PETA Statement: ‘Animal Enterprise’ Bill Would Make Utah a Haven for Animal Abusers
For Immediate Release:
March 2, 2022
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
The Utah House of Representatives just voted in favor of advancing HB 476, which seeks to block law enforcement and legislative bodies from enforcing or enacting regulations of “animal enterprises,” including factory farms, aquariums, rodeos, circuses, and even pet stores and other businesses that sell animals or animal products. The bill would effectively reverse the progress that Utahns have made over the last century to protect animals from needless harm and would halt almost all such further progress. Please see the following statement from PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman:
Puppy mill lobbyists who have been pushed out of other states for violating basic animal protection laws have set their sights on Utah with a dangerous bill that would prevent local governments from enacting anti-cruelty measures, including Salt Lake County’s much-praised ban on wild-animal circuses, and Salt Lake City’s bans on horse-drawn carriages and pet store puppy sales. PETA members are urging their state representatives to oppose this bill, which would turn the Beehive State into a safe haven for animal abusers instead of locking them up.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
