In blogs passim the Grumpy Vegan posted updates on the positions of U.S. presidential candidates Obama and McCain on hunting. Apparently, in a poll conducted by the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, hunters support McCain over Obama but not by much.
“I don’t think John McCain has really made his case to hunters and anglers,” says Melinda Gable, communications director for the foundation, which advocates gun rights and expanded access to federal land for hunters. “Things were very different in 2004. Everybody knew that George W. Bush was from Texas, he was a rancher and that he went hunting. We haven’t seen that from McCain yet — there’s the unknown — he really needs to come out as a sportsman. Neither candidate has talked a lot about the issues that are important to us.”
Now, the last sentence is highlighted for the very important reason that if you don’t talk about the issues that matter to you, well, how can you expect the candidates to address them?
Which brings me to the U.S. animal protection movement: What’s it doing about the U.S. presidential election? Not much, it would appear. It seems that for the 20 years I worked in the U.S. animal rights movement and spoke about how the U.K. is in advance of the U.S. because animal welfare issues are a mainstream political issue in the U.K. have fallen on deaf ears. Yes, the Grumpy Vegan knows about Proposition 2 on the California ballot and all the successful citizen initiatives. They don’t constitute a macro-campaign with the objective to make animal protection a mainstream political issue in the U.S. So, Mike Markarian who, incidentally, I respect greatly, can we have a little less of the cutesy “Demo-cats and Re-pup-licans on the Campaign Trail” and more about HSUS’s vision for a federal and state-wide initiative for political action for animals? And the question also goes for everyone else in the American movement, too.
Similarly, the next U.K. general election must be held on or before 3 June 2010. That’s less than two years away! Time to wake up and smell the rosettes and hustings and knocking on doors and questioning candidates about their views on animal welfare!
