Jersey Cows. VTD/Josh Larkin
It was nationwide news at the time. Neither the plant nor the U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors looked very good.
The Humane Society of the United States did. That was the outfit whose undercover operative took the videos which showed the calves kicked, electro-shocked and in two cases apparently “skinned alive while they were still conscious,” according to Michael Markarian, the society’s chief operating officer, as quoted by no less than the Los Angeles Times.
But the high regard for the HSUS was not universal, and still isn’t. Many Vermont farmers – primarily in the large, commodity dairy sector – remain convinced that the society is not what it claims to be. Some of these farmers remain bitter about the HSUS and its glowing reputation.
While they are hardly conducting a high-profile campaign against the society, they do discuss their opposition to it among themselves, and occasionally express their concern to state lawmakers in the Capitol’s corridors, write angry letters about the organization or email links to articles attacking HSUS.
One article sent to legislators – from “Pork magazine” – asserted that “layer by layer, the facade of the Humane Society of the United States is being peeled back revealing the group’s far-reaching objectives. The world is learning that at the center is an animal-rights group with much more on its agenda than saving dogs and cats.”
The Humane Society openly acknowledges that there is more on its agenda than saving dogs and cats. It also wants to save whales, horses and chimpanzees. But some farmers and their lobbyists argue that HSUS has a covert agenda, that its real goal is to promote vegetarianism and even, as one farm advocate put it, “to end U.S. animal industries.”
That’s a strong accusation, and considering that HSUS is the largest and richest animal advocacy organization in the world, with some 11 million members and assets of more than $205 million at the end of last year, it deserves some attention.
So, briefly and bluntly: Is there any credible evidence that HSUS’s real goal is to transform America into a nation of 300 million plus vegans who use no leather and raise no cattle, hogs, sheep or chickens?
No.
Which is not to say that the organization is beyond criticism, or that some farmers don’t have legitimate reasons for disliking it. HSUS is an advocacy organization, which is another way of saying that it is a political organization. It’s also a prodigious fundraiser, and like most advocacy groups, its fundraising tactics do not always scrupulously adhere to the facts. Right after football star Michael Vick was indicted for running a dog fighting operation, HSUS’s Web site asked for funds that would be used to “help the Humane Society…care for the dogs seized” from Vick. But HSUS did not have the dogs.
It is also reasonable to wonder whether HSUS played the Bushway incident for maximum political impact (which arguably is what advocacy groups should do). It edited the video tape and timed its release. Had the tape been released earlier, presumably some of the abuse would have been prevented.
That consideration prompted Vermont state Rep. Carolyn Partridge, the Windham Democrat who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, to say that “in the future, if cruelty or inhumane treatment is witnessed by anyone in any of our facilities, that it be reported immediately to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture.”
Partridge, who said she does hear anti-HSUS sentiments from farmers, insisted that the state had to make sure livestock was treated humanely. “That’s part of the Vermont brand of quality,” she said. “We do not want that reputation blemished.”
But there is no evidence that HSUS lobbies or campaigns against meat-eating or animal husbandry. Besides, in the real world, covert lobbying and campaigning are all but impossible. An advocate for a cause has to advocate for that cause – openly – or the cause will not benefit. If a lobbyist whispers anti-meat propaganda to a congressional staffer, that whisper will be leaked to a reporter within minutes.
Nor is there any evidence that HSUS gets much money from anti-meat groups or individuals. In fact, HSUS has so much money that it would seem impossible for the vegetarian world – with neither people nor funds to spare – could provide a big enough share of the society’s finances to be noticeable.
One problem with assessing the charges against HSUS is that almost all of them stem from an unreliable source. The organization claiming that HSUS is a front group is … a front group.
According to the Center for Media and Democracy’s “Source Watch,” the Center for Consumer Freedom is “a front group for the restaurant, alcohol, tobacco and other industries. It runs media campaigns which oppose the efforts of scientists, doctors, health advocates, animal advocates, environmentalists and groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving.”
