Sunday, May 24, 2009

The Humane Society of the United States:

"Don't you talk about us, unless it's good!"
To back up a bit, for some time now, I have been concerned about the radical animal rights philosophy being mainstreamed by HSUS. (I'm hardly alone.) Among other things, HSUS President Wayne Pacelle has said he wants to stop all hunting, and has spoken in favor of getting rid of all domestic animals:

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...Wayne Pacelle - Former National Director of Fund for Animals.

Under Pacelle, the HSUS hired notorious former Animal Liberation Front activist JP Goodwin, ("arrested and convicted for being the ringleader of a crew that vandalized fur retailers in multiple states during the 1990s") and placed him in a prominent position.

What annoys me the most about the HSUS, though, is not the pronouncements of its president or his hiring practices, but the fact that a lot of people still think the HSUS runs your local humane society, and that money given to them goes directly to animal care. Nothing could be further from the truth. HSUS is a PETA-style lobbying group, except they've got a wonderfully mainstream-sounding name and are therefore largely unburdened by the baggage that PETA's brand name carries.

WSB-TV is a local ABC affiliate in Atlanta, and not long after their story on HSUS aired, all hell broke loose. Not only was the story was taken down from YouTube for "copyright" issues, but the written report was pulled from the affiliate's website:

A cone of silence continues to descend over the original WSB-TV story on HSUS fundraising practises that continues to support the rumor of the unleashing of the HSUS legal team on WSB-TV for their researched & fact-supported story.

As I previously mentioned, the original story been removed from the WSB-TV website. When I wrote to WSB-TV that I was saddened to see the story removed from their website, I received the following response. A response that has been sent out to others who wrote in to WSB-TV over their disappointment as seeing the story vanish from view.

"Thank you for writing to Talk2Us. We appreciate hearing that you were engaged by the report about HSUS. We put up and pull down stories as part of our daily editorial process. We are working on an additional story about HSUS. - WSB-TV"

Its an odd response. How often does a network pull a story after less than 24hrs where the viewing is accelerating and the comments are still being logged at a rapid pace. (mostly supporting the article I might add. I have copies of the comments, just in case this is contested) Furthermore, the Youtube copies of the WSB-TV video have all been taken down by WSB-TV request through a copyright claim. Funny thing though, at last my count there were 254 Youtube video links that were WSB-TV video. Yet the video that they have taken down is the one with the HSUS investigation? Considering the current evidence, I fear a much less accurate follow up. I hope to be wrong.

The author's claim about other WSB YouTube video links being untouched is absolutely correct; there are hundreds of WSB videos, and many of them are over a year old. If the issue is "copyright," why is it being enforced selectively, and only with a story considered sensitive by a gigantic lobbying organization?

Take a look at the whole thing; I'd heard some bits & pieces about this organization, but nothing like this; even forcing the Google cache of this stuff to be removed? Damn, they really don't want people to hear anything they don't like, do they?


Fire said...

Just when I thought I was going to get by today without getting pissed, I stumbled across this.

After some research, I wrote Mr. Pacelle a lengthy letter. You see, I have been a funding supporter of the HSUS for 17 out of my almost 32 years. Every month, without fail, they received funds from me. They actually have done some good, but reading this has darkened all that. Their dedication to stopping the seal hunts in Canada is great. AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON CANADA. And those Asian countries....the people who want to eat my dogs for lunch....the HSUS has done extensive undercover work about that. Those are the good things. But what Mr. Pacelle said about the domestic animals really, REEEEEEEALLY pissed me off and letters are going out!

jan said...

I'm glad to see as many bloggers as possible jump on this and not let it go. HSUS is PETA in a shirt and tie and will not stop until we are all eating tofu. It is so rare to see the truth about them in the mainstream media. If you haven't seen the video I have it here, but you should hurry because "they" keep finding it and shutting it down.

martywd said...

According to the vid the local HSUS shelters see very little aid from the HSUS mothership?   And then, only when the local has done 'disaster relief'.
Recently Rush Limbaugh became HSUS' spokesman.   I can't image this news will make Rush very happy?

ivorydog said...

Wimpy Wayne and his cronies are the most dangerous entity in the United States today. They have the potential to do far more harm than Bin Laden.

Money talks and H$U$ has plenty to spread around. Unfortunately this money is rarely put to the use people donated it for.

H$U$ poured over $4million into the Californian prop 2 campaign alone last year, and with that success under their belt they are pushing forward with similar legislation in other states.

They present themselves as working in the interest of animals, when in reality, Pacelle wouldn't recognize an animal welfare issue if it hit him in the face like a wet fish.

Their real agenda here is to cause livestock farmers so much hassle and expense that they give up, sell their farms to larger companies with bigger budgets, the very agribusinesses that organisations like peta and H$U$ hate so much.

Pacelle's ultimate goal is the abolition of animal agriculture, the pet industry (domestic as well as exotic pets), and all other animal related businesses within the US.

One only has to look at the fallout from the horse slaughter ban to see what sort of mess this will leave us in.

Fire said...

Got to get the word about about THIS:

Spread the word, people.