Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Humane Society of the United States is Not What You Think

I found this article thanks to the good people at The Center for Consumer Freedom. Although the article is not about foie gras specifically, it is important for us to be aware of the organizations working against us. Humane Society of the United States has a huge bankroll. It seeks total animal liberation. This is not an organization running shelters or caing for animals. It is a lobbyist organization, collecting millions of dollars from unsuspecting Americans. How much money do you think these people would get if they came out and told you -We don't want you to eat meat at all, and we're going to try very hard to make it illegal for you to do so. In fact, we don't want you to have farms, bred dogs, or fish tanks. Now, give us money.- Nope. Not getting my money.

So read this article and get informed HSUS! Stop giving them money...they are not what you think


Critic speaks against HSUS

Tom Hennessy, Staff columnist, presstelegram.com

Article Launched: 10/13/2007 09:38:22 PM PDT

In late August, following the defeat of AB1634, an Assembly bill calling for mandatory spaying and neutering of dogs and cats, I ran an interview with Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States.
He touched on a variety of issues, including his critics. Patti Strand, director of the National Animal Interest Alliance, asked me to publish her rebuttal to the Pacelle article. The rebuttal was delayed several weeks because of a death in her family.

NAIA is based in Portland, Ore. I take neither side in this debate, but note only that there are deep divisions in the animal rights movement.
Her rebuttal is as follows:

Wayne Pacelle is correct to rank the NAIA as one of the most prominent critics. We wear that label with honor, many of our members believing HSUS is corrupt to the bone. This corruption comes down to three major elements.

First, HSUS allows its financial supporters - ordinary, animal-loving Americans - to believe it spends an enormous annual tax-free budget of $123 million on caring for animals, when its real agenda is passing extremist legislation.

Second, HSUS calls itself a mainstream advocacy group, hiding or downplaying the fact that it has an extremist agenda. HSUS is all about promoting vegan diets - no meat, no dairy - and ending traditional human-animal relationships across the board, from agriculture to biomedical research.

Third, HSUS constantly engages in deceptive propaganda, half-truths and outright lies in well-funded media campaigns to win its political and legislative battles. But they are not held accountable for their tactics because they are a nonprofit group that enjoys political free speech protections.

NAIA believes it is our responsibility, as animal experts and proponents of true animal welfare, to point out the facts. What qualifies us to know fact from fiction? NAIA is rapidly becoming the nation's leading advocacy organization for animals and the people who actually care for them.

Our members include individuals who interact with animals regularly in a wide variety of settings. We are pet owners, farmers, researchers, animal trainers, biologists, sportsmen, animal caretakers, dog and cat breeders and enthusiasts, educators and entertainers.

Our members have earned their credentials by working with, and in many cases living with, animals, not by reading philosophical treatises or emotional propaganda. We support the responsible, traditional and humane use of animals in agriculture, biomedical research, education, leisure and recreation, entertainment and companionship. We support and advocate reasonable, effective and enforceable laws that ensure the humane treatment of animals and provide penalties for animal abuse.
We support the rights of others to disagree with our views but not to employ defamation and propaganda to force their views on others. To recognize HSUS' deception and sit idly by would be to shirk our responsibility not only as animal experts but as citizens; for we believe the HSUS is destroying the mainstream animal protection movement.

The shelter issue

Mr. Pacelle also seems baffled that anyone would go after HSUS for not having shelters because as he stated, "We never said we run - local animal shelters." This is vintage HSUS. They call themselves a humane society and then blame the public for being confused.

By calling itself the Humane Society of the United States, HSUS rides into every situation on a "case of mistaken identity" - an identity that, oops, just happens to raise millions of dollars: the mistaken impression for many Americans being that it is a humane society rather than a giant propaganda, lobbying and fundraising machine.
When citizens notice that HSUS' carefully crafted image is at odds with reality and say so, HSUS responds with another opportunistic spin, saying that their critics are just people "who don't really care about animals."

Using that logic, maybe humane societies around the country don't really care about animal welfare either. Many of them have begun putting disclaimers on their Web sites urging their donors not to confuse them with the HSUS.

As Pacelle himself stresses, HSUS is a lobbying group. Instead of representing the humane values of the American public, the well-oiled lobby and propaganda machine of HSUS virtually assures that the voting public will be systematically deceived whenever they're asked to vote on an HSUS-backed measure. The history of successful HSUS ballot initiatives is a history replete with after-the-event self-flagellation and revulsion by people who recognized later that they were duped.

To us it appears that the priorities of HSUS, as former employees have publicly written, are power and money, and that acquiring both justifies the means. That's where the willingness to deceive comes in. These folks should make Pinocchio blush.

