![\"Pigs](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.animals24-7.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Picsart_26-08-06_20-27-12-485-e1786073258481.jpg?ssl=1\")
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<\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n WASHINGTON D.C.\u2013\u2013<\/strong>The much anticipated August 6,\u00a0 2026 \u201cShowdown at the Not Okay Corral\u201d might as well have been fought with bean shooters\u2013\u2013SNAP bean shooters\u2013\u2013for all that the outcome meant toward passing a 2026 Farm Bill.<\/p>\n The 2026 Farm Bill failed by an 11-10 vote to clear the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, \u00a0Nutrition, \u00a0& Forestry.\u00a0 It now may not pass at all.<\/p>\n But several provisional wins for animals resulted from the snapping and air-biting standoff between Republican and Democratic committee members over how to fund and restructure the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,\u00a0 SNAP for short.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage\/Greg Robbins photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cFarm groups expressed disappointment in another delay to the farm bill,\u201d\u00a0 structuring and allocating funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture,\u00a0 \u201cwhich has not been reauthorized since 2018,\u201d\u00a0 reported Cami Koons for the Iowa Capital Dispatch<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cOther groups celebrated that policies like the Save Our Bacon Act, \u00a0which would block individual state rules on the growing conditions of agricultural products, \u00a0were not advanced.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAgricultural products,\u201d\u00a0 to be clear,\u00a0 means pigs.<\/p>\n \u201cIndividual state rules\u201d means the California Proposition 12 and Massachusetts Question 3 requirements that pigs not be raised in immobilizing confinement,\u00a0 adopted by voters in 2018 and 2016,\u00a0 respectively,\u00a0 with the further proviso that pork sold in either state must come from pigs raised in compliance with the California and Massachusetts standards.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Air-biting and snapping over the Save Our Bacon Act,\u00a0 or SOB Act,\u00a0 amendments to the 2026 Farm Bill were particularly sharp in Iowa,\u00a0 which accounts for nearly 40% of U.S. pig production.<\/p>\n Iowa state representative Josh Turek,\u00a0 a Democrat,\u00a0 opposes the Save Our Bacon Act.<\/p>\n Turek has been nominated to run against Republican Ashley Hinson,\u00a0 currently an Iowa member of the House of Representatives,\u00a0 in the November 2026 race for an open Iowa U.S. Senate seat.<\/p>\n \u201cIowa farmers,\u201d\u00a0 Hinson alleged in social media postings after the 2026 Farm Bill,\u00a0 \u201care outraged over his support for Proposition 12 and against my Save Our Bacon Act included in the Farm Bill.\u201d<\/p>\n About 10% of all Iowans work in jobs associated with pork production\u2013\u2013but 90% do not.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cLast night the Farm bill skidded off the tracks,\u201d \u00a0\u00a0emailed Animal Wellness Action & Center for a Humane Economy president Wayne Pacelle to ANIMALS 24-7<\/strong> soon after the August 6,\u00a0 2026 \u201cShowdown at the Not Okay Corral\u201d ended.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got word that the Democrats were going to close ranks and defeat the bill,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle said.<\/p>\n Arkansas Senator John Boozman,\u00a0 chairing the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, \u00a0Nutrition, \u00a0& Forestry,\u00a0 \u201cdecided to charge ahead,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle explained,\u00a0 but \u00a0\u201ctoday\u2019s mark-up was just for show.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a serious exercise in policy making, \u00a0but theater.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not going to get a farm bill. \u00a0That\u2019s the game here today,\u201d \u00a0affirmed Senator Cory Booker,\u00a0 a Democrat from New Jersey,\u00a0 according to Progressive Farmer<\/em> agricultural policy editor Jake Zajkowski.\u00a0 \u201cAll of us knew before we walked into the room. \u00a0This is going to fall to a partisan vote over SNAP payments.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201c<\/strong>The Senate Farm bill stalled out in the Agriculture Committee,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle wrote to Animal Wellness Action & Center for a Humane Economy membership,\u00a0 \u201cwith the factory farming lobby again coming up short in its efforts to gut America\u2019s strongest farm animal protection laws.<\/p>\n \u201cSome GOP senators, \u00a0bowing to Smithfield Foods,\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0the Chinese-owned pork production company leading support for the SOB Act,\u00a0 \u201cwere determined to use the Farm bill as a legislative vehicle to overturn Prop 12 in California and Question 3 in Massachusetts,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle recounted.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter today\u2019s proceeding, \u00a0those pro-animal laws seem as secure as ever. \u00a0Democrats on the Agriculture Committee, \u00a0led by Senators Cory Booker, \u00a0Adam Schiff of California, \u00a0and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, \u00a0stood firm against repealing Prop 12, \u00a0with all eight of their Democratic colleagues alongside them.<\/p>\n \u201cKansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall joined us as well.\u00a0 Once Senator Marshall came to understand that China\u2019s Smithfield Foods was trying to secure control of even more U.S. pig production and to bring its high-rise factory farms to the American heartland, \u00a0he decided he didn\u2019t want this serving of legislative bacon on the menu,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle said.