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<\/a> Pam Bondi & Brooke Rollins.<\/strong><\/em> WASHINGTON D.C.\u2013\u2013<\/strong>The U.S. Senate on February 5,\u00a0 2025 confirmed Pam Bondi as attorney general of the U.S.<\/p>\n Confirmation of Bondi set up a potential conflict with another Donald Trump administration cabinet nominee,\u00a0 Brooke Rollins,\u00a0 advanced by Trump to head the U.S. Department of Agriculture.<\/p>\n Rollins\u2019 nomination was approved by the Senate Agriculture Committee on February 3,\u00a0 2025,\u00a0 with her confirmation believed to be imminent.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Bondi,\u00a0 59,\u00a0 and Rollins,\u00a0 52,\u00a0 both longtime Trump team insiders and favorites, \u00a0and personal friends,\u00a0 have taken diametrically opposite positions on the right of states to regulate animal welfare.<\/p>\n Bondi will have on her side,\u00a0 if she chooses to stick to previously espoused principles, \u00a0a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of California and Massachusetts laws governing farmed animal welfare,\u00a0 rendered on May 11,\u00a0 2023 by a bench including three Trump appointees.<\/p>\n But Rollins has on her side the economic and political weight of the National Pork Producers Council,\u00a0 voice of the $57-billion-a-year U.S. pork industry,\u00a0 overwhelmingly concentrated in the \u201cred states\u201d that put Trump back into the White House and hold the majority of seats in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.<\/p>\n In matters involving money,\u00a0 power,\u00a0 and Trump,\u00a0 money and power have historically trumped anything resembling ethics, \u00a0principle,\u00a0 or constitutionality,\u00a0 for that matter.<\/p>\n <\/a> Pam Bondi & Donald Trump.<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Bondi in 2013,\u00a0 as then Florida attorney general, \u00a0represented the State of Florida in defense of a 2002 state law passed by ballot initiative that banned raising sows in gestation crates that do not allow them to turn around.<\/p>\n Only two pig farms in Florida were affected by the law.\u00a0 Both went out of business.<\/p>\n One of the pig farmers,\u00a0 Stephen Basford, \u00a0\u201csued the state in 2010 for the cost of the barns and other equipment he had used for his farm,\u201d\u00a0 recalled Gary Fineout of Associated Press.<\/p>\n \u201cHe won at the circuit court level,\u201d\u00a0 Fineout wrote,\u00a0 but the state,\u00a0 personally represented by Bondi,\u00a0 \u201cappealed.\u00a0 The First District Court of Appeal ruled that the state owed Basford $505,000 plus interest.<\/p>\n The Florida law is essentially similar to laws in effect in nine states altogether.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Two states,\u00a0 California and Massachusetts,\u00a0 neither with significant pig production industries,\u00a0 reinforce their laws with requirements that pork products imported from other states must be produced in conformity to the California and Massachusetts animal welfare standards.<\/p>\n Without such stipulations,\u00a0 the California and Massachusetts laws would be meaningless,\u00a0 since out-of-state pig producers would be under no compulsion to comply.<\/p>\n Rollins, \u00a0during her January 23,\u00a0 2025 nomination hearing before the U.S. Senate Agriculture,\u00a0 Nutrition,\u00a0 & Forestry Committee, \u00a0put her feet firmly in the trough alongside noncompliant out-of-state pig producers represented by the National Pork Producers Council.<\/p>\n The National Pork Producers Council has fought in court and out to overturn the California and Massachusetts laws ever since Proposition 2,\u00a0 \u00a0a weaker version of the California law, \u00a0was approved by voters in 2008.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n A stronger version,\u00a0 Proposition 12,\u00a0 also passed by ballot initiative,\u00a0 won voter approval in 2018, \u00a0but did not take effect until 2024.\u00a0 The Massachusetts law took effect in August 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cFederal legislation to preempt the state law has been proposed by Republicans since 2021, \u00a0but has gotten nowhere in Congress with Democratic majorities in one or both houses,\u201d\u00a0 summarized San Francisco Chronicle<\/em> court reporter Bob Egelko on January 28,\u00a0 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cBut with Republicans now controlling Congress as well as the White House, \u00a0pork producers heard encouraging words from Brooke Rollins, who served in Trump\u2019s first administration and currently heads the America First Policy Institute.