Alleged strategy

When HSUS sets out to do a ballot initiative, as it plans for next year in California, they don't just come to town and start promoting their opinion. Nor do they publish a notice informing voters that as vegans they oppose the consumption of meat, dairy, and even eggs on their anti-farm ballot initiatives. Such a statement might raise questions by voters.

Instead, HSUS conducts sophisticated polling to uncover exactly which messages will work, targeting urban audiences who know little about husbandry and who just happen to live in the most populated areas where a media buy will go a long way. Then, they run one deceptive ad one after another, showing heart-wrenchingly gruesome images, often from foreign countries or showing practices from decades ago, even ones already illegal.

Worse yet, they promote half-truths in support of legislation that in many cases harms animals, even though these bills further the political goals of HSUS. The horse slaughter bill and most of the anti-farming initiatives fall into this classification. HSUS may counter that large companies do major polling and launch advertising campaigns too, prior to introducing new products - but there is a big difference.

The difference is this: When corporations market new products, the public at least recognizes that someone is trying to sell them something. And there are at least some laws that govern how much blue sky can be sold along with the product.
In the case of HSUS, PETA, and other fellow travelers in animal rights, the public only thinks they're regulated and required to be reasonably truthful. The public doesn't realize that political speech is far more protected than commercial speech. Thus, HSUS can say pretty much what it wishes and get away with it.

In the HSUS world of "when did you stop beating your wife" politics, it's basically Defamation For Dollars. They understand social marketing and use it to deceive the public into voting away their rights, their economic best interests, and tragically, the welfare of the animals the public thinks they are voting to protect.
Keep in mind that HSUS is planning a campaign in California that will affect the poultry, pork and beef industries. If it follows suit, it will harm not only California consumers but also the animals themselves.

Tougher for horses

As the American Veterinary Medical Association wrote earlier this week regarding the misguided HSUS campaign against horse slaughter. Efforts by groups calling for an end to horse slaughter, such as the Humane Society of the United States, have led to the closure of the three remaining processing plants in the United States.
Now, as the AVMA has repeatedly warned, horses are being abandoned in the United States or transported to Mexico where, without U.S. federal oversight and veterinary supervision, they are slaughtered inhumanely.

"The reality is, the HSUS has done nothing to address the real issue here, and, in fact, by seeking to ban horse slaughter, they have made things significantly worse," says Dr. Mark Lutschaunigm, director of government relations for the AVMA. "If they really wanted to do something productive to improve the welfare of horses, they would address the issue of unwanted horses in the United States."
And the half-truths and lies aren't confined to pushing bad policies in the United States. Internationally, HSUS was refused entrance into the 2000 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, for filing false accusations about CITES member nations.

In the state of Washington, the HSUS-driven Proposition 713, an anti-trapping ballot initiative, was so misleading, the legislature voted to overturn it when it became obvious that the voters had been misled.

Floridians saw their pork industry - small as it was - wash out entirely because of the cost of equipment changes required by the passage of their anti-gestation confinement, Proposition 204, a measure designed to eliminate gestation crates used by farmers to protect the lives of piglets.

Next year

When the HSUS-inspired ballot initiative is forwarded next year, NAIA and its members will be proud to stand with California farmers.

Our membership includes veterinarians, wildlife biologists and other animal scientists, dog and cat breeder/enthusiasts, animal trainers, farmers, ranchers, and others with hands-on experience in animal husbandry and care.

We are fighting a David vs. Goliath battle here. HSUS has regional branch offices all over America and over $100 million to fight, mislead and deceive. We at NAIA are a small, mostly unpaid band of hard-working, hands-on animal people.

Truth, hands-on knowledge, understanding and fair mindedness make us proud of the company we keep. We are proud that many cities around the country call on NAIA for expert guidance to draft sensible animal laws. And we feel validated to be on the same side of the fence as state and federal law enforcement in the animal welfare debate. We are also proud to stand with the American farmer, the legions of dog fanciers, and others who are the real backbone of the mainstream animal welfare movement.

None of them engage in the systematic misrepresentation of issues for profit and power that we see occurring as standard practice in HSUS and other conflict fundraising groups.

Unfortunately, it's the average, uninformed American citizen who winds up at the short end of the stick, thanks to the machinations of HSUS.

But I can tell you this: the animal welfare movement is onto them. And we're going to keep digging in our heels and telling the truth in our loudest possible voice.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

pot says kettle, kettle says pot. "deceptive propaganda, half-truths and outright lies"

yeah, yeah, yeah, that what im here for cause I love them.

