STOP The Save Our Bacon Act NOW! [Speaker 2] I remember the first time I saw pig gestation crates and I said, no, that can't be real. People cannot be that sadistic and that cruel to keep pigs who have the emotional development and intellect of a toddler human in a crate the size of their bodies, unable to turn around or even scratch themselves. But I was wrong.

Human beings can be that cruel. Now, the voters of California voted in 2018 to ban pig gestation crates when they passed Proposition 12. Being the fourth largest economy in the world, that was a huge victory.

But now the pork industry, the pig industry wants to bring them back. And the only thing standing in the way is you contacting your U.S. senators and telling them no to the Save Our Bacon Act. It's called Save Our Bacon.

And what it would do, it's a federal pre-preemption law, which would mean it overrides state laws. It would cancel hundreds of laws at the state level that protect animals, including getting mothers out of gestation crates and other things that we're looking at now, like fur farming and foie gras. It's terrible.

And we're so honored to have with us Matt Dominguez, U.S. Executive Director of Compassion and Rural Farming USA. Tell us, where does this Save Our Bacon monstrosity stand now?

[Speaker 1] Well, the fight continues, Jane. And of course, thank you so much for having me on. I think this is about the third or fourth time, but it really emphasizes the fact that this is a marathon when it comes to fighting against the Save Our Bacon Act.

And until the Congress, the 119th Congress, comes to an end in December of this year, we are not out of the woods. While we have cleared many hurdles, and I'm unbelievably proud of our movement to stand up and fight such against such a powerful, powerful industry and to hold them at bay, the fight is not over. And we're actually coming up to a very critical moment next week with the Farm Bill and the Save Our Bacon Act.

[Speaker 2] Again, if you look at these pig gestation crates, I am embarrassed to be a member of the human race when I see this. And these animals go through such torture. And of course, while we want to get these pigs out of the crates, we also want to tell people, hey, you know, stop eating 66.18 pounds of pork per capita per year. Okay, we know that processed meat is officially cancer causing. So it's torturing them, killing them, and killing us as well, those who eat animals. Everybody in the animal rights movement is trying to stop the Save Our Bacon Act.

Let's listen to the founder and president of Farm Sanctuary, Gene Bauer. How horrible would this be?

[Speaker 1] Farm animals are seen just as commodities. They're put in cages and crates so small they can't move. California took a very bold step to say that this was not acceptable.

These animals need at least enough space to turn around and stretch their limbs. Very modest. But agribusiness has been fighting it for years, and they've lost in court.

They lost at the U.S. Supreme Court. Now they unfortunately have been able to get language in the Farm Bill. And that Farm Bill passed the House of Representatives, tragically, and now it's going to the U.S. Senate. So U.S. senators now need to act to get Save Our Bacon Act out of the Farm Bill. This is our last hope. So please act today.

[Speaker 2] So there's something you can do. You can call your U.S. senator. People who are watching right now, call your U.S. senator. Jot this number down, 202-224-3121. I'm going to say it again. You can take a screen grab of this feed, 202-224-3121.

And you can also, which I did just getting ready for this, send a one-click email. You just go to ciwf.com forward slash Farm Bill. That stands for Compassionate World Farming.

C-I-W-F dot com forward slash Farm Bill. What I find a little disturbing is that some of the people who I told I'd be interviewing you said to me, oh, I think that's resolved already. Because this has been going on for so many months that people are under the mistaken impression, some people anyway, that this is not a threat anymore.

Can you address that?

[Speaker 1] The Save Our Bacon Act and the earlier iterations of it, which used to be the Steve King Amendment, and then it turned into the EATS Act, and now the Save Our Bacon Act, it was a stupid marketing ploy. I think the pork producers thought that it would give them a leg up when it comes to passing this. But we have been fighting in this Farm Bill for nearly the last year to keep the Save Our Bacon Act language from being put into the Farm Bill.

Now, the Farm Bill hasn't passed. And there's a good chance there's a possibility that the Farm Bill may not pass. But what we know is as long as that vehicle again, the Farm Bill is this massive bill that covers everything that touches animal agriculture and most importantly, nutrition like the SNAP program.

