The Humane Society Legislative Fund today launched a statewide radio ad campaign in Arizona opposing Rep. Jeff Flake for U.S. Senate. The radio ad, which you can listen to here, tells listeners that Flake has fought even the most modest animal welfare reforms in Congress, he is out of step with our values on protecting animals from cruelty, and he’s too extreme for Arizona.
Click here to listen to HSLF's radio ad opposing Jeff Flake for U.S. Senate
Arizona voters have sided with animal protection five out of five times when these issues have been on the statewide ballot over the last two decades. They voted to ban the use of steel-jawed leghold traps and other body-gripping traps to kill wildlife on public lands by passing Prop 201 in 1994. They made Arizona one of the final states to ban cockfighting by approving Prop 201 in 1998. They banned the extreme confinement of veal calves and breeding pigs in small crates with the passage of Prop 204 in 2006. And they soundly rejected both Prop 102 in 2000 and Prop 109 in 2010 which were pushed by the NRA, Safari Club, and other hunting groups seeking to block future ballot measures on wildlife protection issues.
Rep. Flake, however, has opposed nearly every animal welfare reform during his 12 years in the House of Representatives, even relating to some of the very issues that Arizona voters banned, such as illegal cockfighting, and the killing of predators with steel-jawed leghold traps. Among other issue, he voted against the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act, to include pets and service animals in disaster plans, after first responders risked their lives to save pets left behind during Hurricane Katrina. He voted against the Veterans Dog Training Therapy Act, to create a program to provide service dogs to veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He voted against adequately funding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s enforcement of the federal law against dogfighting and cockfighting. And he voted to use taxpayer dollars to kill wildlife with steel-jawed leghold traps, aerial gunning, and toxic poisons.
Arizona voters have time and time again approved common-sense animal welfare reforms, but Jeff Flake has been on the wrong side of these issues. We are urging Arizona voters to continue their perfect record of siding with animal protection, and to oppose Jeff Flake and elect Richard Carmona for U.S. Senate.
