Bo Derek was back on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to speak out on behalf of animals — something at which she’s becoming quite adept. The model and actress has been an active lobbyist against horse slaughter, but this week her topic was illegal trafficking in wildlife.
Testifying before a House Resources subcommittee, she made it clear she was speaking as a board member of WildAid, not as a special envoy to the secretary of state for wildlife trafficking, a position she’s held since the last administration.
Derek, a well-known Republican, also emphasized “conservation knows no political borders; it is absolutely a bipartisan issue with passionate advocates from both parties.”
Dressed in a tan suit and white shirt with her long blond hair still at mid-back length and glasses perched on the end of her nose, Derek brought up a success story involving another celebrity from the other side of the aisle.
“The State Department’s public service message with Harrison Ford carried out in partnership with WildAid has reached hundreds of millions around the world and cost the taxpayer less than $100,000,” she said.
Derek’s issue was only the tip of an animal-friendly iceberg in Congress this week. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., perhaps inspired by all those summers spent on Nantucket watching out for Jaws, announced he was gearing up to partner with the Discovery Channel for its annual (and strangely anticipated) Shark Week. The partnership will work to promote a bill Kerry introduced to the Senate in April that works to end the practice of shark finning, which involves cutting the fin off of a shark then throwing the shark back into the water. The fins are then usually used to make shark fin soup. Public service announcements will run throughout the week’s programming, which will direct people to sign an online petition to support Kerry’s bill.
Meanwhile, the House discussed two animal-based bills — the Southern Sea Otter Recovery and Research Act and the Marine Turtle Conservation Reauthorization Act.
And also Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee met for a hearing on yet another animal, but this one was not so helpless. The committee discussed adding “the constrictor snake of the species Python genera” to the list of injurious species. If passed, it would prohibit them from being shipped or imported into the country.
