Alaskan Wildlife for Obama

by Stephanie Ernst · 2008-10-16 08:10:00 UTC
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My sisters came over last night to watch the debate and eat birthday cake (by the way, did you mark anything off my birthday wish list?).  The vegetarian sister brought a stash of fun Obama buttons: she proudly affixed a colorful "Vegetarians for Obama" button to her backpack and gifted me with the "Alaskan Wildlife for Obama" button, featuring a moose in serene surroundings. I'm really glad it wasn't that awful image of Palin with the dead, bloody moose she killed; that photo makes me ill.

It's pretty well understood at this point—not only by animal advocates but also by the general population—that VP candidate Palin is no friend of animals, and there aren't too many nonhumans she wouldn't be excited to hunt down and shoot.

But even though a McCain-Palin administration—or, God forbid, a Palin-Somebody Else administration if something happened to McCain—would be a real blow to animal protection, I have a hard time imagining that the animals whom humans raise, slaughter, hunt, eat, abuse, and otherwise exploit would really be "for" either candidate.

Obama and Biden are certainly less dangerous to animals than Gun 'Em Down Palin, but that's it—they're just less opposed to animal rights goals and less offensive. They don't have any impressive positions on animal rights. For one, "Obama understands the importance of America's hunting and fishing traditions" and supports legislation that "provides incentives to farmers and ranchers who voluntarily open their land to hunting, fishing and other wildlife-related activities" (Barack Obama: Supporting the Rights and Traditions of Sportsmen, pdf). This stance is a far cry from Palin's, of course, and I understand that he has to reach out to these voters to get elected, but I still wouldn't call someone who wants to help hunters kill more animals an animal-friendly candidate—a candidate who is going to get my vote for other reasons, but not an animal-friendly candidate.

That said, take a look at the Humane Society Legislative Fund's preview of its 2008 Humane Scorecard (pdf; HTML introduction to and explanation of the scorecard here), and you'll see that Obama and Biden (Biden especially) are way ahead of McCain in supporting animal-friendly legislation. So Obama and Biden aren't perfect, but if the animals had a voice in this and had to choose between the two camps, they certainly wouldn't choose McCain and Palin. Especially not the moose and wolves.

Links:

"Animals and Politics," from Veg Blog
"Where Do the Veep Candidates Stand on Animals?" from Michael Markarian of the Huffington Post
"On Elections and Animals," from Animal Person
"Candidates on Animal Rights," from Of Human and Non-Human Animals

Stephanie Ernst wrote the original Animal Rights blog at Change.org until December 2009. She can now be found at Animal Rights & AntiOppression.
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