Letter: Berkley, Reid rated highly on animal protection

Friday, Feb. 25, 2000 | 8:51 a.m.

On behalf of the Humane Society of the United States and its 7.3 million supporters nationwide, I commend Rep. Shelley Berkley and Sen. Harry Reid for each achieving perfect scores of 100 on our 1999 congressional scorecard.

Berkley sided with animal protection concerns on all six issues we scored during the first session of the 106th Congress. She voted to cut funding for an ineffective U.S. Department of Agriculture program that spends millions of the taxpayers' hard-earned dollars -- as a subsidy to livestock ranchers -- to kill bears, mountain lions, foxes and other predators with inhumane traps, poisons and aerial gunning.

She also voted to restrict the use of cruel and indiscriminate steel-jawed leghold traps and neck snares on National Wildlife Refuges, to protect dolphins from tuna-fishing boats that use dolphin-deadly nets; and to prohibit commerce in videos that depict animal "crushing" and other appalling acts of cruelty. She also co-sponsored legislation to combat the gruesome practice of cockfighting and to protect farm animals injured at stockyards.

Reid, on similar issues considered by the Senate, also sided with animal protection concerns on every issue.

Mohandas Gandhi once said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." Indeed, you can tell a great deal about the compassionate impulses of elected officials by assessing where they stand on animal protection matters. The Humane Society of the United States applauds Berkley and Reid for their consistent and principled support for animal protection in this session of Congress.

WAYNE PACELLE Senior vice president, The Humane Society of the United States