Do You Know About the Humane Society of the United States?

Despite their deceptive tug-at-your heartstrings television ads featuring shelter animals, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) doesn’t operate a single pet shelter or adoption facility anywhere. The HSUS is NOT associated in any way with your local Humane Society. It does NOT provide local shelters with funding. In reality, the HSUS is a wealthy animal-rights lobbying organization (the largest and richest on earth) that crusades for the same goals as PETA and other radical groups. HSUS campaigns intentionally distort facts and misrepresent the organization as an animal welfare or animal protection group. They are neither.
A HUGE PROPAGANDA AND LOBBYING MACHINE

The HSUS has an agenda few would agree with if they realized it upfront. Therefore, the organization keeps that agenda fairly well-hidden. The leaders of the HSUS come from radical animal rights groups. They have admitted that their ultimate goal is to prevent humans from any sort of animal use or ownership. No hunting, fishing, farming, zoos, circuses. No eating meat, milk, eggs, or cheese. No animal research. No leather, feathers, or fur. Pets? Well, they would prefer that dogs and cats revert to a feral condition. Domestic animals are "enslaved" by humans, using the logic of these animal rights extremists. Dog shows? Dream on! We will lose our hobby as our rights erode along with each new piece of anti-breeder legislation.

The HSUS has limited knowledge of animal husbandry, despite their proclamation of expertise in this area. It does, however, excel at manipulating public opinion and extracting money from the public by the use of misleading propaganda. The HSUS rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars each year, yet spends only about 5% of their funds on actual care of animals. And those animals are not homeless pets like dogs and cats, they are animals in wildlife sanctuaries.

Most of the money that the HSUS raises gets funneled into the Humane Society Legislative Fund (HSLF). The HSLF lobbies aggressively and persistently for anti-animal ownership legislation in every state. The goal is to make conditions nearly impossible for people to hunt, fish, farm, and own pets. As just one example, the HSUS recently spent over $2 million on a ballot initiative in California which imposes burdensome restrictions on agriculture in our state. Other recent HSUS projects include mandatory sterilization bills, and bills that restrict animal breeding activities.

The HSUS raises money for its legislative fund by calling it warm fuzzy-sounding names, like "Animal Survivors Fund". They conduct campaigns such as "Let's Pass a Law" and "Put an End to Puppy Mills". Very deceptive!

Under the guise of implementing controls on substandard breeders, the HSUS has initiated what it calls “puppy mill bills”. They have pushed through bills that limit ownership of intact dogs in ten states so far: Wisconsin, Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Nebraska, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Washington.

Patrick Kwan, the HSUS coordinator for New York State, admitted in a recent seminar that an initial bill as presented by HSUS may set a cap of 40 or 50 intact animals per location, but once this cap is in place, the HSUS intends to lower the cap each year, that they will “crack down in later sessions”. He compared this to getting something criminalized as a misdemeanor at first, and then later getting the offense increased to a felony.

Now if anyone believes that the number of dogs bears any correlation to the quality of care they receive, do I have a bridge to sell you! Numbers limits will only serve to force the best breeders to stop breeding. These limits aren’t going to have any effect on substandard breeders who are already operating illegally by failing to conform with existing health and welfare standards.

HSUS HYPOCRITES

The HSUS has lobbied to defeat no-kill legislation wherever it has been introduced. Instead of asking shelters to save animals lives, they instead urge shelters to kill the animals as soon as any mandatory holding period expires.

The HSUS will orchestrate a dog fighting or breeder bust. They run in and grab the spotlight and the donations, claiming to care for the animals, Instead, they leave town with the money. They leave the REAL rescue groups with the work of rehabilitation, feeding, grooming, housing and re-homing.

 Remember the horrific Michael Vick dog fighting bust? HSUS collected millions in donations with the false promise that they would care for dogs in the Vick case, (dogs that they NEVER possessed), and then they asked the judge to kill all the Vick dogs...even the puppies! Luckily the court did not listen to them! Incredibly, after the dust from this incident settled, the president of HSUS, Wayne Pacelle, forged a business alliance between HSUS and animal torturer Vick.

Even more recently, the HSUS launched another aggressive advertising campaign. They utilized a picture of "Fay", an abused bull terrier with a disfigured face. Fay needed reconstructive surgery to repair her lips after she was rescued from a dog fighting operation. The HSUS exploited her situation for profit and never provided ONE THIN DIME of money to her care until they were called onto the carpet for it. Here's more about this shocking story:

http://www.nathanwinograd.com/?p=2318

During the Hurricane Katrina disaster, the HSUS collected over $34 million in donations, yet was only able to account for $7 million spent on the rescue effort. And they only reluctantly released that information because the Louisiana Attorney General conducted an 18 month-long investigation into HSUS activities during Katrina. Now the HSUS is shamelessly capitalizing on the Haiti earthquake disaster in their latest grab for cash.