The Center for Media and Democracy is a left-of-center organization, not given (as the above quote demonstrates) to understatement. In this case, though, it’s right. The Center for Consumer Freedom, whose “humane watch” blogs attack HSUS, was founded in 1995 with a $600,000 grant from Philip Morris (now Altria) the tobacco giant. It is funded by alcohol, tobacco and restaurant interests and run by Rick Berman, who also owns a public relations firm in Washington.
Besides, even the “humane watch” blogs merely assert that HSUS is secretly pushing vegetarianism. They do not come close to proving the assertion. Asked for anything resembling conclusive (or even persuasive) evidence, the Center for Consumer Freedom did not reply.
Not everything in “Humane watch” is incorrect. It regularly assails HSUS for spending only a tiny fraction of its budget on local pet shelters around the country, even those that use the “Humane Society” name.
That’s true, but perhaps irrelevant. HSUS has no official connection with local shelters, said Anna West of the society’s public information office.
“There’s no consolidated network,” she said. “The shelters are all independent.” HSUS “does grant a tremendous amount of financial support to shelters across the country,” she said (including more than $9,000 to three Vermont shelters in 2009). But it is not responsible for the local shelters, she said, and rumors that it demands money from those local shelters are false.
HSUS does oppose the fur trade. And its president and CEO, Wayne Pacelle, is a vegan. But there’s nothing covert about his eating habits, and they are not shared by all his staff.
Not, for instance, by Joe Maxwell, a self-described barbecue-lover who is the society’s director of rural development and outreach. His job, he said, is to help farmers and other food producers use “best practices” in dealing with livestock.
“I’m from a family farm in Missouri,” Maxwell said. “I often spend weekends home on my family farm. I’m not working to put my family out of business.”
But HSUS does seem opposed to what it (and others) call “industrial agriculture,” meaning the large-scale agribusiness that mass-produces most of the food most Americans eat. Such opposition is not explicitly stated on the society’s web site, but Pacelle has often assailed what he once called the “glaring animal welfare problems in today’s industrial agribusiness sector,” and many HSUS policies, if enacted, would significantly alter – if not abolish – conventional commodity farming.
So it’s not surprising that conventional commodity farmers see the society as a foe, and not too surprising that they lump it together with their other foes, assuming that any opponent must be in league with their most extreme opponents. Agribusiness would hardly be the only special interest to make that mistake.
On the other hand, the anger at HSUS from Vermont dairy farmers may be unnecessary. The only position the society takes regarding cattle-raising is opposition to cropping the tails of cows, a practice rare if non-existent in Vermont.
Even as devoted a supporter of non-industrial, more “sustainable” farming as Cheryl Cesario of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont said she could see why farmers might be unhappy about HSUS and its tactics.
“A farmer might think, well, what if they came to my farm where they could take short video out of context,” said Cesario, who also operates a livestock farm in Cornwall with her husband.
At Bushway, where one executive pled guilty to aggravated animal cruelty, there’s little doubt that the context was accurate enough. But there’s also little surprise that commodity farmers and food processors are wary of HSUS, even if their conspiracy theories about the society are overblown.
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Your article missed the main purpose of the Humane Society. To stop all hunting & fishing in the world.
They are the biggest anti-hunting organization on the planet.
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Most likely if it was not for advocates like the USHS there would be no land or animals to farm or even hunt.
All animals you eat would be chemically toxic, and all land would be used for industrial farms.
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NO ONE is going to take your stupid guns away.
Ever ever.
Ever.
Yet Mr. Birch and his peanut gallery cannot manage to control themselves at the mere mention of any animal protection group.
Why does that not surprise us..
Yobs with guns will always be lurking…
Fortunately, so will animal protection groups.
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It’s simple. HSUS is the nation’s largest and most effective organization for preventing animal cruelty. Those who defend inhumane practices don’t like that. And because it’s hard to sell the public on the idea that the humane treatment of animals is a bad thing, they resort to myth and innuendo to protect the status quo.
