The World Dog Alliance (WDA) thought that President Biden, who not only loves dogs and cats but also values international cooperation more than his predecessor, would be interested in the International Agreement to Prohibit the Eating of Dogs and Cats and would take the lead in initiating it in the United States after receiving a joint letter from the Congress. However, more than half a year after the response to the meaningless official letter, WDA realised that it had to use stronger means to push the US government to initiate the International Agreement.

 To this end, WDA redefined its strategy and decided to lobby the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, which is responsible for international agreements, and to push the US government to initiate the Agreement through legally binding resolutions and bills.

K&L Gates, a congressional lobbying firm led by former Congressman Jeff Denham, facilitated a joint letter from 38 members of the House of Representatives, but admitted that they only had contacts in the House, which made lobbying in the Senate a weak link. In response, the WDA hired two more lobbying firms in Washington, D.C., to gain the support of the Senate, following the example of the Farm Bill’s ban on dogs and cats.

Arent Fox Schiff’s team was led by former Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan, a veteran of 10 years in the House of Representatives and 20 years in the Senate. He has many contacts in the Senate.

The BGR Group is led by Fred Turner, who, although not a former member, was the Chief of Staff to Senator Hastings and later to Senator Bob Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, and is familiar with the Foreign Affairs Committee’s process for approving international conventions. If he could lobby his former boss, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, directly, the promotion of the International Agreement to Prohibit the Eating of Dogs and Cats would be much more effective.