About HSUS

[Jodi]

Link:
www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm?headline=2780


April 5, 2005


The New Anti-Meat 'Humane' Goliath

The New Anti-Meat 'Humane' Goliath When long-time animal rights activist Wayne Pacelle took over as president of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) last June, he sent a memo to all HSUS staffers articulating his vision for the future. The HSUS's new "campaigns section," Pacelle wrote, "will focus on farm animals." For those keeping track, the group's new budget is about three times the size of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' (PETA). Its new president (like his counterparts at PETA) is a strict vegan whose goal is to create "a National Rifle Association of the animal rights movement." And he's adding additional unapologetic meat and dairy "abolitionists" to his staff.

In February, former Compassion Over Killing (COK) president Miyun Park joined HSUS as a staffer in its new "farm animals and sustainable agriculture department." Around the same time, HSUS added COK's other co-founder, Paul Shapiro, to its staff as "Manager, Factory Farming Campaign."

Like Wayne Pacelle, both Park and Shapiro are self-described strict vegans. Hiring them signals that Pacelle is serious about giving anti-meat campaigns a prominent place in his group's mammoth structure. And Shapiro noted during an August 2004 animal-rights seminar (hosted by United Poultry Concerns) that after just 10 weeks at the helm, Pacelle had "already implemented a 'no animal products in the office' policy ... You know, they're going to have actual farmed-animal campaigns now, where they're going to be trying to legislate against gestation crates and all this stuff."

In October, just a few months before he became an HSUS staffer, Shapiro told the 2004 National Student Animal Rights Conference: “The time is ripe for us to take action. Everything in the news is pointing towards it; we see things every day we can capitalize on” He added, “[N]othing is more important than promoting veganism.”

Americans who enjoy meat, cheese, eggs, and milk may soon come to regard HSUS as a new PETA, with an even broader reach. HSUS has over $113 million in assets and an annual operating budget of $69 million to spend on programs dreamed up by its new rising stars. And the group's recent merger with The Fund For Animals will likely bump its budget into the $80 million range.

Most of that enormous budget comes in the form of small donations from average Americans, many of whom think they're supporting their local "humane society." HSUS's fundraising mailers often use photographs of dogs and cats that imply a connection. But as HSUS itself admits (in a disclosure buried deep within its website):

[T]he Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is not affiliated with, nor is it a parent organization for, local humane societies, animal shelters, or animal care and control agencies ... The HSUS does not operate or have direct control over any animal shelter.

[Jodi]

about the Humane society of the united states
Activist Cash ^

Posted on 01/04/2004 4:16:19 PM PST by freedom man4534

Humane Society of the United States

"[T]he Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is not affiliated with, nor is it a parent organization for, local humane societies, animal shelters, or animal care and control agencies … The HSUS does not operate or have direct control over any animal shelter." — From a 2001 disclaimer issued by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)

"The life of an ant and that of my child should be granted equal consideration." — HSUS senior scholar Michael W. Fox

"The Humane Society should be worried about protecting animals from cruelty. It’s not doing that. The place is all about power and money." — HSUS consultant and former HSUS Chief Investigator Robert Baker, in U.S. News & World Report (October 2, 1995)

"I’m not an admirer of HSUS. They’ve always been primarily a direct-mail operation, and what’s known in animal rights circles as a credit-grabber." — HSUS co-founder Cleveland Amory

"My goal is the abolition of all animal agriculture." — HSUS grassroots coordinator John “J.P.” Goodwin

"We’ve started picketing outside the homes of the [department store] executives … Those executives do not deserve a break. They do not deserve to go home and rest." — J.P. Goodwin describing his anti-fur strategy

"HSUS really needs to be called to task for its triple sided hypocrisy. When HSUS addresses scientists they say they support animal research as necessary. When HSUS addresses the public they say it is evil but sometimes necessary. When HSUS addresses its members and other animal rights groups, they say it is evil and unnecessary." — Dr. Pat Cleveland of the University of California, San Diego

Background What comes to mind when you hear the words “humane society”? Likely your local animal shelter that takes in stray, neglected, and abused cats and dogs, promotes their adoption to new homes, and runs spay/neuter programs so that fewer unwanted animals will end up mistreated or euthanized.

That’s exactly what the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is banking on. This intentional misdirection has made HSUS the richest animal-rights organization on earth. HSUS has over $85 million in assets. It raises enough money to finance animal shelters in every single state, with money to spare. But it is not affiliated with any local “humane societies,” nor does it operate a single animal shelter.

A True Multinational Corporation

HSUS is a multinational conglomerate with ten regional offices in the United States and a special Hollywood Office that promotes and monitors the media’s coverage of animal-rights issues. It includes a huge web of organizations, affiliates, and subsidiaries. Some are nonprofit, tax-exempt “charities,” while others are for-profit taxable corporations, which don’t divulge anything about their financial dealings.

This unusually complex structure means that HSUS can hide expenses where the public would never think to look. Accordingly, HSUS’s true global net worth is extremely difficult to measure. Money routinely goes back and forth between HSUS affiliates and, short of a full-scale IRS audit, is impossible to track.

One small example: HSUS buried $6.4 million in direct-mail costs in the 2000-2001 budget of something called the HSUS Wildlife Land Trust. This allowed HSUS to claim that it kept its fundraising costs deceptively low.

Some HSUS affiliates appear to be environmental organizations -- like EarthKind (USA) and EarthKind (International) -- rather than animal groups. HSUS locates others outside the United States, allowing the group to avoid scrutiny.

HSUS personnel control the board of the British-based World Society for the Protection of Animals, which sells animal-rights-related products and investment/executor services worldwide. HSUS controls the profits.

But this isn’t always a foolproof arrangement. In January 1997, HSUS was ordered by an Ontario court to repay more than $1 million it removed from the bank accounts of two Canadian charities it started, the Humane Society of Canada and Humane Society International.

The bigger HSUS picture includes all the incorporated organizations listed at the bottom of this article.