It’s reasonable to disagree with the HSUS, but if you do, make sure you disagree for real, valid reasons. HSUS is not a secret cabal to eliminate agriculture: that’s a myth promoted by industry front groups like the CCF, funded by Tyson, Smithfield, Pilgrim’s Pride, and other Big Ag corporations that defend and downplay animal abuse.
The basis for their claims invariably point to two facts: that the CEO is vegan (gasp! the horror!) and that the HSUS confronts inhumane practices such as veal crates and tail docking.
Neither of these are proof of any sinister motive by the HSUS.
The mission of the HSUS is to confront cruelty to animals, and it does so with tremendous success.
But the HSUS has demonstrated that it is only dedicated to improving treatment of animals. The recent agreement between HSUS and the United Egg Producers is proof of that, and proof that the ag industry and animal protection groups can work together to improve animal welfare without undermining agriculture.
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And so what if the Humane Society did have an agenda to convert us all to vegans? Everybody who thinks that’s going to happen in America any time soon, please raise their hand.
Waiting….
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I am slowly realizing that many human beings are NOT sane. The sadistic insanity of cockfights, dogfights, castrations, bullfights, and even the insane notion of circumcision continues year after year. Slaughterhouse workers who enjoy killing and even torturing animals is just the tip of the iceberg. Human beings have to be monitored and sanctioned for their insane treatment of other living creatures. There are enough sane people to work together to get this done. Many of our more insane ideas have to be constantly reworked. Many human beings need help regarding their beliefs that they can do whatever they want to other creatures without regard for their suffering and pain. If we work together, many insane practices can be stopped.
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Russian trawlers are now overfishing the Banks and many fishermen have committed suicide and sunk their vessels in protest. The oceans are being over-fished and there are still many people supporting the poaching of endangered species. Who will stand up to this brain-dead behavior. Instead of becoming the protectors of this planet we are becoming the scourge.
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If you don’t like taking good care of animals, run for president.
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Stop factory-farming abuses by supporting legislation that abolishes intensive-confinement systems. Voters in Arizona, California, Florida, and Michigan have banned the use of gestation crates, as have voters in the U.K.(46,47)
Stop giving your money to pig farms and slaughterhouses. Going vegan means eating for life—for your life and for animals’ lives. Call 1-888-VEG-FOOD or visit GoVeg.com to order a free copy of PETA’s vegetarian/vegan starter kit.
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Kudos to a journalist who actually does what he’s supposed to — checks his sources. I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve seen the Center for Consumer Freedom quoted as if it’s a source for legitimate information rather than a paid industry front group. Here is a journalist who took 30 seconds to do a web search and found that CCF runs smear campaigns against public interest groups whose efforts threaten to cut into massive industry profits.
I don’t agree with the HSUS about everything, but this commentary is absolutely right that nothing HumaneWatch says about the HSUS has any basis in fact. Nothing the HSUS does is secret. If you want to know its mission, go to “About Us” on the HSUS website. Not exactly the place where you would put top secret information.
The vegan boogeyman conspiracy theory is getting so old. Even if it were true, it would be beside the point. Nothing is going to turn the world vegan. The only way people will be scared off from eating meat is by big agribiz continually trying to defend inhumane practices rather than switching to more humane methods that consumer want.
I salute the investigator and whistleblower who exposed the abuse going on at the Vermont slaughterhouse. Such investigations would not be necessary if these facilities es would do their job humanely, or if the USDA would bother to enforce the law. No one wants to see animals treated as cruelly as they were at this packing house.
Government and industry aren’t doing their jobs in following and enforcing the rules of common decency. I’m grateful the HSUS was there to do this job for them.