<\/p>\n \u201cUnder a proper system of government, \u2018we don\u2019t have states telling our producers how they can raise their livestock,\u2019 \u00a0Rollins told Senator Joni Ernst,\u201d\u00a0 an Iowa Republican, \u00a0\u201cat her confirmation hearing,\u201d\u00a0 Egelko recounted.<\/p>\n <\/a> Bob Egelko. (X photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Ernst then asked Rollins to support \u201ca long-pending bill \u2014 Exposing Agricultural Trade Suppression, or the EATS Act \u2014 that would override Proposition 12,\u201d\u00a0 Egelko continued.<\/p>\n \u201cI commit to working with you on that,\u201d \u00a0responded Rollins.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Democrats still holding 47 seats in the 100-member Senate,\u201d\u00a0 assessed Egelko, \u00a0\u201cit is not clear that supporters of the EATS Act could gain the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. \u00a0But pork producers want to include the EATS Act in broader legislation to fund farming and farm insurance,\u201d\u00a0 specifically the long overdue Farm Bill that never reached a vote in the 118th Congress,\u00a0 which concluded with the inauguration of the 119th Congress early in January 2025,\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cand the powerful agriculture lobby will do whatever it can to persuade farm-area Democrats to support the legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Despite opposition from Congressional Democrats to the EATS Act,\u00a0 both the Justice Department and the Department of Agriculture under former U.S. president Joe Biden supported the National Pork Producers Council in appealing the California and Massachusetts pig and poultry laws to the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n The Biden administration argued\u2013\u2013as Egelko remembered\u2013\u2013that \u201cCalifornia has no legitimate interest in protecting the welfare of animals located outside the state.\u201d<\/p>\n Taking a \u201cstate\u2019s rights\u201d position usually used by opponents of federal laws meant to prevent racial discrimination,\u00a0 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of California Proposition 12,\u00a0 and by implication the constitutionality of the parallel Massachusetts law.<\/p>\n But Justice Brett Kavanaugh, \u00a0a 2018 Trump appointee,\u00a0 in a concurrence to the dissenting minority opinion,\u00a0 provided a blueprint for further challenges to Proposition 12 on differing grounds.<\/p>\n (See Supreme Court split verdict on California pig law sets up another round<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a> Pam Bondi & Brooke Rollins.<\/strong><\/em> The Kavanaugh dissent could provide political cover for Bondi in aligning herself with Rollins to endorse the EATS Act.<\/p>\n Certainly Rollins wasted no time is buttering up Bondi after Bondi won her U.S. Senate confirmation vote.<\/p>\n Posted Rollins to Facebook,\u00a0 \u201cCongratulations to the extraordinary @pambondi!!! There is no one more qualified to be Attorney General as we work to usher in the Golden Age of America. Love you Pam \u2013 forever grateful for your friendship and partnership in building @a1policy these last 4 years.\u201d<\/p>\n Note that \u201cGolden Age\u201d may be translated \u201cEverything for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> Brooke Rollins.\u00a0 (Wikipedia photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Brooke Leslie Rollins,\u00a0 describing herself as \u201ca small town girl from Glen Rose,\u00a0 Texas,\u201d\u00a0 grew up on her family\u2019s ranch,\u00a0 participating in 4-H Club and Future Farmers of America activities.<\/p>\n \u201cRollins stayed involved with both of those organizations and has been hands-on in the show cattle careers of her four children,\u201d\u00a0 according to the 122-year-old agribusiness periodical\u00a0Successful Farming<\/em>.<\/p>\n Rollins at Texas A&M University earned a degree with honors in agricultural development,\u00a0 essentially a business major with an agribusiness accent.<\/p>\n As Secretary of Agriculture,\u00a0 Rollins will oversee enforcement of the federal Animal Welfare Act,\u00a0 including the federal laws against cockfighting,\u00a0 dogfighting,\u00a0 and soring show horses,\u00a0 but her previous political history indicates no awareness that she even knows the Animal Welfare Act exists.