the use of “pink slime,” which is leftover flesh from slaughtered cows, as a potential food source for consumers and schools;
• Failed to enforce laws which required the humane slaughter of animals, and allowed known animal abusers within slaughterhouses to escape prosecution;
• Admitted that some days in his position he had “nothing to do,” in a time when food scarcity and environmental collapse had already become very real threats to the country.

Vilsack has also been criticized for his actions against Black farmers, his devastating civil rights record and his inaction on climate justice.

Biden risks labels of hypocrisy by pledging to fight climate change, whilst appointing the President and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council as leader of the USDA. This is a clear conflict of interest. In a time when more and more Americans are going vegan, when racial discrimination in the agricultural sector is ever-present, and when COVID-19 is running rampant in slaughterhouses, a candidate like Vilsack is highly inappropriate for the position of Secretary of Agriculture.

However, there is hope in the form of Marcia Fudge. Fudge would address discrimination within the agricultural sector, support conservation programs and advocate for increased animal welfare in agriculture.

We can't let this opportunity slip through our fingers.

What You Can Do:

This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.