United States presidential candidate Cory Booker, a noted vegan, has released his animal welfare plan which includes ending all animal testing for cosmetics.
According to a statement on his website, Booker would immediately tackle this issue and promote the development of “scientifically reliable alternative methods in order to end all animal testing by 2025.”
“Our treatment of animals is a test of our character and a measure of the compassion of our society,” stated Booker, which points to his personal and professional stance on animal welfare issues.
“The Humane Society Legislative Fund has ranked Cory at a 100% on every Humane Scorecard they have issued since Cory was elected to the Senate,” continued the statement. “Cory has led his colleagues in the Senate in blocking appropriations riders that sought to undermine the Endangered Species Act and delist vulnerable species such as Gray Wolves and Grizzly Bears, and he has introduced legislation that would require federal facilities to comply with the minimum standards of care in the Animal Welfare Act.“
Among his many other pro-animal accomplishments, Booker introduced a bill to extend federal prohibitions on animal fighting to the U.S. territories which was passed into law in the final 2018 farm bill.
More recently, as reported by WAN in July, Booker co-sponsored The Traveling Exotic Animal and Public Safety Protection Act. The bill, authored by Senator Bob Menendez, would make the use of exotic animals in circuses, carnivals and parades illegal nationwide.
As president, according to the statement, Booker will also work to:
-
Protect all endangered species, and prohibit imports of trophies of elephants, lions, and other threatened and endangered wildlife
-
Make extreme acts of animal cruelty a federal crime and establish an animal cruelty crimes enforcement unit within the Department of Justice
-
Create millions of new acres of wildlife habitat, restoring and protecting ecosystems that will provide a lifeline for species facing the threat of extinction
-
Ban cruel traps, including steel-jaw leghold traps and snares, from being used on our National Wildlife Refuges and other federal lands
-
Shut down all puppy mills
-
Prohibit the private ownership of primates and big cats such as lions and tigers
-
Ban the use of poisons for predator control
-
Enact a national ban on the sale of shark fins
-
Stop the export of U.S. horses for human consumption