From Animal Welfare to Animal Rights

There is an enormous difference between animal “welfare” organizations, which work for the humane treatment of animals, and animal “rights” organizations, which work to completely end the use and ownership of animals. The former have been around for centuries; the latter emerged in the 1980s, with the rise of the radical animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

The Humane Society of the United States began as an animal-welfare organization. Originally called the National Humane Society, it was established in 1954 as a splinter group of the American Humane Association (AHA). Its founders wanted a slightly more radical group -- the AHA did not oppose either sport hunting or the use of pound animals for biomedical research.

It has benefited from the similarity of names with this more legitimate cousin ever since.

HSUS has a distinctly religious feel, founded as a “ministry” for animals by Coleman Burke, then president of the American Bible Society; Cleveland Amory, an author who went on to found the Fund for Animals; and Helen Jones, who had earlier left the AHA. Presbyterian minister John A. Hoyt was president from 1970 to 1996. Paul G. Irwin, a Methodist minister, joined HSUS in 1975 and now serves as President and CEO. Both attended Colgate Rochester Divinity School in Rochester, NY.

In 1980, HSUS officially began to change its focus from animal welfare to animal rights. A vote was taken at the national conference in San Francisco and it was formally resolved that the group would “pursue on all fronts … the clear articulation and establishment of the rights of all animals … within the full range of American life and culture.”

In Animal Rights and Human Obligations, the published proceedings of this conference, HSUS stated unequivocally that “there is no rational basis for maintaining a moral distinction between the treatment of humans and other animals.”

Then-president John Hoyt hinted in 1986 that the animal-rights movement might be a means to a larger end, telling Washingtonian magazine: “This new philosophy [animal rights] has served as a catalyst in the shaping of our own philosophies, policies, and goals.” John McArdle, the group’s Director of Laboratory Animal Welfare, frankly admitted in the same article that HSUS was “definitely shifting in the direction of animal rights faster than anyone would realize from our literature.”

[Jodi]

The group completed its animal-rights transformation during the 1990s, changing its personnel in the process. HSUS assimilated dozens of staffers from PETA and other animal-rights groups, even employing John “J.P.” Goodwin, a former Animal Liberation Front member and spokesman with a lengthy arrest record and a history of promoting arson to accomplish animal liberation.

The change brought more money and media attention. Hoyt explained the shift in 1991, telling the National Journal, “PETA successfully stole the spotlight … Groups like ours that have plugged along with a larger staff, a larger constituency … have been ignored.” Hoyt agreed that PETA’s net effect within the animal-rights movement was to spur more moderate groups to take tougher stances in order to attract donations from the public. “Maybe.” Hoyt mused, “the time has come to say, ‘Since we haven’t been successful in getting half a loaf, let’s go for the whole thing.’”

The current goals of this misnamed “Humane Society” have nothing to do with animal shelters. The group took aim at the traditional morning meal of bacon and eggs with a tasteless “Breakfast of Cruelty” campaign. HSUS even wants to put an end to lifesaving biomedical research: as early as 1988 the group’s mailings demanded that the U.S. government “eliminate altogether the use of animals as research subjects.” HSUS has never budged from this extreme position.

Since its inception, the Humane Society of the Unites States has systematically tried to limit the choices of American consumers in dozens of areas. The organization is against any kind of dog breeding, conventional livestock and poultry farming, rodeos, circuses, horse racing, marine aquariums, and fur trapping. And that's just the beginning.

Domestic Deception

It takes millions of dollars to run campaigns against so many domestic targets, and HSUS consistently misleads Americans with its fundraising efforts by hinting that it’s a “humane society” in the more conventional sense of the term. For instance, a 2001 member recruitment mailing offered free t-shirts with cat and dog designs.

The fundraising letter, signed by Paul Irwin, calls those on the HSUS mailing list “true pet lovers,” referring to unspecified work on behalf of “dogs, puppies, cats, kittens.” Ironically, HSUS is on the forefront of the political movement to legally redefine “pets” as “companion animals,” and their “owners” as merely “guardians.”

Another recruitment mailing from that year includes “Thank You,” “Happy Birthday,” and “Get Well Soon” greeting cards featuring pets such as dogs, cats, and fish. The business reply envelope lists “7 Steps to a Happier Pet.”

A 2003 recruitment mailing also includes those “Steps,” as well as free address labels with pastel pictures of dogs and cats. The fundraising letter signed by Irwin details cruelties done to those animals. Part of the organization’s agenda does show, albeit subtly -- it substitutes the animal-rights term “companion animals” for “pets” numerous times in the mailing.

HSUS has even managed to get the U.S. government to help it raise funds (and its public profile). In 1995 the U.S. Postal Service mailed postcards to millions of homes for National Dog Bite Prevention Week. The mailer, which suggested ways dog owners could keep their pets from biting mail carriers, included the HSUS logo and address.

“Our mission is to encourage adoption in your neighborhood and throughout the country,” wrote Paul Irwin in another fundraising appeal. (Remember: HSUS doesn’t operate a single animal shelter). “Even though local shelters are trying their best to save lives, they are simply overwhelmed.” That last sentence, at least, is true. But don’t count on the multi-million-dollar conglomerate HSUS to do anything about it.

It didn’t in 1995, when the Washington (DC) Humane Society almost closed its animal shelter due to a budget shortfall. HSUS, which is also based in Washington, DC, ultimately withdrew an offer to build and operate a DC shelter, at its own expense, to serve as a national model.

In exchange for running the shelter, HSUS wanted three to five acres of city land and tax-exempt status for all its real estate holdings in the District of Columbia. The DC government offered a long-term lease, but that wasn’t good enough. HSUS refused to proceed unless it would “own absolutely” the land. The district declined, and what was to become the only HSUS-funded animal shelter never materialized.

HSUS doesn’t help local humane societies save dogs and cats, but it does fly in and out of communities, pouring in thousands of dollars to change their laws. “HSUS was the financial clout that rammed Initiative 713, the anti-trapping measure, down our throats,” reports Rich Landers of the Spokane (WA) Spokesman-Review. “I pleaded [with Wayne Pacelle, HSUS’s government affairs VP] at least four times for examples of HSUS commitment in Washington [state] other than introducing costly anti-hunting and anti-wildlife management initiatives. He had no immediate answer but promised to send me the list of good things HSUS does in this state. That was six months ago, and I presume Pacelle is still searching.”