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Bondi as U.S. Attorney General will oversee federal criminal prosecutions,\u00a0 including of Animal Welfare Act violations prosecuted as felonies.<\/p>\n Examples include the Animal Welfare Act provisions against transporting fighting dogs, \u00a0gamecocks,\u00a0 and animal fighting paraphernalia across state lines.<\/p>\n As Florida attorney general,\u00a0 then-Humane Society of the U.S. president Wayne Pacelle,\u00a0 now heading Animal Wellness Action and the Center for A Humane Economy,\u00a0 blogged in January 2015 that, \u00a0\u201cPam Bondi made animal protection a serious priority.\u201d<\/p>\n In July 2014,\u00a0 Pacelle remembered,\u00a0 Bondi \u201cshut down a Jacksonville puppy mill and puppy importer, \u00a0who had been hawking sick English bulldog puppies to unsuspecting sellers over the Internet.\u00a0 She\u2019s strongly supported decoupling greyhound racing and casino-style gambling,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle said,\u00a0 and \u201csupported legislation to require greyhound tracks to report injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Elected Florida attorney general in 2010,\u00a0 Bondi was re-elected in 2014 with the endorsement of the HSUS political arm,\u00a0 the Humane Society Legislative Fund.<\/p>\n The Jacksonville puppy mill Pacelle mentioned was actually more in the pit bull breeding business than the English bulldog import business,\u00a0 reportedly selling about 700 dogs in five years of operation,\u00a0 under five different business names.<\/p>\n \u201cThe breeders allegedly sold the puppies for $1,500 to $2,300 each, \u00a0totaling more than $1 million in potential profits.\u00a0 Many of the puppies sold suffered from congenital defects, \u00a0parasites, \u00a0or other serious health or behavioral issues,\u201d\u00a0 reported\u00a0Palm Beach Post<\/em>\u00a0staff writer Christine Stapleton.<\/p>\n <\/a> Pam Bondi has had several St.Bernards. This is not the one <\/strong><\/em>involved in the case originating out of\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em>Hurricane Katrina.<\/strong><\/em> But the Bondi record on animal issues is not entirely stellar.<\/p>\n As a Hillsborough County prosecutor,\u00a0 Bondi in October 2005 lost her St. Bernard to cancer.<\/p>\n Nine days later Bondi adopted another St. Bernard from the Humane Society of Pinellas County.<\/p>\n Her new St. Bernard came from St. Bernard Parish,\u00a0 Louisiana soon after Hurricane Katrina,\u00a0 and had been left at the St. Bernard Parish Animal Shelter for safekeeping by Steven and Doreen Couture,\u00a0 who were forced to evacuate on short notice because of a broken levee.<\/p>\n Asked to return the St. Bernard,\u00a0 \u201cBondi initially dug in her heels and\u00a0hired a bulldog litigator,\u201d\u00a0 recounted DeMorris A. Lee and Colleen Jenkins of the\u00a0St. Petersburg Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n In\u00a0May 2007,\u00a0 however,\u00a0 facing a jury trial,\u00a0 Bondi returned the St. Bernard to the Coutures.<\/p>\n (See The animal backgrounds of Trump cabinet nominees Rollins, Bondi, & McMahon<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Animal Wellness Action and the Center for A Humane Economy president Wayne Pacelle,\u00a0 meanwhile,\u00a0 whose organizations have since inception vigorously defended California Proposition 12 and opposed the EATS Act,\u00a0 on February 1,\u00a0 2025 appealed to Brooke Rollins \u201cto express alarm over the \u2018bird flu\u2019 response by USDA\u2019s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service [APHIS}.<\/p>\n \u201cWith a new administration,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle began,\u00a0 \u201cit is an opportune time for a re-evaluation of field responses to a disease epidemic that has caused egg prices to soar, \u00a0disrupted the present-day and future work of a broad set of commercial bird producers, \u00a0and done little to arrest the spread of\u201d the H5N1 avian influenza.<\/p>\n Argued Pacelle,\u00a0 \u201cAPHIS is wrongly treating bird flu H5N1 as a \u2018foreign animal disease.\u2019 \u00a0In truth, \u00a0the disease is now endemic, \u00a0with the H5N1 strain infecting at least 485 wild bird species,\u00a0 from mallards to bald eagles; \u00a0more than 100 wild mammals,\u00a0 from mice to polar bears; \u00a0at least 13 domestic poultry species,\u00a0 from chickens to ostriches); \u00a0and at least six domestic mammals,\u00a0 including cats, \u00a0dogs, \u00a0pigs, \u00a0goats, \u00a0cattle, \u00a0and horses.