Humane Society Endorses Obama, Seals up "Cat Lady" Vote

Normally the Humane Society Legislative Fund stays out of presidential politics, but once again we see this is no normal election year. The McCain/Palin ticket is so disturbing on animal welfare issues that the Humane Society has come out in full support of Obama, pictured here holding Baby, a three legged survivor of the kind of puppy mills he has worked towards shutting down.
The press release issued by the Humane Society Legislative Fund reads:

As an Illinois state senator, he backed at least a dozen animal protection laws, including those to strengthen the penalties for animal cruelty, to help animal shelters, to promote spaying and neutering, and to ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption. In the U.S. Senate, he has consistently co-sponsored multiple bills to combat animal fighting and horse slaughter, and has supported efforts to increase funding for adequate enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act, Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, and federal laws to combat animal fighting and puppy mills.

On Joe Biden:

Importantly, Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) has been a stalwart friend of animal welfare advocates in the Senate, and has received high marks year after year on the Humane Scorecard. Biden has not only supported animal protection legislation during his career, but has also led the fight on important issues. He was the co-author with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) in the 108th Congress on legislation to ban the netting of dolphins by commercial tuna fishermen. He was the lead author of a bill in the 107th Congress to prohibit trophy hunting of captive exotic mammals in fenced enclosures, and he successfully passed the bill through the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Mccain and Palin did not return the HSLF's questionnaire, but their records speak for themselves. While McCain has worked to stop horse slaughter and end subsidies for the fur industry, he has remained silent on many other animal welfare issues in the senate, most recently on the treatment of downed cattle. He's set to deliver the keynote address this coming weekend at U.S Sportsmen's Alliance rally. The U.S. Sportsmen's alliance isn't your typical hunting organization, it is an "extremist organization that defends the trophy hunting of threatened polar bears and captive shooting of tame animals inside fenced pens." Did John and Sarah bond over their mutual hatred of polar bears?
While McCain's animal welfare record is merely "meh", Sarah Palin really sent the HSLF over the edge with her views. The HSLF claims that "her record is so extreme that she has perhaps done more harm to animals than any other current governor in the United States."
Here's a summary of the trail of blood Palin has left smeared across Alaska on her way to the lower 48.

• "Palin engineered a campaign of shooting predators from airplanes and helicopters, in order to artificially boost the populations of moose and caribou for trophy hunters." This is a practice that Congress is working to stop with the Protect America's Wildlife act. But hey, they're just Washington insiders that need some "shakin' up" right?
• Offered a $150 dollar bounty for every wolf paw brought in by hunters.
• Even though the people of Alaska twice voted against this practice, Palin managed to spend $400,000 worth of public funds on brochures and radio ads advocating aerial hunting.
• Is an Ally to Safari Club International, a radical hunting group that advocates the use of steel leg traps, bear baiting, and captive animal trophy hunts that REAL hunters find inhumane and non-sporting.
• Is suing the to stop the placement of polar bears on the federal endangered species list. She doesn't believe in science showing that the polar bear's habitat is decreasing due to ice melt (or any science really, but that's a whole other story).
  

If the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated, as Mahatma Gandhi would have us believe, what can be said about a nation that would elect John McCain and Sarah Palin in November?