In this week’s midterm elections, many Democrats won in landslides. Also winning in many voting decisions: animals.
First, voters in Washington, D.C., and Denver, Colorado, firmly supported a ban on the sale of foie gras—duck liver made from force-fed animals. In Colorado, voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have created the right to hunt and fish, including using “traditional methods,” which could have allowed for particularly cruel (and currently illegal) practices such as poisoning and leg traps.
Then there are the candidates. Two members of Congress who spearheaded legislation to overturn farm animal welfare laws — Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) — each lost their races. In Colorado, state Rep. Manny Rutinel, who champions animal welfare issues, defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Gabe Evans in the state’s 8th Congressional District. Chris Jones, the progressive candidate for Iowa agriculture secretary who promised to clean up livestock and agricultural pollution, did narrowly lose.
yes More likely to lead and vote for animal welfare legislation. That means the blue tsunami that hit the US on Tuesday should set off a chain reaction to help improve animal welfare over the next two years.
Foie gras controversy settled for now
The campaign to ban foie gras won by huge margins, with support from 73% of Washington, D.C., voters and 66% of Denver voters.
Foie gras is produced by force-feeding ducks through metal tubes about 60 times in the last few weeks before being slaughtered. This practice causes their livers to swell to six to ten times their natural size, then turn into a thick sauce consumed mostly in upscale restaurants.
Foie gras farms and fine-dining restaurant chefs consider the practice harmless, or at least no worse than other factory farming practices. But veterinary studies have concluded that this is actually quite painful for the birds.
“Tonight Washington, D.C. decided that force-feeding birds has no place here,” Cady Witt of the Washington, D.C. Humane Society, which put the measure on the ballot, said in a press release. “Thank you to everyone who signed the petition and voted to make Washington a friendlier place for animals.”
The votes in Washington, D.C., and Denver come after California, Pittsburgh, New York City and Portland, Ore., banned the sale of foie gras. More than 20 countries in Europe have banned the production of foie gras, and earlier this year, Brazil also banned the sale and production of foie gras. India banned the import of this product as early as 2014.
But the foie gras war between Washington, D.C., and Denver may just be getting started. A representative for Hudson Valley Farms, the largest U.S. foie gras producer, told Axios last week that the company was considering legal action. Last week, chef Bart Hutchins of Washington, D.C.’s Butterworth restaurant hosted a four-course foie gras tasting menu, with proceeds going toward potential legal challenges.
Coloradans reject ‘hunting and fishing rights’ constitutional amendment
Amendment 83 requires Colorado voters to enshrine into the state’s constitution “the right to hunt, fish, and harvest fish and wildlife by traditional methods.” Hunting and fishing are already protected by law, so “traditional methods” is the keyword here.
“In simple terms, traditional methods can be interpreted as including practices such as poisoning, leg trapping, gillnets, or baiting and hunting,” Rebeecca Niemiec, co-director of the Center for Animal and Human Policy at Colorado State University and Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commissioner, told Vox in October. These practices are already banned in Colorado, and Amendment 83 could be a backdoor way to reverse those bans.
In other wildlife news, Massachusetts voters supported a ballot measure to fund conservation, while voters in Brevard County, Florida, backed renewing a tax to fund the restoration of critical manatee and dolphin habitat. Conservation measures also passed in Arkansas and Rhode Island.
Two pro-factory farm politicians lose, one pro-animal welfare candidate wins
In 2016, Massachusetts voters supported a ban on keeping egg-laying hens and pregnant pigs in small cages. Two years later, California voters supported a nearly identical law.
These laws not only prohibit the keeping of these farmed animals in cages; They also ban restaurants and grocery stores from selling eggs and pork from animals in cages, regardless of the state in which they were raised. (Disclosure: I worked on the Massachusetts ballot measure.)
The pork industry fought hard to overturn these laws, with two of its most powerful congressional champions losing their campaigns: Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS). Both have introduced several bills — most recently the Save Our Bacon Act — that would overturn state animal welfare laws. Pork producers and their Republican allies in Congress have been working to get the legislation included in the farm bill, but their influence has been significantly reduced as Democrats approach control of the House and Senate.
Meanwhile, Colorado Democratic congressman Manny Rutinel, who supports animal welfare, defeated Republican incumbent Rep. Gabe Evans in the race for the state’s 8th District. Before running for office, Routinelle was an attorney at the nonprofit Earthjustice, where he sued meat companies for pollution. The state’s Eighth District also happens to be home to massive industrial farming operations, including one of the largest meatpacking plants in the country.
But one agricultural reformer did lose a battle. Chris Jones, a former Big Ag insider turned outspoken critic, lost his bid to be Iowa’s next agriculture secretary. Jones, a water quality expert, has focused his campaign on the poor condition of Iowa’s waterways, which are heavily polluted by the state’s massive hog, egg and ethanol industries and may be linked to rising cancer rates in Iowa.
Animals rarely receive direct attention in politics, but every election has a huge impact on them, including the billions of animals confined in factory farms across the United States and the countless wild animals captured in rivers and hunted. This election proved that voters are willing to help animals if given the chance. With Democrats gaining a majority in Congress, there may be more opportunities to promote animal welfare by 2027.