Utah is moving quickly to prevent its citizens from being able to fight animal exploitation.
The Utah State Legislature appears very keen on a piece of legislation detrimental to animal protection within the state. Utah Senate Bill 113, which has passed both legislative chambers by landslide votes, would prevent localities from enacting regulations regarding “animal enterprises” – defined to include commercial, academic, and other enterprises that use nonhuman animals for production, education, research, or profit. As a result, this bill would prevent the citizens of Utah from having a say in what types of animal exploitation are allowed where they live.
Together, we are creating change . . . and the industry is desperate to stop us.
National Geographic reported in January of this year that animal-friendly laws are “gaining traction across the U.S.” at the local level, and the timing of Utah’s dangerous bill is blatant. It comes on the heels of several huge losses we (as an animal protection collective) visited upon the animal exploitation industry:
- We decided that the welfare of two nonhuman lives trumped the interests of one of the most powerful animal enterprises in the world when we acquitted two activists charged with theft and burglary for saving the lives of two piglets dying on a Utah factory farm floor.
- We decided that ethically bankrupt practices exploitative of nonhumans are not welcome everywhere when the city of Everett, Massachusetts, approved an ordinance that banned animal testing within the City’s limits and at least eight cities around the country passed ordinances banning the sale of fur.
- We opened the door for human-relevant testing methods to replace the unnecessary brutalization of over 100 million animals in U.S. laboratories each and every year when the U.S. Congress passed the FDA Modernization Act.
The Utah State Legislature is advocating for continued animal exploitation and wants to take away our power to create a more just world.
These successes demonstrate the power we have when we rise together in protection of nonhuman animals. And, as our movement becomes increasingly bipartisan and effective, those beholden to the interests of the industries we oppose will do everything they can to undercut our efforts.
Just look at Utah, where elected officials are working quickly, quietly, and determinedly to make sure that the very industries harming both human and nonhuman interests are shielded from the will of the people. That we can’t continue to succeed in demanding change because what remains of our democracy is shackled by industry-propagated law. And, that nonhuman animals continue to suffer and die against our collective will.
We must protect our power and advocate for nonhumans by preventing Utah SB113 from becoming law.
Utah Senate Bill 113 has rushed through both the Utah House and Senate in less than one month, and it appears on the fast-track to become state law. WE MUST ACT NOW.