WASHINGTON, D.C. – Thursday, President Joe Biden inked the last of five animal protection measures into law in the year-end spending bill to fund the Federal Government for FY2023.  

The FDA Modernization Act 2.0, Reducing Animal Testing Act, and a statutory fix to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020, were enacted as well as record-breaking funding for enforcement of the Horse Protection Act of 1970. 

Earlier in the month, Biden signed into statute the Big Cat Public Safety Act and Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act in the preceding weeks.  

“Reducing the numbers of animals used in testing, shutting down commercial cub petting operations, halting the use of performance-enhancing drugs in horse racing, and working to combat the massacre of sharks for their fins are good policies for the United States,” said Wayne Pacelle, president at the Center for a Humane Economy.“These laws, individually and collectively, help make our nation more humane when it comes to our treatment of animals.” 

“We applaud President Biden, the White House, and the 117th Congress for enacting the most comprehensive legislative victories for animals of any Congress in history,” said Marty Irby, executive director at Animal Wellness Action and an eight-time world champion equestrian.“These new policies will revolutionize the pharmaceutical world, end the ridiculous practices of cub petting and shark finning, and better protect our iconic American equines from doping and long-term abuses that have plagued the equine world for half a century.”  

Here is background on the legislative progress: 

FDA Modernization Act and Reducing Animal Testing Act

In December 2022, federal lawmakers passed the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 led by Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Reps. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C. — including both the original FDA Modernization Act and also the Reducing Animal Testing Act — to eliminate a federal mandate for animal testing for new drugs and for biosimilars. Given that perhaps 75 percent of all animals used in testing are conscripted for drug development, enactment of the measure punctuated the biggest policy win on the issue of animal testing in our nation’s history. On a significant parallel track, Animal Wellness Action succeeded in getting an additional $5 million in new money to support an FDA-wide New Alternative Methods Program to reduce animal testing (total is $12.5 million). The FDA Modernization Act 2.0 promises to reboot a broken drug development paradigm and, if it is vigorously implemented, will deliver safer, more effective, more reliable palliatives and cures to people in need.  

Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act Statutory Repair

Animal Wellness Action, along with The Jockey Club, worked with key lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate to amend the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020, amending a provision in the original law that a federal appellate court declared unconstitutional in November and which put the national ban on race-day doping of Thoroughbreds in jeopardy. Performance-enhancing drugs put the animals at risk of breakdowns and other injuries and make the entire industry suspect. Animal Wellness Action launched a new site, www.HISAWatchdog.org, to help facilitate communication and keep a watchful eye on regulators. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y. led this effort in the Congress.  

Big Cat Public Safety Act

President Joe Biden signed the stand-alone Big Cat Public Safety Act, H.R. 263, led by Reps. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., into law on December 21 after a long, 11-year campaign to end the trade in big cats as pets and to shut down commercial cub-petting operations that treat tiger cubs and kittens as props. This bill closes out the cub-petting industry, which breeds tigers and lions to allow patrons to handle cubs for a fee. There are thousands of big cats kept in private hands, and just a decade ago, there were more than 60 cub-petting menageries.  

Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act

Shark fins are off all menus in the United States, with Congress passing the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law in December. This bill was seven years in the works and addresses the global mass killing of as many as 70 million sharks for their fins. Like the ban on the sale of dog and cat meat in the United States, U.S. leadership will be attention-getting throughout the world, including in nations where there is still an appetite for shark fin soup. The effort was led by Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Tex., and Gregario Sablan, D-N.M.I. in the the House and Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V. led the charge to secure this new law.   

Record Breaking Funding for Enforcement of the Horse Protection Act

The latest Congressional spending bill, funding government operations in 2023, includes a record level of $4.1 million to enforce the Horse Protection Act (HPA) of 1970 — that’s $1 million more than the prior year’s record funding level of $3 million. This is consequential because a segment of horse trainers tortures horses to get them to exaggerate their gait and win ribbons at horse shows. With more inspections, Animal Wellness Action should be able to crack down on some level of lawlessness until the 52-year-old law can be upgraded next year. Until the group started pressing for more funding in 2018 when the organization opened shop, the HPA never saw more than $705,000 in funding per year since the HPA was enacted in 1970. Reps. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., and Hal Rogers, R-Ky., as well as retiring Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. were instrumental in securing this funding.  

With the enactment of these new measures, Animal Wellness Action has helped secure a total of 12 new animal protection laws within four years since the organization was formed in 2018. These legislative achievements also include the Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act, Dog and Cat Meat Trade Prohibition Act, and Parity in Animal Cruelty Enforcement (PACE) Act, signed into law in 2018; the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act and Rescuing Animals With Rewards (RAWR) Act, enacted in 2019; the original HISA statue in 2020; the Puppies Assisting Wounded Servicemembers (PAWS) for Veterans Therapy Act, in 202l; and the five measures enacted by Biden this month.  

— Edited Press Release

Animal Wellness Action (Action) is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) organization with a mission of helping animals by promoting legal standards forbidding cruelty. We champion causes that alleviate the suffering of companion animals, farm animals, and wildlife. We advocate for policies to stop dogfighting and cockfighting and other forms of malicious cruelty and to confront factory farming and other systemic forms of animal exploitation. To prevent cruelty, we promote enacting good public policies and we work to enforce those policies. To enact good laws, we must elect good lawmakers, and that’s why we remind voters which candidates care about our issues and which ones don’t. We believe helping animals helps us all. 

