Scott Garrett wants to kick your dog.

by: Adam L

Sun Jun 15, 2008 at 10:06:38 AM EDT

Now that the primaries are over, it is time for all sane and rational people of the fifth district to get behind Dennis Shulman - even if you weren't a supporter before - for the obvious reason of ending Scott Garrett's reign as one of Congress' most extreme rightists.

We are familiar with his positions on calling himself a "fiscal watchdog", yet he allocates money to the sinkhole of the Iraq occupation like a drunken sailor while voting against adequate troop rest, or his positions against Americans getting pinched in this economy or education or , healthcare coverage for children and how he is frequently the only NJ (and even Northeast) Representatives to vote against some of the most common sense bills.

Adam L :: Scott Garrett wants to kick your dog.

But there is another side to the extremist Garrett that goes unnoticed amongst all of the outrageous votes and positions he has taken - and it is one that speaks to the underlying character of a person. And while none of this is "breaking news", it is presented for two reasons - (1) Dennis Shulman will be appearing at Firedoglake for a live chat Sunday at noon Eastern, and (2) while this is a tough seat to pick up based on the makeup of the district, the sentiment around the country is right, the amazing netroots backing of Shulman can't be overlooked, and Garrett will no longer be able to hide from his hideous record of being more extreme than even George W. Bush himself.

That is the approach to pets and animals in general. Now, I am not even talking PETA-level, or putting the rights of animals over those of humans. I am talking about the most basic and humane issues - those including dogfighting and cockfighting and pets that are trapped following a major disaster or emergency.

These two bills, by the way, only garnered 63 House votes against COMBINED, with over 700 votes in favor of the bills, and one of these bills wasn't even one that allocated federal funds - it merely recommended that disaster planning include plans for household pets.

To put this into some perspective, the Humane Society, certainly not one of those overly political groups, puts out a "scorecard" that rates Congressional officials on their votings record towards animal issues. On a scale of 1-100, the current NJ Senators have an average rating of 100, the current NJ House delegation has an average score of 83. For the past Congress, the average Senate score was 100 and the average House score was 89.

For the current Congressional term, Garrett scores a 17 and for the prior Congressional term, Garrett scored a 14. These scores are around 50 points lower than the next lowest score in the entire NJ delegation - republican OR Democrat.

And it isn't just these two bills, as you can see from the Humane Society's ratings. Garrett also voted against the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act which would prohibit the shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donation of horse and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption and other purposes. In fact, this specific vote would establish a pilot program in Kentucky and New York to decide if such a prohibition on killing equines for human consumption should be imposed nation-wide.

Not to be forgotten is Garrett being the only one out of the 13 NJ Representatives to vote for the deauthorization of all areas essential to the conservation of targeted endangered species, his vote against reauthorizing the Endangered Species Act of 1973 through 2010, his vote against the prohibition on commercial sale and slaughter of wild horses and burros, and an amendment to the FY08 Interior Appropriations bill that would have banned federal funding that enables imports of sport-hunted polar bear trophies from Canada (Polar Bear Protection Act).

Most interesting, that last vote was against a ban on federal funding - something that Garrett is quick to pat himself on the back for - yet it bans federal funding related to polar bear sport-hunting activities.

It really makes you wonder what goes on inside the head of someone who thinks that it is ok to side with the illegal transporting of dogs for dogfighting, to vote against a bill that recommends that pets be included in disaster or emergency planning, votes against the Endangered Species Act and is ok with the slaughter of wild horses for commercial sale.

Just make sure that you keep your pets away from Scott Garrett - you never know if he will give them a kick when you aren't looking.