And as long as that vehicle remains open for an amendment, we are going to have to fight to make sure that our senators, our representatives, and of course, everyone in Congress knows that the Save Our Bacon Act is a toxic poison pill and does not belong. I share the sentiment that you have, Jane. When I first learned, when I got into this movement after law school, and I learned about a gestation crate, my first thought was, this could not possibly be true.

This could not possibly be true. And that was nearly two decades ago, not to age myself with the gray in my beard. But what I do know is that the industry knows that they are on their last leg.

The National Pork Producers Council and the factory farming industry and companies like Smithfield know that the public do not support, do not support overwhelmingly locking mother pigs in cages so small they can't even stand up, turn around, and extend their limbs. And we've heard from offices and we've seen quotes from the MPPC saying they know this is their last chance. Not only will this be devastating for the animal protection movement and for millions of animals if we lose this battle, which is why you should save that phone number in your phone.

Because you should be calling Congress all the time about every animal protection issue. But most importantly, making a phone call on the Save Our Bacon Act. Remind them every single day to oppose this.

But the industry knows that in the next couple years, just like the egg industry learned, that crates are coming to an end. They are being relegated to the dustbins of history. And that's why they are fighting so hard, so hard to put the Save Our Bacon Act into the Farm Bill.

Because they know if they lose this opportunity with a conservative Congress and Trump in the White House, if they can't get this through in this Farm Bill, they know that they have no chance at turning back the clock on gestation crates. This is why this fight is so important. This is why this is the most important thing for you to do right now for animals is contact your senators, ask them to oppose the Save Our Bacon Act, and do not include it in the Farm Bill.

[Speaker 2] You heard it here. If you love animals, make those calls. I've made dozens and dozens of calls, and done the emails, etc.

And I'm not done. Now, here's a viewer, I called Senator Fetterman's office in DC and Pennsylvania, his staff said they were getting a ton of feedback about this issue. People in Pennsylvania do not want this.

What are the key states? Because I want to play a clip first of one of our California senators, Adam Schiff, who spoke at an event, a farm sanctuary gala, against the Save Our Bacon Act. So we know California Senator Adam Schiff is against it.

Let's listen to him. Right now, our current fight is over the Farm Bill, as you mentioned, because among other things, they're trying to preempt Proposition 12, passed by a strong majority of California voters, demanding humane conditions for farm animals. And California has set the standard for the country, which is why they're taking aim at it, because they know we're such a big market that what California does, much of the rest of the country will follow.

And we need to make sure that we preserve Prop 12.

[Speaker 1] We also have a lot of work to do in the Farm Bill itself.

[Speaker 2] All right. So I know, obviously, Senator Adam Schiff is against the Save Our Bacon Act. And our other California Senator Alex Padilla has also said, apparently, that he's against it, thank God.

And we've got comments here. Keep calling. I have called a lot of senators, Dems and Republicans, and we'll keep calling them again.

There are also petitions. But here's my point. Okay, my two senators are already against this.

I want to call other senators. And what would you advise on that? Because I have called other senators.

For example, I understand that Minnesota is one of the really important places. Well, I used to work in Minnesota for two years. So I use that angle.

Hey, I used to live in Loring Park in Minneapolis. I'm calling because I'm against this. I mean, this is a global problem.

It impacts climate change, habitat destruction, wildlife extinction, human world hunger, preventable lifestyle diseases, because processed meat, which is how people eat a lot of pig products, is officially a level one carcinogen. It's cancer causing. So bacon is cancer causing.

Hot dogs that are made from pigs are cancer causing. I have a right to weigh in on those other senators. I don't want to limit myself to California where the two senators already agree with me.

[Speaker 1] So where we're at right now is the House has passed a version of the Farm Bill. And unfortunately, it does include the Save Our Bacon Act language. Now, we fought really hard and got really, really close to winning that battle.

But where this fight currently exists is in the U.S. Senate. Now, this bill, the Farm Bill, is currently sitting in the Senate Agricultural Committee. So I'm gonna put my glasses on and I'm gonna read the states because this is really, really important.

If you live in these states, now, if you live in any state in the United States, your senators are important. Now, even if they've come out, like if you live in New York and you have your two senators in Oregon, in California, in many other states where you have senators that have spoken out against this, that's great. And all of your phone calls and all of your emails and all of the social media is what got them to take a public position.