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cAPHIS is giving short shrift to vaccination strategies,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle objected, \u00a0\u201ceven though key sectors of animal agriculture favor it and commercial vaccines are readily available.\u00a0The commercial egg-laying industry and turkey growers support vaccination, \u00a0while only broiler meat growers have reservations.<\/p>\n \u201cMexico and France have successfully vaccinated their poultry flocks since 2023 against bird flu,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle mentioned, \u00a0\u201cgreatly decreasing the impact of the epidemics in those two major agricultural nations.\u201d<\/p>\n Further,\u00a0 Pacelle charged,\u00a0 \u201ccockfighting activity is a known and substantial risk factor for bird flu H5N1 introduction, global spread, \u00a0and human zoonotic infections. \u00a0Yet APHIS does not report bird flu outbreaks on gamefowl farms, \u00a0which number in the tens of thousands in the United States, with USDA previously citing that there are 20 million backyard fighting birds in our homeland.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cAPHIS is conducting depopulation activities at odds with animal welfare norms,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle objected further,\u00a0 citing several examples including that \u201cAn owner of a pheasant flock in Jefferson County, \u00a0Wisconsin,\u00a0 reported that APHIS killed his 188,000 pheasants by drowning them in a water-filled ditch.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the U.S. bird flu H5N1 outbreak began three years ago, \u00a0in February 2022,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle told Rollins, \u00a0\u201cAPHIS has depopulated (euthanized) 148.25 million bird flu virus-exposed or infected poultry on 690 commercial farms and in 792 backyard flocks,\u201d\u00a0 including in all 50 states and Puerto Rico,\u201d\u00a0 yet \u201cDespite all this killing, \u00a0the bird flu epidemic is more pervasive, \u00a0expansive, \u00a0and uncontrolled than ever,\u201d\u00a0 having now \u201cinfected at least 925 dairy cattle herds across 16 U.S. states, including 720 herds in California.\u201d<\/p>\n Nationally,\u00a0 Pacelle estimated,\u00a0 H5N1 has now infected approximately one dairy cow in nine.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a logical inconsistency,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle mentioned,\u00a0 \u201cAPHIS quarantines infected dairy herds but kills infected poultry flocks.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Beth Clifton collage<\/strong><\/em>)<\/div>\nPam Bondi defended Florida pig welfare law;\u00a0 Rollins endorsed the EATS Act,\u00a0 to erase states\u2019 ability to enforce farmed animal welfare<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nU.S. Supreme Court vs. National Pork Producers Council<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nBondi lost the monetary judgement in verdict that upheld the law<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nEnforcement mechanisms<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nPig producers seek to pre-empt the state laws<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nRollins commits to pushing the EATS Act<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nBiden also pushed EATS,\u00a0 but most Democrats did not<\/h2>\n
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(Instagram photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\nRollins butters up Bondi<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nWill Rollins enforce the Animal Welfare Act?<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nBondi has animal welfare enforcement history<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cPuppy mill\u201d was pit bull mill<\/h2>\n
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(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\nTried to keep Katrina dog<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u00a0Pacelle appeals to Rollins for H5N1 policy changes<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cShort shrift to vaccination\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nDrowning pheasants<\/h2>\n