Hey, you want some fun? look up "pony players" or "human pets" maybe when you see how disgusding and embarassing a human forced into the role of a slave animal is youll understand something about the very nature of animal bondage.

A hundred years from now our ancestors will shake there heads and wonder why it took us so long to overthrow the regime of animal slavery, abuse and murder.

Anonymous said...

No, they won't.

Anonymous said...

maybe not your anscestors. you prbably wont have any before your retarded bloodline dies out, thank god for the welfare of animals

Anonymous said...

Just what we need. More people posting this pro slaughter dribble that is full of inaccuracies. The HSUS is NOT trying to ban all animals as food animals. If you’d do a little research before posting their propaganda, you would know they are trying to make the process more humane. More humane so the animals don’t suffer. We are the stewards of animals and if we don’t protect them, who will? They have no voice. As far as the AVA, a little research on them and you would have discovered that the organization is pro slaughter but the dues paying membership is not. Many of the vets have formed their own organization (http://vetsforequinewelfare.org/) that are speaking out loud and clear against horse slaughter. This organization was formed when the kill houses were still open in the US. There is plenty of information on just how inhumane they were which is why Americans lobbied to shut them down. All that is left is to ban the transport through the federal legislation – HR503 & S311 and this despicable industry will be history and just a bad chapter in American history.

Anonymous said...

HSUS and AWI are two of very few organizations that stand between a free for all with animals and some protection and yes LAWS! My gosh, they actually want some laws to protect animals, imagine that.

Thanks AWI and HSUS! I know you aren't perfect, I know of only one person that walked the earth who was perfect.

Anonymous said...

This is most definitely a shill site set up by Patti Strand of the National Animal Interest Alliance. She is the "National Director" and apparently the primary spokesperson along with one or two loyal trolls. No wonder she does not contain links back to her "pro-horse slaughter, factory farming, cosmetics testing, pound seizure, fois gras, veal crate, fur ranch, steel leg hold trap" web site. Both the NAIA and Berman & Company front sites (CCF, PETAkills Animals, anti-labor union sites, etc.) operate as fraudulent 501 (3) tax exempt "charities". Its legislative branch, the "NAIA Trust" is also listed as a "non-profit" under a 501 (4). http://www.naiatrust.org/gov/index

Some of these ridiculous quotes on horse slaughter are directly from this site. Horses are not "slaughtered", they are simply "processed" as in “horse processing for horses that no longer meet the needs of their owners". http://www.naiaonline.org/library/Animal_Rights_Win_Horses_Lose.htm

Like CCF (whom it often references); NAIA targets PETA and HSUS (probably related to PETA investigations and lawsuits against its clients and board). Criticisms of PETA and HSUS include: campaigns against factory farming http://www.naiaonline.org/pdfs/oppositionform.pdf and horse slaughter as well as their promotion of mandatory spay/neuter and breeding restrictions. The NAIA has endorsed factory farming, foie gras production, steel hold leg traps, fur ranching, pound seizure, cosmetics testing and horse slaughter or “horse processing for horses that no longer meet the needs of their owners". http://www.naiaonline.org/library/Animal_Rights_Win_Horses_Lose.htm

The NAIA aggressively opposes mandatory spay/neuter programs; usually instigated by desperate state, city and county governments dealing with shelter over crowding and high euthanasia. http://www.naiaonline.org/issues/campaigns.htm While often focusing on the “problem of dangerous dogs” http://www.akc.org/canine_legislation/position_statements.cfm#dangerousdog NAIA ignores breeding, health and welfare issues which lead to temperament problems. There have been numerous studies and published writings linking chaining, confinement and lack of proper socialization to canine aggression, http://www.nationalcanineresearchcouncil.com/
They lobby heavily in favor of unregulated breeding (puppy mills) as they represent the American Kennel Club (Ms. Strand is a board member since 1995) which rakes in over 30 million a year from AKC registered puppies from mills. Patti Strand has frequently lobbied for licensing rescues and shelters as "dealers" (believe it or not)as they cut into the puppy mill "market" the AKC depends on.

The milk of compassion certainly runs through this woman. She is probably in her 60's and yet is setting up fake blogs pretending to be a "college student" strangely obsessed with rationalizing foie gras and horse slaughter.
Ms. Strand, please get a life. Money isn't everything. Your wealthy NAIA clients in the fur, factory farming, vivisection and puppy mill industries would be wise to do the same.

National Animal Interest Alliance
11402 Se Flavel St
Portland, OR 97290-6579
503-761-1139
http://www.naiaonline.org