But they also need to be reminded to fight because what we will see in the course of the next couple weeks is we will see a fight on the Farm Bill around SNAP and around the Save Our Bacon Act where we want those who have publicly committed to oppose it to fight like the lives of animals depend on it because they absolutely do. So if you still live in a state like California or Oregon or New York or any state where your senators have come out and publicly opposed, or Massachusetts, still make phone calls so that they know it's unbelievably important to you.

But if you live in states like Kentucky, North Dakota, Iowa, Mississippi, Kansas, Alabama, West Virginia, Iowa, South Dakota, and Kansas, I know I've said those a couple times because I'm reading off the names of the ranking members of the Republicans on the Senate Ag Committee, you need to call even if you think that because they're conservative or they're Republican that they're not going to support you. Remember, Senator Marshall, who could not be more of a conservative and in a red state, he recently came off his own bill, which he was a sponsor of the Save Our Bacon Act and has now removed his name from it.

So phone calls and emails really make a difference.

But this is where it's important that if you live in a blue state in any of these states you currently reside in, or know people that do, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois, New Jersey, Georgia, New Mexico, California, and Vermont, these are critically important states because at least one if not two of your senators sit on the Senate Ag Committee and their vote is going to determine whether or not the Senate bill, the Farm Bill, either gets out of committee or if they're going to allow the Save Our Bacon Act to be included.

My big recommendation is only call your senators because what we do know is we are getting a tremendous amount of people to call into these offices. I have recently just been in an office with senators from Georgia and their staff said that they have received nearly 4,000 phone calls in the last couple months. Now think about that.

That is more phone calls and they told us this is more phone calls than on any other issue that we are currently facing in the United States. They know the welfare is important. They know that their constituents care about it and so the most important thing for you to do is contact your both of your U.S. senators, ask them to oppose the Save Our Bacon Act, do not allow it to be included in the Farm Bill, call every day if you have to until they make a public statement opposing it, and of course if you know anyone, well frankly if you know anyone that cares about this issue they should be calling their senators, but if you know anyone that lives in any of

those key states please make sure that they make a phone call to their senators today.

[Speaker 2] I've been jotting down as you speak New Jersey, Colorado, Minnesota, Michigan, Georgia, California, and did you say Florida?

[Speaker 1] Pennsylvania is important and Florida is also important because what's interesting there again and you touched on this that the Save Our Bacon Act isn't just a threat to animals. I mean that alone should be enough to get everyone in an uproar. I mean stripping away California's right to have Prop 12 in Massachusetts to have question three in other states to have animal welfare laws that allow animals to stand up, turn around, and extend their limbs.

I mean the fact that this is what we're fighting over in 2026 still blows my mind, but at the end of the day these states have a right. The U.S. Supreme Court has said that these states have a right to declare and make sure that the welfare standards meet whatever the public and whatever the legislatures want, and so at the end of the day this isn't just about protecting animals, it's also about food safety, it's about states rights, and I have met with, well, I have probably met with well over 50 senate offices in the last

couple months, and what I know to be true is it's not just Democrats that are opposed to this. While nearly the entire Democratic Party, which I do believe this to be true, that the Democratic Party, including the minority leader which is Chuck Schumer, my senator, he has publicly come out and said that he opposes Save Our Bacon Act and he will fight to keep it out of the farm bill.

That's great, but there are a number of Republicans that are against this for numerous reasons, including the fact that our largest pork producer is owned by China, and senators in Florida are not a big fan of having our food system owned by a foreign entity.

You have senators in other states that are really, may not be in favor of Prop 12, but they sure as hell don't like the idea that one state or one federal government can take away the rights from our states, and that's what this is about, is about does the federal government have the right to tell a state you cannot have animal welfare laws? And I think the vast majority of people are strongly opposed to that, and that's why you see so many senators and so many people being activated on this and coming out against the Save Our Bacon Act. And we're starting to see conservative pundits across the political aisle that are coming out against this.

I mean, some people that I would never imagine would have anything in common with some folks like Cory Booker or others, but we are seeing people across the political spectrum, both Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, no matter where you're at on the spectrum, are all absolutely opposed to this. It's only a select few in Iowa that are really pushing hard for this.

[Speaker 2] Iowa, whoa, I gotta write that one down.