Like other national animal-rights groups, HSUS has learned that pouring huge sums of money into ballot initiative campaigns can give it results normal public relations and lobbying work never could. Along with other heavy hitters like the Fund for Animals and Farm Sanctuary, HSUS scored a big victory in Florida in 2002 when a ballot initiative passed that gave constitutional rights to pregnant pigs.

Florida farmers were banned from using “gestation crates,” usually necessary to keep sows healthy during pregnancy and to prevent them from accidentally rolling over and crushing their newborn piglets. After this amendment passed, raising pigs became economically unsustainable for at least two farmers, who were forced to slaughter their animals rather than comply with the costly new constitutional requirements. Today, there are virtually no pork farmers left in Florida.

Animal-rights leaders plan to extend their “pregnant pigs” win to other states, and in 2003 are organizing in California and New Jersey. HSUS has also started a four-year campaign in Iowa, misleadingly called “Care4Iowa,” whose stated goal is to promote the so-called “humane” methods of livestock production that universally result in greater costs for farmers and higher prices for consumers.

And HSUS won’t stop at initiatives aimed at livestock farmers and trappers. At the 1996 HSUS annual meeting, Wayne Pacelle announced that the ballot initiative would be used for all manner of legislation in the future, including “companion animal issues and laboratory animal issues.” Pacelle, a vegan, has personally been involved in at least 22 such campaigns, 17 of which HSUS scored as victories. These operations, he says, “pay dividends and serve as a training ground for activists.”

HSUS is also a part of the Keep Antibiotics Working (KAW) coalition, a slick Washington-based PR campaign to end the “inappropriate” use of antibiotics in livestock animals. The coalition of mostly science-deprived environmental groups claims to worry deeply about antibiotic resistance in humans, without devoting any attention to the rampant overprescription of the drugs to humans.

Why doesn’t HSUS want animals to receive disease-preventing antibiotics? Most likely because raising livestock without antibiotics is much more difficult and costly, and the resulting meat, eggs, and dairy are considerably more expensive. The KAW coalition’s goals would give many Americans an economic incentive to lean toward vegetarianism, and HSUS would, of course, not object. KAW is currently working to introduce a bill in Congress that would completely phase out the majority of vital antibiotic use in farm animals.

[Jodi]

School Activism 101

Despite an animal-rights agenda every bit as radical as PETA’s, the Humane Society of the United States has gained entry to countless segments of polite society. One of the more frightening consequences of this is the group’s relatively unfettered access to U.S. schools.

Through its National Association for Humane and Environmental Education, as well as a series of animal-rights-oriented publications, HSUS spreads its four-legs-good message to schoolchildren as young as five.

One package, titled People and Animals -- A Humane Education Guide, suggests films and books for teachers to present to their students. In these recommended teaching tools, sport hunters are called “selective exterminators” and “drunken slobs” who participate in a “blood sport” and a “war on wildlife” with “maniacal attitudes toward killing.” Another teachers’ guide contains anti-circus stories in which animals are repeatedly depicted as overworked and abused.

At the same time, HSUS hypocritically complains that it is inappropriate for the federal government to distribute educational materials about the use of animals in medical research laboratories, complaining: “These materials inappropriately target young people, who do not possess the cognitive ability to make meaningful decisions regarding highly controversial and complex issues.”

The “Humane” Web

In addition to the HSUS flagship offices in Maryland and DC, the organization’s global network includes control over the following legal corporations (this list is evolving as new information becomes available):

Nonprofit affiliates:

Alice Morgan Wright-Edith Goode Fund (DC); Alternative Congress Trust (DC); Animal Channel (DC); Association Humanataria De Costa Rica; Center for the Respect of Life and Environment (DC); Charlotte and William Parks Foundation for Animal Welfare (DC); Conservation Endowment Fund (see ICEC) (CA); Earth Restoration Corps. (DC); Earthkind Inc. (DC); Earthkind International Inc. (DC); Earthkind USA (DC); Earthkind USA (MT); Earthkind UK [ also affiliated with the International Fund for Animal Welfare] (UK); Earthvoice (DC); Earthvoice International (DC); Eating with a Conscience Campaign (DC); HSUS Hollywood Office (formerly The Ark Trust Inc.) (CA); Humane Society International (DC), which also operates

the International Center for Earth Concerns (ICEC) in Ojai, California, the Center for Earth Concerns in Costa Rica, and the Conservation Endowment Fund in California; Humane Society International Australian Office Inc.; Humane Society International of Latin America; Humane Society of the United States (DE); Humane Society of the United States (MD); Humane Society of the United States (MT); Humane Society of the United States (PA); Humane Society of the United States (VT); Humane Society of the United States Wildlife Land Trust (DC); Humane Society of the United States Wildlife Land Trust (KS); Humane Society of the United States Wildlife Land Trust (OK); Humane Society of the United States Utah State Branch (UT); Humane Society University (DC); Institute for the Study of Animal Problems (DC); Interfaith Council for the Protection of Animals and Nature (GA); International Society for the Protection of Animals (UK); International Wilderness Leadership Wild Foundation Inc. [d/b/a The WILD Foundation] (CA); Kindness Club International Inc. (DC); Meadowcreek Project Inc. (AR); Meadowcreek Inc. (AR); National Association for Humane and Environmental Education (DC); National Humane Education Center (VA); Species Survival Network (MI); Valerie Sheppard Humane Society University (DC); Wildlife Rehabilitation Training Center (MA); World Federation for the Protection of Animals Inc. (DC); World Society for the Protection of Animals (DC); World Society for the Protection of Animals (IA); World Society for the Protection of Animals (ND); World Society for the Protection of Animals (VT); World Society for the Protection of Animals - Canada; World Society for the Protection of Animals - Deutshland; World Society for the Protection of Animals International (UK); World Society for the Protection of Animals UK (UK); Worldwide Network Inc. (DC). For-profit affiliates:

The Humane Catalog (VA); Humane Equity Fund [defunct] (DC); Humane Society Press (DC); Humane Society of the United States California Branch Inc. (CA); Humane Society of the United States Connecticut Branch Inc. (CT); Humane Society of the United States New Jersey Branch Inc. (NJ); Humane Society of the United States Virginia Branch Inc. (VA); World Society for the Protection of Animals (MA); World Society for the Protection of Animals - Australia; World Society for the Protection of Animals Executor Services (UK); World Society for the Protection of Animals Trading Company (UK).

