I imagine that everyone has their own measure of "greatness."
Mine is the degree of compassion we exhibit. So, it is with
great sadness that in this election year we are losing three
compassionate Ohio House of Representative legislators - Dennis
Kucinich, Betty Sutton, and Steve Latourette - all from
northeast Ohio.
It was very hard to lose Kucinich because of redistricting issues,
and it is just as hard to see Betty Sutton lose to Republican Jim
Renacci. And then to lose a rare compassionate Republican - Steven
LaTourette who has become disenchanted with working with his fellow
Republicans will probably leave Ohio bereft of a compassionate
voice for the animals in the House of Representatives. They were
the ONLY ones out of the 18 Ohio Representatives who scored
compassionately for the animals in the 112th Congress. To say
that we who care about animal welfare are saddened in this regard
is an understatement indeed. I thought that for people of like
minds, I would share my letter to the Cleveland Plain Dealer in
this regard:
To the Editor:
With this election over, I once again took a look at the HSUS
Legislative report on how Ohio Representatives voted re Animal
Welfare Issues. During this Congress, they had a chance to vote
on these issues:
H.R.835 -a measure to crack down on abusive puppy mills
H.R.1513 -to phase out the use of chimpanzees in invasive
research
H.R.2492 -to establish misdemeanor penalties for knowingly
attending an organized animal fight and felony
penalties for bringing a minor to such a fight
H.R.2966 -to prohibit the knowing and intentional possession,
shipment, transport, purchase, sale, delivery, or
receipt of a horse for slaughter for human consumption
Cap on Agriculture Subsidies - an amendment to cap agriculture
subsidies in order to limit huge taxpayer giveaways to
commodity growers at a time of record high prices.
Why am I writing this? Simply to sadly let you know that we lost
Rep. Betty Sutton of Ohio who voted compassionately for each of
these issues- along with Rep. Dennis Kucinich. She also sponsored
the Animal Fighting Spectators Bill. And now the people of her Ohio
district have voted her out to Jim Renacci who scored 0.
God bless you Rep. Betty Sutton. In my view, you are a priceless
gem whose concerns for both people and animals is admirble. I also
believe that you were the originator of turning in clunkers for brand
new cars to help spur our economy.
Ohio has 18 representatives -13 Republicans and 5 Democrats. The
only ones who voted compassionately were:
D - Dennis Kucinich -100
R - Steven LaTourette- 63
D - Betty Sutton- 100
Sadly, we are losing all three who will not be a part of the 113th
Congress to vote compassionately for the animals.
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