[Speaker 1] The two senators and the representatives from Iowa are the chief architects of the Save Our Bacon Act language and its older iterations of it, and they are learning a really, really tough lesson that they are not going to be able to dictate a national standard like Save Our Bacon Act, which wipes out animal welfare laws, because the public is simply not going to stand for it.

[Speaker 2] Well, that's where a lot of the pig factory farms are, right, in Iowa?

[Speaker 1] It's the number one factory farming in the state, factory farming state in the country.

[Speaker 2] Yeah, and here's the thing that is so upside down, is that last time I checked, conservatives should be all for states' rights, and also the administration currently is, you know, beating its chest over China influence, and yet the main company behind this is a Chinese-owned company, something that Leah Garces from Compassionate World Farming USA talked about. It's really sinister, actually, and someone just put in the comments something about this is really threatening democracy, and what we're seeing here is a theme right now where corporations try to pay legislators and get their way. That's what's happening here, and specifically, and I love the title of this meeting, the people versus big pork, that's what's happening.

So the main conglomerate, the main group that is fighting to get rid of Prop 12 and all the laws that protect farmed animals is the National Pork Producer Council, so the NPPC. Their main member, their biggest member is Smithfield, and they sell about a quarter of all the pork that you see in the United States, and the real question is who owns Smithfield? Smithfield is owned by WH Group, which is a Chinese conglomerate, and about a decade ago they represented the largest, largest merger, the largest purchase of any American company by a Chinese company.

That is who is pulling the strings in our government right now. That company is the one that is doing the bidding, is writing the bills literally so that they can continue to sell pork in a cruel circumstance that the voters at the ballot box said no to, and the courts all the way to the Supreme Court said no to. That's shocking.

I mean, the people versus China, one viewer said, yeah. I mean, isn't that like a major, that could be an ad campaign against these, you said the senators from Iowa are the key architects, right?

[Speaker 1] Yeah, I will tell you that I've met with a lot of conservatives, and I've also met with a lot of Democratic offices that are concerned about this. Now, it is very scary that one of the largest meat producers in our food system is owned by a foreign entity, and namely a foreign entity that has demonstrated really, really bad track record when it comes to food safety and human rights and other things. And so there's an article that came out, and it said basically that it came out from, it's an article from a Chinese newspaper that said that the Save Our Bacon Act would significantly increase China's share of the US pork market if it is successfully passed.

Now, this had to be translated from Chinese because it was, I think it was like the Chinese Weekly. And so this really emphasizes the issue here is that we have a foreign body that owns one of our meat companies in the entire country, one of the largest food producers, Smithfields. And they are actively engaged in setting US policy.

And what the biggest issue here is that they're not even disclosing it. And so what we do know is the National Pork Producers Council takes money from Smithfields and takes money from other companies that are in support of locking mother pigs in cages so small they can't even turn around. They hire lobbyists to the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

They make political contributions to those who are sponsoring the Save Our Bacon Act. And where is all of this decision making coming from? It's coming from a foreign entity.

And personally, I find that incredibly repulsive when you think about that a foreign government and foreign companies are dictating the animal welfare standards in our own country, particularly as the video and the photos are showing on your screen. Who can look at this and think that this is acceptable? No one does, except those that profit from it.

[Speaker 2] It's pure evil. And it actually is, of all the things that I've seen, the worst thing, I think, for me to see these torture devices.

It would be equivalent to you being stuck in the middle seat of an airplane for your entire life. She can't even touch her babies.

[Speaker 1] And her babies get taken from her. And to go one step further, there's a really sinister quote from the National Pork Producers spokesperson many, many years ago. And basically, the summary of it is that no one ever asked the pig if she wanted to turn around.

You're talking about one of the most intelligent creatures on this planet, maybe the fifth, sixth, most intelligent animal, land animal on Earth. And you take that animal and you confine it in a space where they can't even turn around or engage in really any natural behaviors. It is the definition of cruelty.

I mean, this is pure, unadulterated evil. And you're right. Temple Grandin said that this would be the equivalent of spending your entire life in the middle seat of an economy seat in an airline.

And I just took a six-hour flight from California back to New York just yesterday. And I was agitated by the fact that I was stuck in this tiny little seat. And that was only for six hours.

Imagine doing it your entire life. And for these poor animals, they are locked in gestation crates for roughly three months, three weeks, and three days. And then they go in a faring crate.