THE HSUS LEADERS

HSUS’s senior management includes John Goodwin, a former spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a criminal group designated as “terrorists” by the FBI. John Goodwin was involved in an ALF arson attack at a California veal processing plant, and reported that he was "ecstatic" when an ALF arson fire in Utah nearly killed a family at a farmer's feed co-op in Utah. That same year, Goodwin was arrested at a UC Davis protest celebrating the 10-year anniversary of an ALF arson at the university that caused $5 million in damage. And in 1998, Goodwin described himself publicly as a “former member of ALF.”

HSUS President Wayne Pacelle is a strict vegan with a fanantic opposition to hunting and farming. In Full Cry magazine, October 1990, he says,

“We are going to use the ballot box and the democratic process to stop all hunting in the United States ... We will take it species by species until all hunting is stopped in California. Then we will take it state by state.”

Pacelle summarized his philosophy toward domestic animals in Animal People News in 1993: .

"We have no ethical obligation to preserve the different breeds of livestock produced through selective breeding ... One generation and out. We have no problems with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding."

Understandably, Wayne Pacelle doesn’t own a pet. In a July 19, 2008 Los Angeles Times article, Wayne’s girlfriend Christine describes Wayne’s distant, hands-off relationship with her cat Libby. “He just lets her be. So, of course, she just crawls on the counters and he lets her crawl up and sit on his chest. If he needs to work, he'll ask me to remove her." The article concludes with a statement from Pacelle that demonstrates his unwavering support of radical animal rights:

"It's really about human behavior and less about the animals. Animals for the most part just need to be left alone."

“THE ANIMAL RESCUE SITE”

Many rescue groups encourage people to visit "The Animal Rescue Site" and "feed a dog for free" or "vote" for their favorite rescue organization so they can receive prizes. Unfortunately, I don't think people are aware that the #1 charity this site solicits funds for is Cleveland Amory's "The Fund for Animals," a partner of the Humane Society of the US.

Cleveland Amory was a co-founder of HSUS, but he resigned as he didn't feel that the HSUS was radical enough in promoting animal rights. He worked hand in hand with PETA for many years, in addition to his own “Fund for Animals.” Amory died in 1998. After his death, the HSUS acquired his "Fund for Animals" as well as his wildlife, rabbit and horse sanctuaries. Before that time, HSUS did not operate any sort of animal shelter.

The Animal Rescue Site is affiliated with the HSUS..... NOT your local SPCA. If you go to the Animal Rescue Site website, and look at their "charitable partners" you will find “The Fund for Animals". The number of hits to the Animal Rescue website is used to solicit advertising dollars, which goes to these "partners". Also, notice that in the "Rescue Site" message they use the generic term "animals". Their sanctuaries house rabbits, horses, and wildlife, not dog and cats. Another HSUS smoke and mirrors deception.

Chilling quotes directly from “The Animal Rescue Site” about the “Fund for Animals”:

"The Fund has won landmark lawsuits to protect animals from hunting and trapping, and the organization is currently fighting for animals with the help of the Animal Protection Litigation section. This group of full-time attorneys, law clerks, and pro bono law firms are defending animals in federal and state courts from cruelty and abuse. The Fund's current cases seek to protect endangered species, stop the abuse of circus elephants, keep national wildlife refuges safe for animals, and much more."

"The Fund for Animals and The HSUS enhanced their public policy work in 2005 by forming the Humane Society Legislative Fund, which is working to pass laws protecting animals in Congress and in all 50 states.”

It is precisely those laws the HSUS openly admits to working toward that are a threat to all of us who wish to enjoy such traditional pursuits as hunting, farming and owning pets.

A TAX-EXEMPT CHARITY?

Incredibly, HSUS enjoys a status as a tax-exempt charity organization! That’s right, the HSUS pays NO taxes...even though they spend a TON on political lobbying. The lobbying activities permitted to a tax-exempt charity are very limited.

Consequently, there is a grassroots movement afoot to petition the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of the HSUS. Over 3200 letters so far have been sent to the IRS headquarters, and these letters originate from all 50 states.

According to a 2008 Los Angeles Times investigation, less than 12 percent of money raised for HSUS by California telemarketers actually ends up in HSUS’s bank account. The rest is kept by professional fundraisers. With questions being publicly raised about their balance sheet, The HSUS is refusing to release their financial records to The American Institute of Philanthropy. (http://www.charitywatch.org).

So when you see ads on TV showing pitiful, neglected dogs and cats, complete with soulful haunting sound effects, and Wendy Malick asks you to open up your wallet and donate $19 per month.....JUST SAY NO! Instead, support your local animal shelter and rescue groups!

Make sure to watch this expose by WSB-TV Atlanta:
http://ar-hr.com/hsus-expose-wsb-tv/wsb-tv-investigates-hsus/

More resources:

HSUS Impersonate Police Officers:

http://petdefense.wordpress.com/

"I want the scum to think we are law enforcement" states Scotlund Haisley, Senior Director, Emergency Services, The Humane Society of the United States, (pictured here).

http://saova.org/articles/PDF/HSUS.pdf

http://www.exposeanimalrights.com/

http://www.humanewatch.org/