Humane Society of the United States

Motivation The Humane Society of the United States has always had a religious bent. Started as a “ministry” for animals by the head of the American Bible Society, its former and current presidents are both Protestant ministers. But passing the collection plate seems to be more important to HSUS than spreading the gospel of compassion toward animals.

In 1970, when Presbyterian minister John A. Hoyt took over its presidency, HSUS had just 30,000 members and an annual budget of about $500,000. By 1994, HSUS’s annual revenue had grown to $22 million.

At the end of 2002, this “nonprofit” group declared assets totaling over $85 million (including almost $25 million in cash and over $55 million invested in securities). It enjoyed a revenue stream of $60 million (with $3 million in income from its investments alone).

HSUS has a pattern of jumping on bandwagons after other groups have done the groundwork -- stealing their thunder and muscling in on their fundraising. For instance, HSUS launched its first “Shame of Fur” campaign in 1988. Other groups had already been agitating against fur retailers since the early 1970s. Nor was the content of HSUS’s appeal particularly original -- its theme and design were stolen from other American and Dutch anti-fur campaigns.

Opportunism is clearly the name of the game, and HSUS will even adopt conflicting positions if enough money is involved. Two HSUS donors once wrote to John Hoyt with very different views of the sinking of Icelandic whaling ships by Paul Watson’s violent Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in the late 1980s. In one response, Hoyt agreed with the donor that Watson’s actions were wrong, writing: “I am unequivocally opposed to any and all acts of violence in the pursuit of efforts to protect animals from abuse and suffering.” In the other, he declared that Sea Shepherd’s work was “indeed, a daring and masterful bit of James Bond on behalf of the great whales.”

The Humane Society of the United States recently joined the highly lucrative third-party certification business. Some environmental and animal-rights groups have developed “eco-labels,” offered (for a price) by sponsoring organizations to certify food and clothing as environmentally friendly. HSUS is a founding member of the Humane Farm Animal Care coalition. For the right amount of money, its “Certified Humane Raised & Handled” label is available to meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy producers.

Cannibalizing the Little Guys

In its quest to gobble up an ever larger share of worldwide animal-rights income, HSUS established the Humane Equity Fund in 2000. Housed at Salomon Smith Barney, the Fund was designed to capture money from smaller animal-rights groups (and financially naive local humane societies) by offering to “manage” their assets in an “animal-friendly way.” HSUS seeded the Fund with an $8 million check.

Salomon Smith Barney committed to paying HSUS an annual consulting fee equal to 0.07 percent of the fund’s average daily balance. In order to earn its cut, HSUS would identify corporations worthy of the Fund’s “humane” investment policies -- and blacklist other investment vehicles as “inhumane.”

Contemporary accounts indicate that some sizable local animal-welfare groups (e.g., the Dumb Friends League in Denver with $27 million in assets) jumped at the chance to generate good PR by moving all their investments to the HSUS-run scheme.

As of March 2001, the Fund was reportedly generating a 7.3 percent return for investors, with assets of over $11 million. But just five months later, press reports showed that the Fund had lost nearly 11 percent during the previous year.

By August 2002, the Fund was “terminated” because, according to HSUS, “many funds suffered in the recent economic conditions.” How much of local animal-welfare groups’ money was squandered by HSUS’s failed investment vehicle is unknown.

[Jodi]

The Celebrity Angle

When Fund for Animals rainmaker Cleveland Amory joined the HSUS executive suite, he brought the support of celebrities like the late screen legend Henry Fonda, singer Andy Williams, and the late Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco.

He also brought actress Gretchen Wyler, who would later found the Ark Trust in Hollywood, best known for dispensing the “Genesis Awards,” a glitzy homage to media and movie stars who promote the animal-rights gospel. In 2002, HSUS announced it was taking over the Ark Trust and renaming it the HSUS Hollywood Office.

A growing contingent of Hollywood celebrities continue to publicly endorse HSUS programs today, lending their names and likenesses to the group’s fundraising and advocacy programs. The list includes Jenna Elfman, Candace Bergen, Ed Asner, and "Golden Girls" Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Bea Arthur. (The last three also flack for PETA.)

Animal-Rights Ideology

Of course, money isn’t the only thing behind HSUS’s work. Animal-rights extremism also plays a role. HSUS does not only seek to ensure animals are humanely treated -- it wants to completely eliminate the human use of animals.

HSUS wants to end, for example, lifesaving biomedical research on animals. “Absolutely horrifying” is how John Hoyt characterized such research. “We have to fight the well-financed and powerful agribusiness and research industries,” he wrote in a fundraising letter to HSUS members, referring to “the needless and repetitive experimentation on animals in the ‘research’ laboratory.” Former board member Robert F. Welborn declared in HSUS News, “I question the moral propriety of causing animals to suffer for the purpose of testing products intended for humans or for dealing with human maladies.” HSUS mailings have called on the government “to eliminate altogether the use of animals as research subjects.”

HSUS stands with PETA in opposing xenotransplantation, the use of animal organs to replace diseased human organs, including the baboon bone marrow received by AIDS activist Jeff Getty. It also joined PETA in trying to block a NASA project that used animals to study weightlessness in space.

HSUS is not particularly friendly toward the use of animals as food, either. In 1995, HSUS launched its “Eating with a Conscience” campaign, directed by Howard Lyman.

Lyman, a strict vegan, is best known for his 1996 appearance on the “Oprah” television show, where he tried to scare consumers away from beef by saying that mad cow disease would make AIDS “look like the common cold.”

