Not enough of us made loud enough noise with Congress on the bill to prohibit horse slaughter and it was passed by the House of Representatives on September 7 (still has to pass the Senate before it becomes law).
There is another extremely important bill that affects rodeo and all of us need to act upon it now. It is the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act and it will allow better prosecution of the criminal acts of animal rights activists.
There is an easy way to contact your legislators at a site made available by the National Association of Biomedical Research. Their sample letter goes into great detail regarding problems their industry has suffered. You will want to change the message and this is how you can do it using my suggested wording below (or you may write your own message).
Highlight the message below and depress Control C (or use the copy function in Edit). Go to this site:
http://capwiz.com/nabr/issues/alert/?alertid=8650226&type=CO
Highlight the text in the first message box. Depress Control V and your message should replace the one that is there. Highlight the text in the second message box and depress Control V. (One message goes to your senators and the other to your representative when you complete your name and address and submit.)
For information on the bill, read this press release by the sponsoring Senators from Oklahoma and California:
http://epw.senate.gov/pressitem.cfm?party=rep&id=262681
THE MESSAGE:
I am writing to ask your support for S. 3880 and H.R. 4239, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA).
The AETA gives needed protection to scientists, medical researchers, ranchers, farmers, and any other industry involving animals by expanding current law to address violent tactics used by animal rights extremists to frighten law abiding citizens away from their work.
The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act would address gaps in the law and allow federal authorities to help prevent, better investigate, and prosecute individuals who commit acts of intimidation, harassment and violence.
I urge you to support the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of 2005 by becoming a co-sponsor.
Please do this to protect rodeo.
