The Senate Agriculture Committee just advanced its version of the 2026 Farm Bill, and animal welfare is being left behind. The Senate bill dropped a provision that would have wiped out state laws like California's Prop 12, which restricts extreme confinement of breeding sows in gestation crates. But it added something else: a repeal of a 30 year old law that blocks federal funds from subsidizing the mink farming industry.

That change would let taxpayer money prop up a fur industry in steep decline, one tied to a history of zoonotic disease outbreaks including avian flu and the virus behind COVID-19, at a time when the country carries $40 trillion in debt.

Meanwhile, three widely supported animal protection measures included in earlier Farm Bills are missing entirely from this one: the FIGHT Act, which strengthens federal enforcement against dogfighting and cockfighting; the SAFE Act, which would stop American horses from being shipped abroad for slaughter; and the Greyhound Protection Act, which would close the country's last operating greyhound racetrack.

Eleven states have already passed laws restricting extreme confinement of farm animals, and more than 60 major retailers and restaurants have moved away from pork produced with gestation crates. These are not fringe positions, they reflect where most Americans already stand.

Congress does not need to choose between supporting agriculture and protecting animals. Every Farm Bill passed since the early 2000s has included animal welfare provisions until this one. Members of Congress should restore the FIGHT Act, SAFE Act, and Greyhound Protection Act, and strip the mink subsidy repeal before a final bill reaches the President's desk.

Sign this petition to demand Congress put animal welfare protections back in the Farm Bill before it becomes law.