International Dominance

Not only does HSUS operate ten regional U.S. offices, but the HSUS-controlled World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), based in Great Britain, has offices in 13 countries as well. The resulting conglomerate has expanded its horizons to include international medical research, livestock, and wildlife issues. With a bevy of political operatives and plenty of money to spend, HSUS and WSPA battle with animal handlers, veterinarians, and even governmental wildlife officials, in order to enforce the view that animals should have legal rights. WSPA has tried to ban bullfighting in Spain and asked organizers of the World Gourmet Summit to remove foie gras from their menu.

HSUS created and controls the 60-member Species Survival Network, which spearheads animal-rights/non-use campaigns before the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Whaling Commission, and other international forums. The coalition is generally opposed to trade in wildlife and has devoted much time to opposing any end to the African ivory ban. HSUS spent $2 million on travel expenses in 2001 just keeping its irons in the fire.

[Jodi]

For additional details on HSUS income and salaries, see www.21stcenturycares.org/2003natexp.htm and www.21stcenturycares.org/main3.htm

What IS The Humane Society of the United States?
By Christopher Aust
August 2004

I was rather amazed at the number of people who wrote to me about my opinions regarding the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) when I did my last few articles. Then again, maybe I shouldn't be. Before about two weeks ago, I myself was rather ignorant as to the real goals of HSUS, and where their, (actually your) money goes. As I always do though, I decided to edumacate myself about them.

I also conducted a poll of 100 average people. Just the average Joe in the street. 94% of the people thought HSUS ran the local shelters in their community. 4% knew about their other programs and the remaining 2% had no idea who they were. Of the 94% all said they would donate to HSUS based on what they knew about them. I'm betting HSUS is banking, literally, on these types of individuals.

I also went online and found some rather interesting, at times quite scary, information on several web sites. I would have interviewed a HSUS representative, but after last week's newsletter, I got an email from one that was little more than hate mail and very offensive!


Founders

Coleman Burke, then president of the American Bible Society, Cleveland Amory and Helen Jones, founded HSUS in 1954. As far as I have been able to tell, Mr. Burke served as their President until 1970 when John Hoyt, a Presbyterian minister, took over as President and CEO until 1996.

Until just a few months ago, the President and CEO was Paul Irwin, a Methodist minister. The current CEO and President is Wayne Pacelle who admittedly has had ties with some radical (and I mean radical) animal rights groups in the past.

Now, is it important I mention the religious background? Maybe and maybe not. What I noticed though is the organization, at least to me, has an evangelical feel. Is this a bad thing? No. I don't see why unless you are running the finances in a manner similar to Jim and Tammie Faye Baker! That sure is the way it looks to me.


Officers and Directors

HSUS is an organization with their primary focus being animals. As I reviewed the names and titles of the Board Officers and Directors, I found it curious they had no DVM's (vets) on either. They have three MDs', three PhDs' and six attorneys. Am I the only one that finds this odd? Plenty of lawyers, but no vet. Hmmm… Maybe it's just a typo.


Comparative Financial Operations Report

When I conducted my interview with Kathy Bauch a few weeks ago, she refused to answer any questions regarding HSUS' finances for a “newsletter.” She did offer to send me their 2003 financials though. This is what they send whenever someone has questions about their finances. As I mentioned last week, if it was similar to what they have online, it would be vague and difficult to decipher. What I got was much more.

What I received is their 2003 Annual Report. It is a twenty-one page “report” that was obviously very expensive to print. Tucked way in the back is exactly what I expected. A vague and difficult to read one page financial report. The rest appears to me to be a very expensive sales letter and nothing more, complete with a postage paid envelope to send in your donation.

Now you might say, “So what? They have to promote themselves.” I agree. However, this publication has six pages of calendar quality photos of nothing but animals. Two and a half pages of self-glorifying articles from HSUS staff, none of which was necessary. How much donor money could have been saved by deleting this junk from the thousands and thousands of these reports they printed?

According to the Comparative Financial Operations Report for 2003, the HSUS has $116,205,882.00 in total liability and net assets. Over $5,000,000 of that is in cash and cash equivalents, and another nearly five and a half million in receivables. They also have nearly $93,000,000 in market value investments. Not too bad.

In 2003, in revenue, additions and transfers, HSUS made $76,923,670. Of that amount, sheltering programs received $10,551,527 and it was shared with animal habitat and wildlife programs. Now, assuming it was an even split, sheltering programs received $3,517,175.66

Now that's a lot of money, but not when you consider a good sized shelter can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to run, three million is really a drop in the bucket. They spent $21,145,769.00 in fundraising and membership development. Six times what they put into their shelter programs, which is what most people I talked to think HSUS does with the money donated to them.

[Jodi]

Providing Help or Selling It

I'm not sure what they spent the money on for their shelter programs, but I will assure you they didn't fund any shelters. In fact, they charge shelters and Animal Control offices for their assistance and instructional material. I have been able to find little and or nothing HSUS doesn't charge for when it comes to helping a shelter and their educational programs.

For instance, lets say you or your town runs an animal shelter that is struggling for one reason or another, which most are, HSUS is ready to come in and help. For between $4000.00 and $20,000.00 they will send their experts to your shelter through their Animal Services Consultation Program. The fee depends on the size of the agency and the complexity of its programs, charged on a sliding scale based on your agency's resources. In other words, the more you have, the more they'll take.


Youth Programs

Now, lets go back to our youth. You're in middle or high school and want to start a club to promote rescue and do things to help companion animals. HSUS can help you with that, too. Just go to humaneteen.org. There you can buy a package full of all kinds of propaganda and learn to be a full-fledged animal activist. They will sell your child a club starter kit for $22.00 and then give activity suggestions like their “Fight Fur” program.

Here they encourage kids to make flyers and hand them out in front of businesses to protest against shoppers buying fur. HSUS will also give your child cards to distribute at such events. They'll show your child pictures of dead animals in traps and direct them to other sites where they can see pictures of hunters beating seals over the head.

They will also promote vegen/vegetarian lifestyles to your child. Just go to the message board for kids and you can read how many of the kids are distressed, after reading the material HSUS SOLD them, because their parents will not let them go vegen. You will also see posts promoting PETA!

