Capitol Hill Pet Week kicks off amid debate over animal bill

Monday marks the start of Pet Week on Capitol Hill, a chance to celebrate the role animals have in our lives. The festivities will include made-for-Instagram events like the Cutest Pets on Capitol Hill Contest, a staple of Pet Week in Congress.

But behind the fun and photos, Pet Week also features lobbying from animal rights advocates and pet and animal industry figures.

Steven Feldman, President of the Human Animal and Bond Research Institute, which sponsors Pet Week, says although pets are one of few issues that brings everyone together in Washington, some legislation involving pets and animals have become quite divisive.

One such issue could be a behind-the-scenes battle over legislation pitting animal rights advocates against farmers and ranchers. Known as the EATS Act, the bill would block states from from passing regulations that impact farmers and ranchers nationwide, such as a California law recently upheld by the Supreme Court requiring that pork sold in California come from humanely raised pigs.

“For a state like Missouri, to have a California marketplace completely off limits, or dictating some ridiculous regulation to Missourians, or farmers and ranchers or is the wrong policy,” Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, one of the bill’s sponsors, told Spectrum News.

More than 160 members of the House of Representatives, including two Republicans, disagree with that stance, sending a letter to the House Agriculture Committee urging them not to include the measure in the Farm Bill, the twice-per-decade package of legislation that governs agriculture and food policy.

They say the EATS Act would threaten states’ abilities to pass commonsense animal welfare protections.

Animal welfare groups say one law at risk would be New York’s recent ban on the sale of cats, dogs and rabbits in pet stores, which is intended to end so-called puppy mills — breeding facilities for dogs which advocates say feature poor conditions and little oversight.

“If passed, the EATS Act would essentially be a federal override of state and local policies to design to protect animals and protect food safety,” said Max Broad, executive director of advocacy group DC Voters for Animals.

But Schmitt and other EATS Act backers, including North Carolina Sens. Ted Budd and Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, say the legislation is focused on the agriculture industry, not on regulating companion animals like cats and dogs.