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You can help to end the overuse of antibiotics in healthy farm animals in a number of ways: participating in action alerts, taking action at a local level, and making informed consumer choices.

Action Alerts | State & Local Action | Citizen's Toolkit

ACTION ALERTS

  • 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. ACT NOW
  • Tell Burger King "Our Way: Reduce Antibiotics!" Send a letter to Burger King CEO encouraging him to act in the interest of public health and meet or exceed new standards adopted by McDonald's to reduce antibiotic use in meat. ACT NOW
  • Pledge to Keep Antibiotics Working! Take the Pledge and send a message to President Bush, Congress, and meat and fish producers that you support phasing out feeding antibiotics to farm animals and fish that are not sick. ACT NOW
  • Urge the CEO of Bayer Corporation NOT to appeal the recent Administrative
    Law Judge decision upholding the FDA's proposed ban on fluoroquinolone use
    in poultry, and withdraw Baytril from the market immediately. ACT NOW

OPTIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL ACTION
Actions at the state and local level can have a major impact – not only in those communities but also elsewhere – by stimulating demand for food products using fewer antibiotics, and by setting precedents that other communities can adopt. The following is a short list of options for action at the state and local level.

In your home, school or workplace

  • Distribute Keep Antibiotics Working fact sheets
  • Get friends and family to sign the KAW Consumer pledge.
  • Ask school or workplace chefs to only serve meat raised without routine antibiotics, including organic.

  • Encourage state and municipal institutions, such as school boards and hospitals, to voluntarily procure meat, fish and poultry using policies at least as protective of human health as that of Bon Appetit food service company.
  • Encourage state and local lawmakers to write or sponsor legislation:
    1. Requiring supermarkets to display information on whether the meat and poultry sold in the store has been raised using medically important antibiotics as feed additives;
    2. Requiring municipal- and/or state-funded food service facilities to preferentially purchase meat, poultry and seafood products raised without routine use of medically important antibiotics as feed additives.
    3. Requiring municipal- and/or state-funded food service facilities to avoid purchasing chicken treated with Cipro-like (fluoroquinolone) antibiotics, consistent with FDA’s proposal to ban use of these drugs in poultry.
    4. Establishing a fee on sales of animal feeds containing medically important antibiotics, with the proceeds used to support on-farm demonstrations of alternatives to antibiotic feed additives;
    5. Banning the use of fluoroquinolone antibiotics in poultry;
    6. Banning the sale of meat, poultry and fish raised with routine use of medically important antibiotics as feed additives; and
    7. Requiring the collection of data on antibiotic sales.

    For more information, please contact KAW Coordinator John Riley at (202) 572-3250.

    CITIZEN'S TOOL KIT

    updated 4/1/04

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