Now I want to be fair here. They do have some decent material that is age appropriate and educational in nature. I think it's overpriced; for instance, your child can rent a video to show their class for $25.00, but some of it is good material. However, there is little promoting appropriate training, grooming or responsible ownership of companion animals. It seems to me the whole focus is turning our children into activists, vegens and extremists.

Now if I want my child to be a vegen, or an activist, I will make that decision and not HSUS. Our kids have enough on their plate without having to be weighed down with this information or agenda. Additionally, kids are kids and don't always make appropriate decisions. When dealing with complex issues like activism and protesting, it would be easy for them to get into trouble or hurt. Doesn't PETA target children too?


Ethical Financial Practices

Let's get back to the money:

Former President John Hoyt once instructed his members on becoming more humane: “We begin, I suggest, by living more simply, more sparingly.” Let's see how he did. He made around $200,000.00 in the late 1980's running HSUS. In 1986, HSUS bought his house in Maryland for $310,000 and allowed him and his family to live there, free of rent, until 1992. When he retired as CEO, HSUS gave him a $1,000,000.00 bonus.

Paul Irwin, another former President, while making $300,000.00 from HSUS, was given an $85,000.00 interest free loan to renovate his cabin in Maine. The cabin was held in trust by HSUS, however his family continued to use it until he died. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Makes me wonder.


Guilty by Association

Let's look at some of HSUS' associations:

In April of 2000 HSUS sent J.P. Goodwin as its emissary on an anti-fur mission to China. Goodwin is not just any animal rights zealot, he was an avowed member of Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a group once called one of the biggest domestic terrorist organizations by the FBI. He had been convicted for vandalism of several fur retailers and their property. Less than a year later, he was formerly identified as a HSUS legislative staff member.

If you don't know about ALF you should check them out. They truly scare the heck out of me. They are, in my opinion, every bit as much a threat to people as Al Quiada. I cannot believe HSUS would hire such a person. When asked questions about an arson fire at a slaughter house in Petaluma, California, and a Utah feed co-op that nearly killed a family, Goodwin stated, “We're ecstatic!”


Then, there is the PETA connection ...

HSUS has repeatedly hired PETA employees in their organization. Their head of investigations, several investigators, a computer programmer, just to name a few. Sorry folks, my opinion is, once a terrorist, always a terrorist. When HSUS hires these people, they appear to support the crimes these individuals may have been involved in.

In 2003, HSUS VP Martin Stephens was asked to recommend three people to serve on an EPA “pollution prevention and toxics” panel. Two of his three choices were PETA employees.


All Talk and No Action

While HSUS will admit they don't run or fund any shelters, you usually find it at the bottom of the page or tucked away somewhere near the end of a statement. As I mentioned before, they don't put their money where their mouth is. Get this …

In 1995, when the Washington DC animal shelter was going to have to close due to a budget shortfall, HSUS (based in DC) offered to build and operate a DC shelter at its own expense to serve as a national model. There were, of course, conditions.

HSUS wanted the city to give it 3-5 acres of land and tax exempt status for all of its real estate holdings in the District of Columbia. (Remember, they buy some executives homes to live in among other property holdings.)

The DC government offered a long-term lease but HSUS refused to proceed unless it would “own absolutely” the land. The district declined, and the only HSUS funded animal shelter never materialized.

HSUS, who makes and has enough money to fund a shelter in every state, as well as subsidize spay/neuter programs, declined to help the dogs in its own back yard. Why? Money is all I can think of. Perhaps they were afraid they would soil their Armani suits by actually working with a dog.


The New CEO

Rather than go on a tirade about the new President and CEO of HSUS, I have put some quotes from him below. Read them, and you decide.

"I think they wanted the aggressive approach," he says. "They wanted someone who was going to think things up. And they got him." June 2004, Washington Post when asked about his selection as CEO.

“We have no problem with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding." Quoted in Animal People, May, 1993


Overview

I could go on for days about HSUS, but I will stop here. In my opinion, they are little more than an organization whose main agenda is filling the coffers and pushing an extremist agenda through misinformation and exploitation. Again, my opinion, they have done nothing but profit from the contributions of people who don't know any better. I have tried to see it otherwise, I simply can't.

I highly recommend you go to activistcash.com and see what they have there about HSUS and their connection with PETA. There are several other sites I found interesting, as well as many stories about HSUS in the archive of the Washington Post.

Would I give anything to the Humane Society of the United States? Yes I would. A pooper-scooper, they can use to go clean my yard. At least then we would know they actually have done something for a dog this year.


This article may be republished using the following attribution box:
------------
Copyright ©2004 Christopher Aust, Master Dog Trainer & Creator:
The Natural Cooperative Training System (NCTS) for Dogs
The Instinctual Development System (IDS) for Puppies
Subscribe to the BARK 'n' SCRATCH Newsletter: [e-mail]
VISIT NOW: www.Master-Dog-Training.com

[Jodi]

The Humane Society of the United States
2100 L St., NW
Washington, DC 20037
202-452-1100



The Humane Society of the United States
Central States Regional Office
800 West 5th Avenue #110
Naperville, IL 60563
630-357-7015
Fax: [phone]
The Central States Regional Office (CSRO) of The Humane Society of the United States, based in Naperville, Illinois, serves six states: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin.


The Humane Society of the United States
Mid-Atlantic Regional Office
Bartley Square
270 Route 206
Flanders, NJ 07836
973-927-5611
Fax: [phone]
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Office (MARO) of The Humane Society of the United States, located in Flanders, New Jersey, serves the animals and people of five states: Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia—a culturally diverse area of the nation that's home to nearly 17% of HSUS members and constituents.



The Humane Society of the United States
Midwest Regional Office
1515 Linden Street Suite 220
Des Moines, IA 50309
515-283-1393
Fax: [phone]
The Midwest Regional Office (MWRO) of The Humane Society of the United States serves the needs of animals and people in five states: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nebraska. Formerly located in Kansas City, Missouri, we relocated our office to Des Moines in May of 2000.



The Humane Society of the United States
New England Regional Office
Route 112, Halifax Jacksonville Town Line
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 619
Jacksonville, VT 05342-0619
802-368-2790
Fax: [phone]
The New England Regional Office (NERO) of The Humane Society of the United States, located in Jacksonville, Vermont, serves the animals and people of six states: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.



