The 2018 farm bill is headed for a contentious battle in a conference committee made up of House and Senate lawmakers who passed different versions of the legislation in their respective chambers this month.
While lawmakers negotiating a final farm bill agreement may end up fighting like cats and dogs, they will least agree no one should eat them.
A provision banning the consumption of cat and dog meat in the U.S. was added to the Senate farm bill by Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, D-N.Y., before it passed Friday. It’s the same provision included in the farm bill House lawmakers approved last week.
The inclusion in both bills all but guarantees it will make it into law when a final farm bill passes later this year.
“Cats and dogs are our companions, and we need to ensure they aren’t being killed for food,” Gillibrand, who sits on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said. “It is outrageous that this practice is not currently illegal in the United States.”
The provision prohibits killing cats and dogs for food and it bans importation of cat and dog meat.
China, Vietnam, and South Korea are among the countries that consume dog meat.
Taiwan recently banned consumption of cat or dog meat, but it remains widespread globally, according to the Humane Society International, which claims 30 million dogs are killed for food annually, most of them strays or stolen pets.
It’s currently legal to consume cat or dog meat in 44 states. The provision in both Senate and House farm bills would ban it nationwide.
The ban was first introduced as a standalone bill by Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., and Vern Buchanan, R-Fla.
Hastings has introduced a resolution that “urges all nations to outlaw the dog and cat meat trade and enforce existing laws against such trade.”
Lawmakers are expected to begin negotiating a House-Senate compromise farm bill in the coming weeks. House lawmakers want the final product to include more robust work requirements for food stamp recipients.
The requirements are excluded from the Senate version, despite a warning from President Trump that he may not sign a bill without improving the work requirements.
Current law authorizing farm policy and spending expires Sept. 30.
[Related: Senate farm bill vote sets up clash with House and Trump]
