Congress is in session for another week before the August recess, and has a lot of work to get done.

The Senate today shot down a motion to move forward on S. 2363, the dangerous if innocuous sounding “Sportsmen’s Act,” which has been portrayed as feel-good legislation but could have serious and far-reaching consequences for wildlife, public spaces, and human health and safety.

The House today approved a bill to allow veterinarians to transport and dispense important drugs for veterinary care in remote situations outside of their registered location, ensuring that animals will not be denied critical medical services at farms, sanctuaries, spay and neuter clinics, animal cruelty and fighting crime scenes, and emergency shelters during natural disasters. H.R. 1528, the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act, sponsored by Reps.

After Congress adopted some provisions of the Safe Air Travel for Animals Act in 2000, sponsored by the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and then-Rep. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., airlines were required to produce reports of all incidents involving animal loss, injury or death, so consumers can compare the safety records of different carriers, and also to improve animal care training for baggage handlers.

Today the Taking Action for Animals conference wraps up in Washington, D.C., where more than 1,250 animal protection advocates gathered to hone their skills, celebrate the progress made in our cause, lobby their congressional offices on animal welfare legislation, and learn more about how to bring advocacy tools back to their own communities. But today there is also exciting news on the international front about the critical “Be Cruelty-Free” campaign to end animal testing for cosmetics globally.

The House started in on the annual agriculture spending bill yesterday, and began debate on a number of amendments. The appropriations bill already includes a provision, approved by a bipartisan vote in committee, preventing the use of funds to inspect horse slaughter plants in the U.S. for human consumption, and continuing the current prohibition in existing law that blocks domestic horse slaughter plants from opening. Rep.

More than eight billion chickens and turkeys are raised for food each year in the U.S.—that’s just about a million slaughtered every single hour of every day. The U.S. Department of Agriculture exempts poultry from the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, so these birds—which account for the vast majority of animals killed for food in America—lack even the legal protections afforded to cattle and pigs and aren’t required to be rendered insensible to pain before they’re killed.

The Senate and House Appropriations Committees have each produced their agriculture spending bills for Fiscal Year 2015, and both bills contain good news for animals. While the House and Senate will need to reconcile their differences to arrive at a final package, they’re in close agreement on the key items affecting animal welfare.

Horse Slaughter

Politicians running for statewide office are known to show up at festivals, parades, county fairs, diners, a variety of commemorations, and even funerals. But it takes a very special kind of candidate to be a featured speaker at a  cockfighting rally, of all places.