The Animal Wellness Foundation (Foundation) is a Los Angeles-based private charitable organization with a mission of helping animals by making veterinary care available to everyone with a pet, regardless of economic ability. We organize rescue efforts and medical services for dogs and cats in need and help homeless pets find a loving caregiver. We are advocates for getting veterinarians to the front lines of the animal welfare movement; promoting responsible pet ownership; and vaccinating animals against infectious diseases such as distemper. We also support policies that prevent animal cruelty and that alleviate suffering. We believe helping animals helps us all. 

The Center for a Humane Economy is a non-profit organization that focuses on influencing the conduct of corporations to forge a humane economic order. The first organization of its kind in the animal protection movement, the Center encourages businesses to honor their social responsibilities in a culture where consumers, investors, and other key stakeholders abhor cruelty and the degradation of the environment and embrace innovation as a means of eliminating both. 

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I had only seen two cases of equine botulism in my career, and they were both horrifying. Horses are exquisitely sensitive to the toxin—it takes more to kill a mouse than a horse, so even a few mouthfuls of contaminated feed can be deadly.

The clinicians at the hospital stressed that while the source was most likely his hay, there was no way to be sure. And they still couldn’t fully rule out rabies, so everyone who had handled Hans had to be considered exposed.

In the Thick of Equine Botulism

Hans remained stable over the next few days, although he wasn’t producing much manure, and his intestines were still very sluggish. His risk of aspiration pneumonia was high, so he received regular fluids and feedings through a stomach tube. An IV drip containing essential electrolytes ran around the clock.

The clinicians reported that he’d lay down about every 20 minutes to rest, but the important thing was that Hans always got up. Every time I spoke to a member of Hans’ team, it was the first thing they’d describe—the big horse’s remarkable ability to always get to his feet.

Progress was slow over the next week, and the team worried that Hans was not getting enough calories, so they increased his feedings. The bill increased by the day.

Cathy wasn’t made of money, but she was determined to save her horse, and if the hospital recommended something, she approved it without question. Because of the COVID pandemic, she couldn’t even visit Hans, and the kind clinicians often made video calls from Hans’ stall so Cathy could see and talk to her beloved horse.

The entire hospital seemed to be involved in Hans’ case, and he was quickly developing a fan club. Vet students would stop by throughout the day to check on him and groom him, and there was always a technician nearby watching his fluids, administering medications and recording his patterns of laying down and getting to his feet.

Hans never once faltered. When he wanted to stand, bedding would fly around as he bravely lurched to his feet, his IV fluid bags swinging wildly from their overhead hook. But he always got up.

Turning a Corner in Surviving Equine Botulism

When an equine botulism case goes down and can’t rise, the outlook is grave, even with intensive care. The horse must be maintained on a special airbed and turned from side to side and supported in sternal position periodically.

Pressure sores develop, and colic and pneumonia are ever-present risks. It’s a long waiting game to see if the patient can rebuild the damaged nerve connections to the muscles. Full recovery can take months.

But Hans never went down completely. I admired how cool and collected Cathy was. So many owners would have been upset about the growing bill, but Cathy was always grateful and kind.

Hans was eventually able to take in a slurry of grain and water on his own, although he still couldn’t chew normally. The staff began to take him for short walks to the end of the aisle and back, an army of supporters flanking him neatly in case he lost his balance. Hans tired quickly, and after the walks he always lay down and slept deeply, but true to form, would get to his feet when he woke.

On day 26, the clinicians thought that Hans was finally strong enough to go home. It was a ceremonious occasion, and there were dozens of socially distanced hospital staff, doctors and vet students hugging Hans goodbye and wiping their eyes.

His thickly bedded trailer waited in the parking lot. Cathy had bought Hans a beautiful new blanket and matching shipping boots. He was buckled into his finery, and the staff cheered as he boarded the trailer and they drove off. Cathy was still waving as they rounded the corner and disappeared from sight.

With Gratitude

It’s always bittersweet to clean the stall after a longtime patient has gone home. Hans’ thermometer, stethoscope and charts hung from the door, and his empty fluid bags and coiled IV line dangled from the overhead hook. A trash can full of exam gloves and plastic gowns sat in the aisle, and a bleach foot bath was nearby.

There was a bucket of brushes with Hans’ tail hairs tangled through the bristles, his half-eaten grain slurry still in the feeder. The technicians and barn crew sadly stripped his stall and scrubbed and disinfected the floor and walls, and soon there was no sign that he’d been there at all.

Hans moved into a small pen with a large stall and continued his recovery. It was a year before he was cleared to ride, and even then, Cathy kept him to a walk on easy trails.

When she paid the enormous bill, she enclosed a note to the hospital staff.

“I’ve battled depression for the past year, and it was at its worst when I thought we were going to lose Hans to equine botulism. But every time you gave me encouraging news and told me what a fighter he was, I fought harder, too. Every time you told me that Hans always got to his feet, it encouraged me to get up too, and we’re both out of the woods now, thanks to you and your staff of angels. Love forever, Cathy and Hans.”

This Vet Adventures column about equine botulism appeared in the June 2021 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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