Congressional Democrats and Republicans failed to reach agreement last night on continued funding of the federal government, and Washington this morning began the process of temporarily mothballing its programs and services. In a shutdown, “non-essential” federal workers are furloughed, while some “essential” operations continue. Several people have asked how a government shutdown affects animals, either by suspending critical animal welfare functions or providing a temporary reprieve from government killing programs.

Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., in his weekly “Correspondence Corner” video series, took a question from a constituent who emailed him in support of H.R. 847, the Puppy Uniform Protection and Safety (PUPS) Act, to crack down on abusive puppy mills. Joined by his special guest, Arbor, a rescue dog adopted by one of his staffers, Rep. Paulsen took the opportunity to answer the question from Dick in Bloomington, and talk about not only his co-sponsorship of the puppy mill legislation, but also his co-sponsorship of the Animal Fighting Spectator Prohibition Act, H.R.

Some of the leading opponents of animal welfare in the U.S. House of Representatives may run for the U.S. Senate in 2014, where if elected they would ostensibly have more power to block common-sense animal protection policies. While Rep.

The animal protection movement hit a major marker this week, with 700 new animal protection laws enacted in the states since 2005. Two bills signed into law in New Mexico—allowing the purchase of protective equipment for police dogs and the adoption of the dogs after their retirement—ushered in the 699th and 700th new state policies during that time period.
 

The first major animal protection bill of the 113th Congress was introduced today, and it’s a key piece of unfinished business that got to the one-yard line in the last session. U.S. Reps. Tom Marino, R-Pa., Jim McGovern, D-Mass., John Campbell, R-Calif., and Jim Moran, D-Va., have reintroduced the Animal Fighting Spectator Prohibition Act—to close a loophole in the federal animal fighting statute and make it a crime to attend or bring a child to a dogfight or cockfight.

I’ve just returned from western and northern Michigan, where I joined animal advocates, tribal leaders, and conservationists at kick-off meetings to launch the Keep Michigan Wolves Protected ballot measure campaign, and to turn back the state legislature’s recently passed bill authorizing the trophy hunting of wolves for the first time in nearly 50 years.

Before the November election, I posted a preliminary version of the 2012 Humane Scorecard, and last week, after the conclusion of Congress’ “lame-duck” session, I provided a look at our year in review for animals. We made some modest progress, but the 112th Congress left a lot of unfinished business on animal protection issues, paving the way for a challenging new session.

A few days after the election, an excerpt from this Washington Post editorial on the waning power of the NRA caught my eye:

There is disappointing news from North Dakota tonight, as Measure 5 appears to be going down to defeat. The opponents of this measure, mostly ranching and farming trade associations, were able to cast doubt among voters and tell them the proposed felony animal cruelty law was written by “outside” groups, as if the language morphs into something different depending on who backs it.