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Pacelle also celebrated that the apparent failure of the 2026 Farm Bill appears to have killed \u201ca provision inserted by Arkansas Republican John Boozman, chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, \u00a0[which] would repeal the federal law barring tax dollars from promoting mink coat sales at foreign fashion shows. \u00a0The provision would only serve as a handout to a declining, \u00a0inhumane, and virally dangerous industry,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle suggested.<\/p>\n But Pacelle expressed disappointment over some of the other fallout from the probable failure of the 2026 Farm Bill.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cSenator Booker,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle said, \u00a0\u201chad a winning amendment, \u00a0backed by every Democrat plus Senator Marshall and other GOP lawmakers, \u00a0to enhance enforcement against dogfighting and cockfighting \u2014 including trafficking of fighting animals to 30 other nations,\u201d\u00a0 by incorporating into the 2026 Farm Bill the Fighting Inhumane Gambling & High-Risk Trafficking Act,\u00a0 or FIGHT Act.<\/p>\n \u201cOur coalition of nearly 1,200 agencies and organizations, including all of American law enforcement, \u00a0now turns to the stand-alone bill introduced by Senators Booker and John Kennedy,\u00a0 a Republican from Louisiana.\u201d<\/p>\n The stand-alone bill,\u00a0 S. 1454,\u00a0 has 21 Senate co-sponsors,\u00a0 including eight Republicans and 13 Democrats.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cSenator Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n,\u201d\u00a0 a Democrat from New Mexico., \u00a0\u201cfiled an amendment to codify restrictions on horse slaughter, \u00a0including transport to Mexico and Canada,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle continued.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the USDA temporarily halting shipments of horses to Mexico over New World screwworm,\u201d\u00a0 an odd measure in view that the risk from screwworm comes from half a million cattle per year coming north from Mexico,\u00a0 not the 20,000 horses sold south,\u00a0 \u201cwe are asking President Trump to make that limit permanent.<\/p>\n \u201cSenator Schiff filed an amendment,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle added,\u00a0 \u201cat our urging with our friends at GREY2K USA, \u00a0to end gambling on greyhound racing,\u00a0 either live or simulcast performances. \u00a0We had the votes to win,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle said,\u00a0 \u201cand it doesn\u2019t hurt that 44 states already ban this archaic spectator sport that hurts dogs. \u00a0The enactment of a national Greyhound Protection Act has momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Concluded Pacelle to ANIMALS 24-7<\/strong>,\u00a0 \u201cIt may now be too late for a Farm Bill in the 119th Congress,\u201d\u00a0 concluding after the November 2026 national election.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will have other chances,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle hoped, \u00a0\u201cbut this was the train that should have left the station and gotten to a destination.\u00a0 But it had bum wheels and spun off the track.\u00a0 So we need to put FIGHT and the other policies in a car on a working train.\u201d<\/p>\n The FIGHT Act,\u00a0 meanwhile,\u00a0 may get a last-minute boost from a breaking case in Maui,\u00a0 Hawaii,\u00a0 underscoring the multiple arguments for passage.<\/p>\n <\/a> Lieutenant Michael Vaituulala.<\/strong><\/em> Maui police lieutenant Michael Vaituulala,\u00a0 \u201cwho has been with the department for nearly 20 years,\u201d\u00a0 reported Madeleine Valera for Civil Beat<\/em>,\u00a0 \u201caccepted regular cash payments from cockfight organizers and, \u00a0in exchange, \u00a0ensured officers would not conduct enforcement on certain chicken fights, \u00a0according to the U.S. Department of Justice.\u201d<\/p>\n Vaituulala \u201cwas placed on administrative leave from his post as commander of the Maui Police Department Criminal Intelligence Unit,\u201d\u00a0 wrote Valera.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cVaituulala is being held in the Honolulu Federal Detention Center,\u201d\u00a0 Valera added.<\/p>\n Affirmed U.S. Attorney Attorney Ken Sorenson via an August 6,\u00a0 2026 Department of Justice media release,\u00a0 \u201cAccording to the criminal complaint, Vaituulala and others met with organizers of chicken fights to discuss logistics and conditions for holding the fights, \u00a0with Vaituulala providing his approval for the organizers to open a chicken fighting location and the days on which fights could take place.<\/p>\nThe Save Our Bacon Act,\u00a0 or SOB Act,\u00a0 fails to advance<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nIowa coverage fails to mention pigs<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nAir-biting & snapping<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cFarm Bill skidded off the tracks\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nPork barrel politics stall<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nFunding for mink coat promo<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nFIGHT Act<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nHorses & greyhounds<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cHad bum wheels & spun off the track\u201d<\/h2>\n
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(Maui Police Department photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\nHawaii bust spotlights cockfighting & corruption<\/h2>\n