Then they're re-impregnated. And for the three or four years that they're alive, this is their reality. This is their entire life.

This isn't just for one or two days in this process. This is their entire life. And it is unbelievably heartbreaking.

And I just cannot believe that the National Pork Producers Council and that Smithfield and that any lawmaker would put their name on something as horrible as the gestation crate. But that's what they've chosen to do. The thing is, Jane, is it is up to us to defeat the evil.

It is up to us to make sure that they do not win, that they do not send mother pigs back to gestation crates, and that we defeat them by ensuring that the Save Our Bacon Act is not included in the farm bill. And that's why it's important for everyone that is listening to call your senators, your two U.S. senators, call them to oppose the Save Our Bacon Act, tell them not to allow it to be included in the farm bill, and then to make sure that contact every friend and every family member you have. Shoot, it can be your enemies.

It can be anyone that you know that's in your phone. Please contact them and ask them to do the same.

[Speaker 2] And social media influencers are speaking up against this. Everybody has a phone. You can become a social media influencer and do a reel.

Here's a reel from Simone Reyes. We're at a critical time right now. The Save Our Bacon Act, which is horrific, has already passed in the House of Representatives, heading to the Senate.

Now what's going to happen? We are going to see all of our hard work for animals taken away. It's possible that pigs will be back in gestation crates.

The worst possible fate for them other than the torturous death that we know that they're going to endure. But we can stop it. We can get on the phone, we can get on our emails, we can get on social media, and we can say enough is enough.

We did the work. We saved animals. We're not going back.

Right now is the time. Pick up your phone today. And I'd like to say that we're getting some very interesting comments from people large ones.

So they're going to cover the screen a little bit, but they're important. Steve Rockenroe Wood, I've contacted my Idaho representative and senator. Here's some links to contact your legislators.

Thank you for all that. And we also have from Alex Craigan, a list of senators on the Senate Ag Committee and their states. So I think it's worth it to read this out.

Boozman of Arkansas. Now he seems to be an architect too. He's like the big kahuna, isn't he?

[Speaker 1] So Senator Boozman is the ranking member for the Republicans on the Senate Ag Committee, which makes him the chair of the committee. Now, he has indicated many times in the press, but then also in committee that one, nearly every single Democrat is opposed to the Save Our Bacon Act, and he believes it to be a poison pill. And he doesn't want to include it in the draft language, which he didn't.

I mean, it's important to realize that the farm bill in the Senate came out with its own draft in his committee, and it did not include the Save Our Bacon Act. It did in the House. And then he also did not allow for amendments by Senator Joni Ernst from Iowa, who absolutely wanted to include the Save Our Bacon Act, did not allow for an amendment in the last markup.

Now, we are in a critical moment, and this is why this is so unbelievably important for everyone to contact your senators, is because next week, the Senate comes back from their August recess. They're only going to be in for about two to three weeks before we get into the midterm recess that is coming up in October and November. Remember, elections are coming up in November.

We are going to have the midterms, and it is going to be a massive election. And so right now, we're looking at the next two weeks, starting on the 14th. This is where the rubber hits the road.

They are going to try, the MPPC is flying in. MPPC is what? The National Pork Producers Council, the chief folks, the chief organization that is fighting for the Save Our Bacon Act on behalf of Smithfield, which again is owned by WH, which is a Chinese-owned foreign company.

Now, the MPPC is flying in farmers all over from across all over the United States to try to push this. Now, the great thing is animal advocates and small family farmers and those who don't agree with gestation crates are flying in nearly the same number of farmers to just demonstrate that there is a massive number of people, both animal advocates and those in animal agriculture that are opposed to gestation crates. And so it's going to be a bit of a showdown starting next week.

But we are hearing that there may be another markup on the 15th by Chairman Bozeman. Now, we don't think that there's going to be an amendment that's going to be allowed, but we cannot operate on rumors and hopeful thinking. We need to contact our senators today.

We need to make this as poisonous as possible. We want them to think that, man, we need to pass a farm bill, but the only way to get the 60 votes in the Senate and the only way to pass this through the House and get it signed by Trump is to make sure that the Save Our Bacon Act isn't included because it's a poison pill amendment. That is up to all of us.