The Humane Society of the United States
Northern Rockies Regional Office
490 North 31st St.
Suite 215
Billings, MT 59101
406-255-7161
Fax: [phone]
The Northern Rockies Regional Office (NRRO) of The Humane Society of the United States, located in Billings, Montana, provides services to six states: Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.



The Humane Society of the United States
Pacific Northwest Regional Office
P.O. Box 88199
Seattle, WA 98138-2199
425-656-9797
Fax: [phone]
The Pacific Northwest Regional Office (PNRO) of The Humane Society of the United States, based in Seattle, Washington, serves the animals and people of four states: Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Opened in 2001, the office plays an indispensable role in improving the quality of life for all animals through HSUS investigation, legislation, education, and hands-on assistance.


The Humane Society of the United States
Southeast Regional Office
1624 Metropolitan Cir.
Suite B
Tallahassee, FL 32308
850-386-3435
Fax: [phone]
The Southeast Regional Office (SERO) of The Humane Society of the United States, located in Tallahassee, Florida, serves the animals and people of seven states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.


The Humane Society of the United States
Southwest Regional Office
3001 LBJ Freeway,
Suite 224
Dallas, TX 75234
972-488-2964
Fax: [phone]
he Southwest Regional Office (SWRO) of The Humane Society of the United States, located in Dallas, Texas, works on behalf of the animals and people of six states: Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.


The Humane Society of the United States
West Coast Regional Office
5301 Madison Ave.
Suite 202
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 417220
Sacramento, CA 95841-7220
916-344-1710
Fax: [phone]
The West Coast Regional Office (WCRO) of The Humane Society of the United States, located in Sacramento, California, is on the front lines of animal protection issues throughout three states: California, Nevada, and Hawaii.

[Jodi]

John P. Goodwin with the HSUS:



updated photo:


Even seasoned animal-rights veterans were surprised in April 2000 when the Humane Society of the United States sent John “J.P.” Goodwin on an anti-fur junket to China. Goodwin was not just any animal activist: he was then an avowed member of the terrorist Animal Liberation Front (ALF). Less than a year later he was formally identified as an HSUS legislative affairs staffer; Goodwin would later change his rhetoric to match HSUS’s corporate policy of not endorsing violence as a protest tactic.

Goodwin, a high-school dropout who had previously co-founded the Texas-based Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, pulled no punches when it came to his priorities. “My goal is the abolition of all animal agriculture,” he had written to one Internet activist mailing list.

Goodwin himself has been arrested and convicted for being the ringleader of a gang that vandalized fur retailers in multiple states during the 1990s. The animal-rights newspaper Animal People News profiled Goodwin in 2000, noting that he “gleefully announced a string of Animal Liberation Front mink releases and arsons against furriers and fur farms” while a “spokesman” for the underground terrorist group.

Goodwin also fielded press inquiries after a Petaluma, California, slaughterhouse arson in February 1997, and shocked the public with his comments on the March 1997 arson at a farmer’s feed co-op in Utah. Referring to a fire that caused almost $1 million in damage and could easily have killed a family sleeping on the premises, Goodwin told The Deseret News: “We’re ecstatic.”

J.P. Goodwin doesn’t represent HSUS’s only intersection with the animal rights movement’s violent underbelly. Miyun Park, a Washington, DC anti-meat activist hired by HSUS in 2005, was acknowledged in 1999 as a financial benefactor of No Compromise magazine, a publication that supports the ALF and promotes arson and other violent tactics. And in the investigation leading to the 2005 animal-enterprise terrorism trial of six SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty) activists, Park was among those named in at least six federal wiretap warrants.



www.lhasa-apso.org/articles/hsus.htm

[Jodi]

PETA Piper Ends Up in a Pickle and Who Are These Animal Rights Organizations?
by K.L. Marsala
Saturday, June 25, 2005

Quick, hide your kittens!


As two People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) workers were arrested recently, in North Carolina, for illegally dumping animal carcasses (supposedly a mother cat and her healthy kittens as well) into a store trash bin, my vision of who and what PETA was motivated me to investigate just who this and other animal rights organizations really are.

Most of us are animal lovers. We love our pets; for many, they are like our children. We indulge them, love them, and care for them sometimes better than we care for ourselves. Unfortunately, there is a minority who are abusive to their pets. Without question there are cruel and abusive individuals. It is a small sect of human beings that commit these heinous acts of disrespect and violence towards innocent animals. Apparently, some members of the radical animal rights movement fit into this category too.

PETA is an animal rights organization whose mission, as an activist group, is to promote a complete end to the use and ownership of animals: indoctrinating our youth via public education has been their best tool in their warfare. Honestly, though, how many people knew that PETA actually euthanized animals? In general most of us didn't know this fact, which is why when our old faithful pets become to ill and are suffering needlessly, we take them to our trusted vets to have them humanely put to rest. The majority of animal lovers view PETA with a wary eye for their over zealous activism, and understood that they spoke for animal rights, but never knew they euthanized healthy pets and at times discarded them into store dumpsters. The question is, how often within the animal rights organizations has this actually occurred? A case of -caught in the act- usually means there are others.

To be fair, most of the animals PETA euthanizes are the ones that are too sick to recover. PETA has radical members within its framework, and they appear to have ties to various militant groups- i.e. the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the North American Earth Liberation Front (ELF). Some of these extremist organizations of activism have torched research clinics and wrecked havoc on industries that utilize animals for bio-medical research. At times, PETA even causes harm or death to animals caught in the mist of their fanatical chaos. According to, petakillsanimals.com, PETA has given- "tens of thousands of dollars to convicted arsonists and other violent criminals. This includes a 2001 donation of $1,500 to the North American Earth Liberation Front, an FBI-certified domestic terrorist group responsible for dozens of firebombs and death threats. During the 1990s, PETA paid $70,200 to an Animal Liberation Front activist convicted of burning down a Michigan State University research laboratory. In his sentencing recommendation, a federal prosecutor implicated PETA president Ingrid Newkirk in that crime." As well, petakillsanimals.com stated that "PETA vegetarian campaign coordinator Bruce Friedrich told an animal rights convention in 2001 that 'blowing stuff up and smashing windows'" is "a great way to bring about animal liberation."