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HSUS is an animal protection agency, but used to be known as animal rights organization. I would say they are an animal protection agency and protect all animals from human use. One of Wayne’s first adventures in protection of animals were disrupting hunters in the Yale Forest. It is simply an ethics or morals social movement that seem to favor animals over people. Nothing has to do with protection of people unless it is the fight against the Staffordshire Terrier used for fighting as Michael spent time in jail. You see animal welfare is different than animal protection or animal rights. Animal welfare does believe in use of animals as long as they are treated with compassion and with the animals’ welfare. But some animals were meant to continue to the human population as, cattle, poultry and pork and eggs. We are seeing dogs disappear as statics show when confiscated or rescued only 10 percent ever make it out alive. In all the books I have read on the animal rights movement or the environmentalism movement certainly place animals over humans. Even Peter Singer, the “father” of the animal rights movement even thinks that defective children under the age of two, well it is not wrong to euthanize them. This is just part of the face of the vegan animal rights social movement.
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Looks like ths paid staff of the HSUS is out in force. Ward, Schiff and Katz appear like the three stooges in every HSUS post. They must be getting a bonus this week.
Find a recipe on the HSUS site that has milk, eggs, dairy or meat .. what there aren’t any? how come? If the HSUS supports “humane” farming and ranching wouldn’t you think they would have a few recipes that contain these ingredients to show their support for say.. the dairy farmers of Vermont?
Pacelle says:”We have no ethical obligation to preserve the different breeds of livestock produced through selective breeding. . One generation and out. We have no problem with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding.” Wayne Pacelle,
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“My goal is the abolition of all animal agriculture.” JP Goodwin, employed at the Humane Society of the US,
Schiff will post that the Pacelle quote is old and “out of context’ Pacelle says he was only speaking of “heritage breeds” as if heritage breeds ( some of our best sources of introducing and continuing cross breeding of healthy animals)were of no importance.. really? tell it to the breeds themselves. Extinction is extinction heritage breed or not…
not promoting veganism:
hmm:
“.. a number of organizations including the Humane Society of the United States, we work on promoting veganism,”
.Miyun Park, former Vice President for Farm Animal Welfare at the Humane Society of the United States,
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There has been a decent amount of research conducted by the author of this article, but it seems they stopped conveniently short of uncovering some of the quotes from HSUS leadership that have made people so “paranoid.”
“If we could shut down all sport hunting in a moment, we would.” —Wayne Pacelle, Associated Press, Dec 30, 1991
“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.” —Wayne Pacelle, Full Cry Magazine, October 1, 1990.
Then he backtracks and makes a statement many years later that contradicts some of the things he said when he was relatively new on the scene.
“We take a different tactical approach. For instance, we don’t say you must be vegan and we must stop all hunting. We’re working to curb the worst abuses and we’re very involved in the political realm.”
The Sacramento Bee, Allen Pierleoni, June 20, 2011
But the best example of the ever-changing, publicly-stated philosophy of Wayne Pacelle is the contradiction between the title of his new book (The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them) and this particular quote:
“I don’t have a hands-on fondness for animals…To this day I don’t feel bonded to any non-human animal. I like them and I pet them and I’m kind to them, but there’s no special bond between me and other animals.” — Wayne Pacelle, Bloodties: Nature, Culture and the Hunt by Ted Kerasote, 1993, p. 251.
So it seems that the Wayne Pacelle of the 90s is quite different from the Wayne Pacelle of 2011. He’s at least figured out how to be more effective and publicly acceptable by cutting back on some of the rhetoric.
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If HSUS ran banner ads demanding a vegan world, their massive funding would come to a halt. This lesson was learned decades ago; hence the pitch rotates between cute pictures of animals that evoke sympathy and terrible images that create outrage. HSUS has 5 decades of expertise in public manipulation. To the naysayers who do not believe that HSUS has a complete anti-animal use agenda at their core, please review the organization’s history and reason for being formed. HSUS initial primary goal was to end hunting and use of animals in research. As time and money grew the campaigns also grew. And the Vick dogs fundraising scam was only the first; HSUS also was caught soliciting funds for Fay, a disfigured pit bull they had not connection to either. See HSUS Timeline http://saova.org/HSUS_timeline.html. There is no use of animals that HSUS has not campaigned against including breeding purebred dogs and pets.
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For all you anti-HSUS propagandizers who drag out the Vick canard like some lame totem, we would very much like to see evidence of any of your public dogfighting protestations BEFORE the Vick-timizer raised his ugly head.