Urge your Senators and Representative to cosponsor S.1460/H.R.2932, The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2003.  This bipartisan legislation would phase out the use of medically important antibiotics as feed additives for farm animals. 

McDonald’s recently instituted a policy to reduce the antibiotics used by its meat suppliers in an effort to protect their customers’ health.  Industry recognizes that there is a major problem, but voluntary private sector initiatives are limited in number and scope, and are often difficult to verify.  This legislation will ensure comprehensive reductions of routine antibiotic use by most livestock and poultry producers. 

Contact Congress today!

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I am writing to urge you to cosponsor S.1460/H.R.2932, The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2003, introduced by Senators Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Representatives Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD). This bipartisan legislation phases out, over two years, the routine feeding to food animals of eight classes of antibiotics, but allows the continued use of antibiotics to treat sick animals and to prevent the spread of disease, when indicated. The legislation also requires producers of agricultural antibiotics to report data in order to help monitor usage and track resistance trends. The senate bill authorizes transition payments for farmers and encourages research-and-development to aid them in identifying ways to successfully phase out routine antibiotic use.

Just last month, McDonald's took an important step by telling its chicken suppliers to reduce their antibiotic use and by providing incentives for beef and pork suppliers to adopt similar measures. However, voluntary private sector initiatives to reduce antibiotic use in animal agriculture are limited in number and scope, and are often difficult to verify. This legislation will ensure comprehensive reductions of routine antibiotic use by most livestock and poultry producers.

An estimated 70 percent of all antibiotics and related drugs in this country are fed to chickens, cows and pigs to make them grow faster, or to compensate for overcrowded, stressful and unsanitary conditions on industrial-scale farms.

More than 300 organizations, including the American Medical Association and a wide range of other health, consumer, environmental, agricultural, and humane organizations, have called on Congress to enact legislation to phase out this inappropriate use of antibiotics.

This legislation is essential in the face of mounting scientific evidence that the overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture promotes the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that sickens people. I urge you to cosponsor S. 1460/H.R. 2932, The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2003.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
August 11, 2003