Unbelievable, it is't only the wacko militants that sat in the compound unit of the Waco, Texas incident, but even within the far left, we have loose screws running around with fire bombs; guns aren't the only thing used to destroy, incite fear and kill are they?

So often the public receives only surface information from activists organizations, we are meant to believe that only good intentions are taking place and we are coerced by superficial shock value propaganda into believing we must join their cause and support their efforts financially. All the while, we believe our donated dollars are being spent directly on the fronted cause. This is not always the case.

According to ActivistCash.com, an organization that calls itself The Humane Society of the United States leads you to believe that they are like your local animal shelter that takes in stray, neglected, and abused cats and dogs. They purportedly promote animal adoption to new homes, and run spay/neuter programs so that fewer discarded animals will end up mistreated or euthanized, at least that is what HSUS is hoping we will believe.

HSUS appears to be misdirecting us, for HSUS is the richest animal-rights organization on earth. HSUS has over $85 million in assets. It produces an abundant flow of cash, more than enough to finance animal shelters in every single state, with money to spare. Yet, HSUS is not affiliated with any local humane societies, nor does it operate a single animal shelter.

Generally, we do not think there is a difference between animal welfare organizations and animal rights organizations but there is. One works for humane treatment of all animals, the other works for the complete annihilation of work and ownership of animals. The HSUS was originally established to work for animal welfare, and it was called, the National Humane Society. In 1954, HSUS split from the American Humane Association (AHA). The founders of the NHS (now called HSUS) desired a faintly more radical group. (The AHA evidently did not oppose either the use of pound animals for biomedical research or sport hunting). Animal welfare groups have been around for years- activists groups such as PETA and others rose radically during the 1980s.

Ever since this split, HSUS has been profiting from their resemblance in name only with their more legitimate cousin.

The founding history of HSUS has an interesting connection to a religious cornerstone, founded as a "ministry" for animals by Coleman Burke. Burke was then president of the American Bible Society; Cleveland Amory, an author who went on to found the Fund for Animals; and Helen Jones, who had earlier left the AHA. Presbyterian minister John A. Hoyt was president from 1970 to 1996. Paul G. Irwin, a Methodist minister, joined HSUS in 1975 and now serves as President and CEO. Both attended Colgate Rochester Divinity School in Rochester, NY (www.activistcash.com).

It was not until 1980, HSUS formally transformed its focus from animal welfare to animal rights. During the national conference in San Francisco a vote was taken to determine that the group would, follow on all fronts the comprehensible verbalization and establishment of the rights of all animals within the complete collection of American culture.

In Animal Rights and Human Obligations, the published proceedings of this conference, HSUS stated, "there is no rational basis for maintaining a moral distinction between the treatment of humans and other animals."

In the 1990's, HSUS completed its animal-rights conversion, altering its personnel in their progression. Establishing and assimilating dozens of staffers from PETA and other animal-rights groups. HSUS even hired a former Animal Liberation Front member and representative, John "J.P." Goodwin. Goodwin has a lengthy arrest record, which includes a history of promoting arson to accomplish animal liberation. This change brought about what HSUS was desiring, more money, and media attention.

How do the current goals of this misnamed "Humane Society" assist animal shelters? It does not and neither to many of the other activists groups. HSUS even wants to put an end to lifesaving biomedical research: as early as 1988, the group’s mailings demanded that the U.S. government "eliminate altogether the use of animals as research subjects." HSUS has never budged from this extreme position. Since its launch, the HSUS drive has been to limit the choices of American society.

Contrary to their cheap painted façade, HSUS does not help local humane societies save dogs and cats. However, it has not any problem pouring in thousands of dollars to change our laws. According to the report by Rich Landers of the Spokane-Review, "HSUS was the financial clout that rammed Initiative 713, the anti-trapping measure, down our throats." Marching with similar national animal-rights groups, HSUS has learned that pouring vast sums of money into ballot initiative campaigns produces better results than normal public relations and lobbying work. In lock step with other militant organizations, the Fund for Animals and Farm Sanctuary, HSUS scored a big victory in Florida in 2002 when a ballot initiative passed that gave constitutional rights to pregnant pigs.

Many of these activists groups have harassed research organizations such as the March of Dimes, the Pediatric AIDs Foundation and other medical research organizations… where would PETA stand if one of the aforementioned research organizations found a cure for all the AIDs victims suffering world-wide? (Hollywood entertainers who support such militant organizations in their animal activism next time you want to blast American bio-medical research think twice. You cannot defend not using animals to a certain degree in bio-medical advances and then criticize the current administration of the United States for not doing enough to help the AIDs victims in countries such as Africa. In order to find a cure for this millenniums deadliest disease we may need to use impounded animals).

This is but a small peek of insight into these activist groups. HSUS and other militant groups will not stop at initiatives aimed at just livestock farmers and trappers. It was in the HSUS annual meeting 1996, that Wayne Pacelle announced that the ballot initiative would be used for all manner of legislation in the future. This would include "companion animal issues and laboratory animal issues." (Pacelle, has personally been involved in at least 22 such campaigns, 17 of which HSUS scored as conquests. These maneuvers, he says, "pay dividends and serve as a training ground for activists" http://www.activistcash.com).

Animal activist are working deep within the governmental system, utilizing their large bankrolls of donated dollars to lobby congress. The tremendous currency of power they have within their fortress vaults is used regularly to indoctrinate our youth, through our public educational system. Children who are young, impressionable, and not yet apt to make sound judgments based on all facets of information available are joining the cause of militant activism. According to petakillsanimals.com, One PETA vice president told the Fox News Channel’s audience: "Our campaigns are always geared towards children, and they always will be." Misinformation and single myopic opinions given to our youth about animal rights only causes an imbalance of perception. We all need education on how we need to treat and raise our animal population with the respect that they deserve- that is called animal welfare, a legitimate need.

Kerry L Marsala

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