Farming, Hunting and Animal Rights

Over the four years of the Biden administration and as far back as the Obama administration, anti-2nd Amendment, anti-hunting and animal rights groups have been pushing banks towards a policy of denying banking services and financial products to the firearm and ammunition industries.

Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and Humane Society International blogged: “It is therefore immensely important that considerations of animal welfare and a shift toward plant-forward food systems are integrated into core financing and investing strategies.”  Basically, they want us to become vegetarians!

However, the Trump administration has put up a detour sign and is tearing that avenue up.

While speaking at the World Economic Forum 2025 in Davos, Switzerland, just four days into his second term, President Donald Trump urged major banking institutions to abandon their previously held politics-based lending protocols that discriminated against the firearm and ammunition industries.

As a result, Citigroup announced it was no longer implementing its long-held policy of discrimination against the firearm industry

Shareholder resolutions related to animal welfare were introduced at both Bank of America and Citigroup board meetings.  Both boards opposed the proposals and signaled no intention to address the issue publicly.

So, these anti-2nd Amendment, anti-hunting and animal rights groups are paving another road.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) created a gun-related Merchant Category Code (MCC) for credit and debit card companies to use to track purchases of firearms and ammo. When most banks announced they would NOT be moving forward with implementing the code, Democrat run states like New York passed or are proposing laws to force banks to adopt these codes, paving the way for a gun registry.

Animal rights activists, the Wilberforce Institute, is connected to Washington, D.C., lobbyist Marty Irby who spent years as executive director of Animal Wellness Action (AWA). AWA’s spent huge amounts to defeat pro-hunting conservatives and electing anti-hunting and gun control supporting progressives, (according to OpenSecrets.)

The Wilberforce Institute’s political goals include banning traditional ammunition for hunting and using frivolous lawsuits to tie up businesses. (For example: in New York and other states, proposed bills target lead ammunition; the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled against Mexico’s attempt to sue the firearm industry but Mexico is rumored to be trying a different tactic toward that same end; many Democrat run states are passing laws to work around federal laws and allow frivolous lawsuits against the firearm industry.)

When voters reject their activist agendas and banks shrug off their financial discrimination demands, the anti-2A, anti-hunting, anti-science animal rights activist turn to the courts.

Animal rights group Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) attempted to have judges rule that elephants, that are in the care of zoos, have “personhood” rights. That attempt was defeated. 

If the courts had decided that the elephants, or any other animal in monitored and beneficial care, possessed personhood rights, the flood gate would open for future lawsuits against other zoos, farms and even pet owners.

Gun owners must be aware that these groups will use the courts, the ballot box and major banking institutions to push their radical anti-2A, anti-hunting, animal rights agenda. The societal and economic costs are of no concern to them.  When one door closes to them, they open another.

Hunters should obviously be concerned about their 2A rights and farmers need to ally with 2A organization such as SCOPE.  And those not interested in becoming vegetarians might consider joining us, too.