I want a President who is kind to animals.

How someone treats animals says a lot about that person’s character and values. Valuing humans and valuing animals tend to go hand in hand.

Gandhi’s sentiment goes even further and speaks to America’s character:

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by how its animals are treated.”

I want our nation to be great again. To do that, we must have kind leaders. Kindness is a muscle that needs to be exercised daily.

America deserves a President who is kind to animals.

President Trump and his family keep demonstrating unkindness to animals:

1. By all appearances, Donald Trump does not like animals: “It’s hard not to notice his lack of commitment to companion animals and nature in general,” commented Alan M. Beck, a professor of animal ecology at Purdue University and director of the Center for the Human-Animal Bond. “His sons are trophy hunters.” Donald Trump has never had a pet.
2. The Humane Society calls Trump “a threat to animals everywhere” because of the environmental policies he wants to pursue.
3. In one of his first acts as president, Trump’s USDA removed all of its animal welfare inspection reports and most enforcement records from its website. Through this policy, Donald Trump is protecting puppy mills. After public outcry, the USDA restored the database 6 months later in Aug 2017, but some documents are no longer available.
4. Donald Trump said of his Republican rival in 2016: “Mitt Romney had his chance to beat a failed President but he choked like a dog.”
5. Trump’s dog-related similes led the Daily Dot to write a June 2016 article claiming: “Donald Trump has no idea what dogs are or what they do.” Through research they found that the only Trump tweets about dogs use phrases like “fired like a dog”, “begging like a dog” or “choking like a dog”.
6. Trump’s elder sons enjoy hunting and killing animals for fun. You can google Donald Jr and Eric cutting off an elephant’s tail and posing with “trophy” carcasses of big game animals. Donald Jr in exhausting detail talks about how killing animals has built his character. Mean character.
7. A Marist poll showed that Americans are split when it comes to hunting animals for sport — 56% said they oppose it — but they are particularly against big-game hunting. 86% of respondents said they disapprove of it, and six out of 10 said they believe it should be illegal. Not the Trumps.
8. Cruelty to animals makes its way into President Trump’s official policies. One of the few new laws Donald Trump has actually signed so far lets people kill hibernating baby bear cubs and baby wolf pups in Alaska.
9. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke wants to legalize killing more baby animals.
10. Endangered species are also collateral damage for fossil fuel interests.
11. Donald Trump’s unkind policies toward animals will continue for as long as he is President. One example: the Trump administration’s decision to remove the Yellowstone grizzly bear from the list of endangered species has been called “a gift to trophy hunting” by conservation groups.
12. Ryan Zinke is no friend to animals. On Zinke’s first day in office, he signed an order overturning a ban on using lead ammunition and fishing sinkers on federal wildlife refuges that was meant to help prevent animals from being poisoned by lead left on the ground or in the water. Bald eagles are susceptible to lead poisoning from eating remains left behind by hunters.
13. Trump and Zinke lifted the Lion trophy import ban quietly in Nov 2017, ignoring our #BeKindToLions friends.
14. Trump and Zinke lifted the Elephant trophy import ban quietly in March 2018, ignoring our #BeKindToElephants friends. Over 500,000 people have signed the Humane Society #BeKindToElephants Petition so far, and the Humane Society is keeping the petition open for more people to sign.
15. Donald Trump is the first president since 19th century not to have a pet. Trump was embarrassed that the Pences brought pets to the VP House and Trump believes pets are “low class”, especially dogs.
16. Unkindness to animals in general and dogs in particular continues to color Donald Trump’s language in 2018.
17. Trump is quietly cementing his bird-killing legacy. Zinke announced that killing birds is no longer prohibited under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, sapping the strength of a century-old law to protect birds. That includes catastrophic disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
18. Trump and the GOP in Congress are undoing the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act. For oil drilling and gas development. 90% of Americans support the Endangered Species Act they’re destroying.

Kindness matters. Character matters.

Our President’s unkindness to animals manifests itself in other unkindnesses, too, such as stealing charitable contributions from children with cancer.

Kindness matters. I want a President who is kind to animals and humans.

People who value animals and value humans: We are all in this together. This post was inspired by the great work of Amy Siskind, whose weekly reviews I encourage you to read.

Make America Kind Again. In future elections, choose kind candidates.

This panda is being kind to some pals who are members of the endangered species list! The bird is a Kirtland’s Warbler. The bear cub is a brown bear, as mentioned above. The wolf cub is a red wolf but could be any wolf species; they are all endangered! The kitten is a sand cat. The bee is the North American honey bee. And the caterpillars and butterfly are the Monarch. This beautiful artwork was made by Emily Kate Moon, author of Joone.