Animal Crackers

The Humane Society of the U.S. would like you to know about two legislative victories for the animals in Congress Thursday night.

You have to love victories for the animals.

In the wake of so many unfortunate abandoned pets, pet residents of New Orleans were forced to leave behind and other Katrina-related disasters the animal kingdom suffered, the Senate passed - unanimously we might add - the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act (PETS).

You have to marvel at the creativity of congressional staffers who always seem to come up with an acronym drawn from the circumstances of the legislation they are drafting.

Anyway, the bill calls, for “emergency preparedness plans to include consideration of people with pests and service animals before disaster strikes.”

Okay, that language sounds a little tepid, but one can only wonder what animal advocates really needed, but didn’t get.

Now the House and Senate must work out their differing drafts when they come back for the electoral thrashing awaiting them just over the horizon.

Also, the big pension bill on its way to the White House contains eliminates a “trophy hunting tax loophole.” Seems some hunters shoot exotic animals the world over and then donate them to “phony museums so that they can take a tax deduction.”

How about that for red state thievery? Indirect; through firearms and a tax cut.