We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts.
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 17, 2014
CONTACT:
Kiley Blackman
[email protected]
www.adow.org
As Carriage Horses Figured Predominantly in NYC Mayoral Race, Humane
Voters Stand Out in Cuomo's 'War on Wildlife'
NYC, NY - With almost 40% of registered voters voting for Zephyr
Teachout in the Primaries, attention is being paid to the difference between
her and incumbent Governor; one of the differences is in enlightened
attitudes about the current slaughter of wildlife in NYS, as addressed by
Teachout in an official statement which clearly mirrors a growing sentiment
among voters in addition to dissatisfaction about Cuomo:
"New York should be a national leader on animal protection issues. We must
not continue using tax dollars to use lethal methods of eradicating
wildlife, and we cannot condone killing as a first option – if it is an
option at all. We must value and protect New York's wildlife, and we cannot
allow indiscriminate and ineffective killing of wildlife, particularly not
until the Department of Environmental Conservation has exhausted non-lethal
solutions to resolving these issues. We must particularly focus on the
safety of birds, thousands of which are killed each year by the Port
Authority in a failed effort to reduce the risk of bird strikes. The Port
Authority needs to increase its focus on long-term non-lethal alternatives
such as implementing radar technologies."
As society advances in awareness and compassion, the massive killing of
wildlife by the USDA and hunters is taking center stage, much as the
carriage horse ban in NYC helped propel Bill DeBlasio to a mayoral win:
'Animal rights have emerged recently as an unexpected tinderbox in the
mayoral race' (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/nyregion/nyc-mayoral-hopefuls-vie-to-love-animals-the-most.html?_r=0)
In fact animal rights was such a populist position that loser Joe Lhota
ultimately jumped on the bandwagon, hoping to cull votes on this issue. It
is the same for NYS: Cuomo has not only romanced the vote of hunters -
he wants more expanded bobcat trapping, expanded trapping and hunting,
approves the extremely vicious crossbows and wants smaller buffers to homes;
lowered the age of for licenses to allow children to hunt, created lifetime
hunting licenses, promoted NYS as a “hunter’s paradise" to lure out of state
hunters to NYS to kill our wildlife, while fatal hunting accidents are at an
all time high. Visit New
York State Governor Andrew Cuomo Wants More of This for more information
on this subject.
Kiley Blackman, founder of Animal Defenders of Westchester, said, 'Cuomo’s
out of control hunting policies are unwisely directed at that small less
than 1% of the population that actually hunt. This is unacceptable to the
85% of NYS who oppose hunting and harming wildlife. I honestly feel people
believe that it doesn't make much of a difference which candidate gets
elected, thinking none of them can be trusted - they are that cynical; but
they want to believe promises about compassionate treatment of animals. We
are supporting Rob Astorino for his respectful, considerate treatment of our
organization: As one of our most compassionate humane voter/ members said
upon seeing our Facebook endorsement: 'That's great! I'm a dyed-in-the-wool
Democrat, but I don't like the record of the Cuomo administration. I voted
for Teachout, now I'll have to vote for Astorino.'
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