Happy New Year! I'm writing today to update you on our progress and plans on the Petition for Poultry in 2005, and to THANK YOU for your help so far. I hope you’ll stick with us for the next critical steps in our campaign toward a more humane world. Your support is making a difference.

Over the last two months, you have joined more than 76,000 other people in signing the Petition for Poultry, impressing not only all of us at The Humane Society of the United States, but industry leaders and government officials as well. In fact, the growing number of people on our side is the primary reason we have come so far—and the most important next step that you can take is to help us grow the list of supporters even more. I urge you to, please, click here right now to forward the petition to as many of your friends and colleagues as possible.

As a result of your help so far:

We’ve gained many strong allies in our fight, including the American Veterinary Medical Association and the ASPCA. Demonstrating widespread support from organizations in addition to people is critical, so this is particularly good news!

Even as we are drafting the federal legislation to include poultry in The Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, we have already begun to hear from Members of Congress who are interested in supporting the bill.

There have been several positive developments with industry leaders in poultry production and retail. Word of extensive support by consumers—people like you—of the Petition for Poultry is exactly the kind of thing that makes them listen.
The next steps all come down to one key action: Getting more people to sign the petition. It seems like such a simple thing, and you may have already sent the petition far and wide (thank you!)—but the long list of supporters will be the critical factor in our eventual success and during the interim steps over the next few months, which will include:

Urging your elected officials to support the legislation to include poultry in the humane slaughter law. Stay tuned—we will most definitely need your help to ensure a strong bipartisan list of cosponsors in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Collaborating with the new U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Last week, the nominee for the job, Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns, was confirmed by the Agriculture Committee and will likely be confirmed by the U.S. Senate shortly. We hope to work closely with him to achieve our goal—and we want to show him that we’ve got tremendous public backing for this change.
Carmina, I want to personally thank you again for your efforts thus far. This is a campaign that we can win, as long as we can continue to build momentum and support from people all over the country. I’m glad you have chosen to help.

Sincerely,

Wayne Pacelle
President & CEO
The Humane Society of the United States