There's a lot that we can't control in this process, but what Jane, you and I can do is we can fight like hell and we can fight so hard that the Save Our Bacon Act is just so toxic and that they don't allow it into the farm bill.

[Speaker 2] And Karen is saying national pig producers, national pork producers.

[Speaker 1] It's the National Pork Producers Council, the MPPC.

[Speaker 2] Okay. You know, I said I was embarrassed to be a human being when I look at these pig gestation crates. The fact that Joni Ernst, a senator from Iowa, as a woman, is pushing this is to me, shameful.

Look at the exploitation of the female reproductive process, forcibly impregnated. We know what that means. Okay.

Without any consent. And then the babies are taken from her. And meanwhile, she's kept in a torture device.

Joni Ernst, if you are listening, shame on you.

[Speaker 1] Shame on you. She's starting to hear that. I mean, there's a reason why she is fighting so hard for the National Pork Producers Council and those who fill her coffers for her political campaign.

I mean, it is unbelievable to me that currently in Iowa during the midterms, which oftentimes the midterms are not great for Democrats. Obviously, conservatives and Republicans have usually had better results during the midterm elections. And the fact that she is having to fight for her seat against the Democrat in Iowa, it just demonstrates how out of touch her and Senator Grassley has been when it comes to their constituents.

We did a poll or there's a poll that was done by the coalition that is fighting against the Save Our Bacon Act. And they found that the vast majority of people do not support a federal preemption of animal welfare laws and stealing state's rights to pass higher standards for animals or for locking animals in cages so small that they can't even stand up and turn around. And so the good news is, and I know sometimes this is overwhelming, but we have the majority of the public.

We have the majority of Congress that is on our side. The key here is to be able to motivate them to fight hard. And the way that we do that is we make phone calls, we send emails, we tag them in our social media.

We get them to realize that this is a priority for us. There are so many things happening in our government. There's so many things happening in society at large that makes many of us want to bury our heads in the sand.

But this is one that we cannot do this. The lives of millions, if not billions of animals is determinative on whether or not we win this fight. This is the most important moment in our animal protection movement's history.

And I will tell you what I have been saying on every podcast and anyone that will listen to me. I can promise you, if we show up like I know the animal movement can, along with our coalition partners that work on food safety and environmental, and even the small family farmers that do not support these types of cruel confinement systems, if we show up like I know we can, not only are we going to push back and defeat the NPPC, and we are going to kill the Save Our Bacon Act and ensure that a farm bill does not include this dangerous language.

But I promise you, we are going to start building a political movement that is going to move mountains for farm animals. This is our moment. The National Pork Producers Council are going to look back 10 years from now, and they are going to regret their decision to poke a sleeping giant.

And we, as the animal protection movement, and the majority of people that agree with us that factory farming is bad, locking animals in cages are bad, they are going to regret their decision on this fight. Because not only are they going to burn all of their political capital, not only are they going to lose, but they are going to have woken up a giant that is going to take this fight directly to their doorstep.

[Speaker 2] I couldn't agree with you more. Right now, the plant-based movement is under attack. And I just wrote a speech, actually, that I'm going to be delivering, talking about how when Beyond Meat came out in 2019, it was such a successful initial public offering.

The words Beyond Meat posed a tremendous threat to the meat industry, and they decided to come out with a PR war against us. And now the pendulum is going to swing back. We see it with the Ridgeland Dogs, how Americans are standing up against animal testing of beagles specifically, but it's expanding to animals in general.

And I see exactly what you said. Let's defeat this and take all the people who have come together to speak out against this atrocity, this just unspeakable torture. That can be the new animal rights movement of just decent people.

And they don't have to be vegan yet. They can just be saying, this is just disgusting, which anybody who isn't a sociopath who looks at this has to agree, it is disgusting. One thing I'll say is that psychologically, I know a lot of people have a hard time making the call, what I call the call.

And I don't because I'm a New Yorker, and I just do calls all the time, even though I live in California. Now, California is a two party state, so I cannot play the other side legally. But to inspire all of you who might feel well, I'll do it tomorrow and never get around to it.

No, you need to do it. Do it now, do it every day. Starting today, I am going to make a pledge to make four calls every day starting today, and I'm busy.

So I want you to make that pledge as well. So I'm going to call, you will not hear the other side. But it just basically breaks that little spell, because I know a lot of people, oh, I'm not a caller.

