Global Justice for Animals and the Environment

Stop the Senate from Passing the Peru Free Trade Agreement!

Last week the US House of Representatives passed the Peru Free Trade Agreement, and the agreement will be coming to a vote in the Senate this week

The Peru FTA will expand factory farming and contribute to the destruction of wildlife habitat, and animal advocates must take action to stop Congress from ratifying this agreement!

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

CALL, EMAIL, AND FAX YOUR SENATORS .

BY PHONE: Go to http://snipurl.com/leglookup and enter your address. You will be provided with your Senators' names and phone numbers. Or if you know their names, you can call U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Senators' offices. When Senators' offices, ask to their legislative assistants on trade.

Hi, my name is _______________. I live in______(your city)___ and I'm calling to ask Senator ___________ to vote no on the Peru and Free Trade Agreements The agreements investor-state provisions will give corporations that destroy wildlife habitat in the Peruvian Amazon the right to sue the Peruvian government in international tribunals for enforcing its domestic environmental laws. The agreement will also lead to expansion of inhumane, polluting factory farms in the US and Peru as subsidized, industrially produced US agricultural products are dumped on the Peruvian market, driving Peru's family farmers out of business. Please vote NO on the Peru Free Trade Agreement. Can you tell me how Senator ____________ intends to vote?

After they answer say:

I'd appreciate a response in writing. My address is (your address).

After calling both Senators' offices, call or email Global Justice for Animals with a summary of what you were told about how your Senator intends to vote. This will help us know which Senators we need to focus maximum pressure upon. You can email info@freetradekillsanimals.org or call (347) 436-0458.

BY EMAIL: Go to www.snipurl.com/leglookup and find your elected officials. Click on Send Message for your two Senators and your Representative:. Send an email to the attention of your legislators aide on trade issues expressing your opinion on your legislators vote on this issue. You can use the sample letter below as a a model for your letter.

BY FAX: Go to www.snipurl.com/leglookupand find your elected officials names and fax numbers.. Click on View Info for your Senators and copy their fax numbers. Write letters to your both of your Senators expressing your opinion on their vote on this issue. Put your letter to the attention of your Senators' legislative assistants on trade issues. Fax your letter. You can use the sample letter below as a model for your letter.

SAMPLE LETTER

(Send a separate to each of your legislators. Fill in your address, the date, choose Senator, your legislators name, and choose one or the other of the words in parentheses, depending on your legislators vote. Please modify and personalize using the additional info on this issue provided at the top of this alert)

ATTN: Legislative Assistant on Trade

(Your Address)
(Your City, State and Zip)

November____, 2007

The Honorable ( (First and Last Name)
(Your Legislators DC Office Street Address
City, State and Zip)

Dear Senator (Last Name):

I am very concerned about the upcoming vote on the Peru Free Trade Agreement, which I believe would be detrimental to animal welfare and habitat protection in the regions. The agreement expands the rights of foreign investors, which will give industries such as mining, logging, and agriculture the power to challenge environmental regulations that limit resource contracts. These corporations will have the ability to sue the government for lost profits making it less likely that Peru will pass future environmental laws if it means risking thousands of dollars. The agreements emphasis on protecting only certain species evinces a failure to see the forest for the trees. These delicate and irreplaceable forests continue to be cut down for an unsustainable trade, which also contributes to the hunting of thousands of primates and birds, and the destruction of ecosystems on which protected species rely for survival.

While the agreement is touted as having improved environmental provisions, these rules only pertain to preexisting environmental laws and environmentalists consider Peru's current environmental laws to be insufficient. US-based logging and mining companies have already been found violating environmental regulations by cutting in protected forests, and I believe an expansion of foreign investment will increase their power. Peru is home to both endemic and endangered species and its rainforests and mangrove forests are considered biological hotspots by ecologists. The destruction of these habitats would have irreversible damage. In addition, I do not support the increase in U.S. exports of cheap, factory-farmed products such as poultry, beef and pork because they will soon replace the locally raised animals, increase pollution, and expand the consumption of factory farmed meat.

I urge you to vote against the Peru Free Trade Agreement to prevent the suffering and death of countless animals. Please write back to me with a position on this issue.

Sincerely,

(Your Name)

Additional Background:

Additional arguments you can use in your letters and phone calls.

The Peru Free Trade Agreement should not be supported because:

- Consumption of factory farmed animal products will vastly increase. Currently, roughly half of the animal products consumed by Peruvians are produced on rural family farms, grown as a sideline by farmers whose primary business is growing corn and rise. Import tarriffs on US produced crops and animal products keep prices on US commodities high in Peru, encouraging Peruvians to buy the locally-created products. Peru's family farms use traditional agricultural methods, as opposed to the intensive-confinement factory farms that dominate US agriculture. However, the Peru Free Trade Agreement will eliminate Peru's tarriffs on US imports. Thanks to the lower production cost associated with factory farming of animals and US-style industrial crop growing in tandem with US government subsidies for agribusiness, US imports in Peru will be far cheaper than locally produced foods. This will drive Peru's family farmers out of business, and with no one left producing family farmed meat products, consumption will shift to cheap, factory farmed US commodities. While Global Justice for Animals encourages consumers everywhere to shift to an animal-free diet and does not in any way endorse the concept of "humane meat", we also recognize that a shift towards consumption of factory farmed products is BAD NEWS for farmed animals.

- Peru has a terrible record for environmental protection. Logging by by U.S. companies (often done illegally), mining, and oil drilling have resulted in habitat destruction in irreplaceable rainforests, the decline of wildlife populations in Peru. Mining has already polluted streams, killing fish and amphibians. Industrial noise drives wildlife into unprotected areas to be hunted by miners and wildlife traffickers. Oil companies like Occidental Petroleum have devastated the Peruvian Amazon, polluting land and water and poisoning wildlife and indigenous people. But rather than fixing this problem, investor protection provisions in the agreement will give corporations the right to sue the Peruvian government in international tribunals for lost profits on investments if Peru enforces it's domestic environmental laws. These investor rights can also be applied to agreements made before the passage of the agreement, which allow companies to challenge previous decisions to prohibit development in protected areas.

- Substandard environmental provisions written into the agreement only require the enforcement of preexisting environmental laws and the protection of just a few token wildlife and plant species. This is of little help when each species depends on an entire ecosystem for survival, and most environmental organizations consider Peruvian and Panamanian laws insufficient anyway. The Peru Free Trade Agreements state that proposed changes must be voluntary, flexible and incentive-based.

The Peru Free Trade Agreement is considered even worse than the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement, which the US signed in July 2005, despite the opposition of over 100 animal organizations. It has the power to forever destroy unique habitats and endemic animal species in some of the most biologically diverse areas of the world as well as expand the consumption of factory-farmed animals.

- For a detailed analysis of how the Peru Free Trade Agreement will harm animals, visit http://freetradekillsanimals.org/?page=PeruTwo and read Global Justice for Animals' complete report: The US-Peru Free Trade Agreement: Protecting Corporate Investors' "Right" To Exploit Animals & The Environment.