The Humane Society Legislative Fund (the arm of the HS that is allowed to support candidates) today announced its endorsement of the Obama-Biden ticket. .  This is the first time the organization has ever endorsed a candidate for President.

This is an unusually important endorsement.  The Humane Society is a  very old and very well respected.   Its membership is huge, and its legislative endorsements, are distinctly bipartisan.   Concern for animals cuts across party lines – and while animal welfare is not a top issue for many people, for some it is a deal-breaking issue.  And for still others, the issue rises to the top only if, as in this election, a candidate distinguishes herself as unpalatably extreme – so much so, that her views on animal welfare issues cast doubt upon her fundamental decency and reasonableness in other areas.  

Some excerpts from the endorsement:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has been a solid supporter of animal protection at both the state and federal levels. [* * * *]

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.
[* * * *]

On the Republican ticket, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has also supported some animal protection bills in Congress, but has been inattentive or opposed to others.[* * * *]

While McCain's positions on animal protection have been lukewarm, his choice of running mate cemented our decision to oppose his ticket. Gov. Sarah Palin's (R-Alaska) retrograde policies on animal welfare and conservation have led to an all-out war on Alaska's wolves and other creatures. Her record is so extreme that she has perhaps done more harm to animals than any other current governor in the United States. 

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. She offered a $150 bounty for the left foreleg of each dead wolf as an economic incentive for pilots and aerial gunners to kill more of the animals, even though Alaska voters had twice approved a ban on the practice. This year, the issue was up again for a vote of the people, and Palin led the fight against it -- in fact, she helped to spend $400,000 of public funds to defeat the initiative.

What's more, when the Bush Administration announced its decision to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, Palin filed a lawsuit to reverse that decision. She said it's the "wrong move" to protect polar bears, even though their habitat is shrinking and ice floes are vanishing due to global warming.

The choice for animals is especially clear now that Palin is in the mix. If Palin is put in a position to succeed McCain, it could mean rolling back decades of progress on animal issues.

Voters who care about protecting wildlife from inhumane and unsporting abuses, enforcing the laws that combat large-scale cruelties like dogfighting and puppy mills, providing humane treatment of animals in agriculture, and addressing other challenges that face animals in our nation, must become active over the next six weeks to elect a president and vice president who share our values. Please spread the word, and tell friends and family members that an honest assessment of the records of the two presidential tickets leads to the inescapable conclusion that Obama-Biden is the choice for humane-minded voters.