Get over yourself. Animals are being tortured. We need to do this.

We need to make these calls. So let me go with 202-224. I have it in my phone, which is good.

Get it in your phone so that you can call it over and over again.

[Speaker 1] The congressional switchboard.

[Speaker 2] The congressional switchboard. I can, this part I can do. Or representative that you are trying to reach.

Alex Padilla. Alex Padilla, California Senator. Okay, now I'm going to see what happens.

Even if you don't get a human, best is to get a human. But if you don't get a human. Thank you for calling my office in Washington, D.C. I can play a recording. If you would like to leave a message or a comment about an issue, please press one. You can also email me through my website. Thank you for calling.

I appreciate you taking the time to reach out to my office. You can always share your thoughts through the contact me page on my website at padilla.senate.gov. If you'd like to leave a message, please do so after the tone. Record your message at the tone.

When you are finished, hang up or press pound for more options. Yes, my name is Jane Velez Mitchell. I live in Los Angeles, California, 90292.

And I am absolutely passionately against the Save Our Bacon Act. I collected signatures for Prop 12 to stop these monstrous evil pig gestation crates. And Senator Alex Padilla, I want you to fight proactively against the Save Our Bacon Act.

Thank you for being against it. But that's not enough. We need you to use your powerful voice to tell the entire world and your colleagues in the U.S. Senate that this is torture. That this keeping pigs in crates the size of their bodies never able to turn around is torture. It's a torture device. Additionally, the main company pushing this is Smithfield, which is owned by the Chinese.

Why are we doubling down on torture to benefit a foreign owned country when a company when we have an administration that's ranting and raving about, wow, our policies benefit foreign countries? So please, we need you to do more, more, more. Stop the Save Our Bacon Act, please.

Thank you. My name is Jane Velez Mitchell, and I live in Los Angeles, 90292. Thank you.

[Speaker 1] And one thing that's important is you don't need to be an expert on this, I promise you. When you call in, you're either going to be leaving a voice note or voice message, or you're going to be talking to a really great staffer. It could be an intern, it could be a fellow, it could be someone who's on their policy team.

They are going to be very kind to you. In fact, I have gone in and met with senators who are supporters of the Save Our Bacon Act. And I can promise you the staffers are always polite, and will always hear you out.

And what's important is that you make that phone call.

[Speaker 2] Okay, let me ask you a question. Critique my call because like I said, I'm an obnoxious New Yorker, and I get worked up. Was I too strong?

I don't mind a critique. I want to learn.

[Speaker 1] I think the biggest thing is maybe next time emphasize a little bit more on thanking him for making a public statement for coming out against the Save Our Bacon Act. And again, the point that you made that is so important is being opposed to evil is not enough. You have to actively and proactively work to defeat evil.

And so standing idly by is not just enough. So thank you for making a public statement. But we want to make sure that when you're in caucus, that you hold your Democrats the same standard that you have just set, which is opposition to Save Our Bacon Act.

Talk to your fellow senators. Talk to Adam Schiff, who's on the Senate Ag Committee, and make sure that he fights like hell. Because many of these senators have multiple priorities.

They have hundreds, if not thousands of things that are on their plate. And what our job is, Jane, yours and mine, and everyone that cares about animals, and cares about ensuring that pigs are not locked in crates so small that they can't even turn around, is for us to make sure that the Save Our Bacon Act issue rises to the top of their priority list. To defeat this should be their number one priority right now in Congress, because it sure as hell is for me.

[Speaker 2] It is. And I'm making a pledge to call four times a day, okay? I would like others to make that pledge again.

The reason I made the call, which was a little too aggro, I saw that because I worked myself up. This is my thing that I deal with.

[Speaker 1] I love it. Jane, you and I are cut from the same cloth. I mean, we are passionate, passionate people.

[Speaker 2] I'm going to take a cup of herbal tea the next time before I call. But the point is, oh, somebody says go, Jane, go. But no, be the nice side of you, thank them, and then make the point.

So I'm critiquing myself. But don't be shy. Don't feel like, eh, they work for us.

They work for us, okay?

[Speaker 1] Exactly right.

[Speaker 2] What I've heard talking to people in government is they want to hear from us, because they want direction. So you're not imposing, okay? You're not putting anybody out.

This is their job. They get paid. Imagine if you're just sitting there all day to answer the phone and nobody rings.

It's frustrating. Let me ask you one last question, because another thing that people say is, well, I left the voicemail, but that doesn't really count. Your response?

[Speaker 1] It counts. I can tell you it counts.

It counts. I have seen offices change their mind about a position because of one phone call or one email or one meeting with a constituent. I've seen elections be lost by one or two votes.

And so at the end of the day, we may never know the impact of our individual contribution to defeat the Save Our Bacon Act. We may never know what percentage we made it less likely or more likely to pass or to fail. But what we do know is if we do nothing, it will pass.

The arc of the moral universe bends towards justice. But at the end of the day, you need someone bending that arc, and that is all of us in this fight. And there's two things that I just want to say and would want people to think about.

And this is not coming from me. This is coming from a dear friend, Allie Taylor, who was the founder of Voters for Animal Rights in New York City and now works for the Mayor's Office of Animal Welfare, one of the most extraordinary women I have ever met in our movement. And the two things that she said on one of our People vs.

Big Pork, one of our webinars is one of our town halls is she said, one, we all know, many of us that work in this movement, Jane, and you know what it's like to wake up the day after a campaign finishes or an election finishes and have lost and think to yourself, God, what else could I have done? There will be a moment in the next couple months where we will all wake up, every single one of us, we will wake up and we will have won or lost this battle. There is a timeframe, there is an expiration date on the Farm Bill and the Save Our Bacon Act this year.

It's going to be mid-December. We are going to wake up and I don't want any of us to feel like we left everything, that we didn't leave everything on the field. We don't want anyone to feel, I sure as hell don't want to feel like there was more that I could have done, because animals' lives depend on this.

This is the most important thing for any of us to work on. And the other point that Allie made that just resonates with me, and I may make a little bit noise, but I keep this on my desk. For those of you that follow me on social media, if you look back long enough, I had a boy in my life named Dew.

He was 140 pound Akita. I keep his collar by me at all times, because this reminds me, I want all of you to think about your Dew in your life, the animal that you love more than anything. Or if you were walking down the street and you happened to come upon an animal that needed your help, what lengths would you go to, to help them?

Many of us would spend thousands of dollars, we would spend our entire day making sure that the animals we love or any animal that needed us got the care, respect, and dignity that they deserved. I can tell you, the lengths I would go to, to get Dew or any animal out of a cage is, there's nothing that would stop me. All we're asking folks to do is to make a phone call.

Make a phone call every day, send an email, post on social media. We're asking for really what I consider the bare minimum. And so think to yourself, do you want to wake up in December or whenever this fight ends this year, and think to myself, man, I could have done more, because at the end of the day, we never know which Senator is going to push this across the line either way.

And I want all of you to fight again. Think about the animals that you love that may be on your lap right now, or an animal that you're going to go to home to today, then snuggle up against. What would you do to get them out of the gestation crate?

At the very least, make some phone calls, send some emails, and post on social media. We are going to win this. I absolutely believe that we are going to win this fight, but we are not going to win if everyone doesn't show up.

[Speaker 2] I love your comments, and this is my little Wednesday, and I would do anything to get her out of a crate, and she would never be in a crate over my dead body. And that's how I feel about the pigs too. Steve Rockenroll Wood says, I pledge to contact my Representative and Senator every day.

Then somebody asked, are you calling four times a day the same reps or other reps? I'm calling both of my U.S. Senators, and I also sometimes go to the other states because as a reporter, I've worked in Minnesota. I've worked in Florida.

I've worked in Pennsylvania. I have connections there, and I feel like I can make a case that I was a reporter in Philadelphia and a news anchor in Philadelphia, okay? So I'm not calling out of the blue.

I make the connection, and so I am making that pledge. I urge everybody here, make the pledge. You can make it for your beloved companion animal.

You should make it for the pigs. We've got to do this. The fight is not over.

Call, call, call. And I'll put up the number one more time. It is 202-224-3121.

Write it down. Take a picture of that right now with your phone so you have it. Put it in your phone so that it's there.

You don't have to look for the number and call every day. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Matt Dominguez, for leading this fight.

Thank you. Bye.

[Speaker 1] Thank you, Jane.

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