A group of Animal Welfare groups have issued an official statement that tells the Humane Society of the United States, in so many words, ‘enough is enough’.
Enough killing, enough outdated policies, enough ‘Pit Bull Czars’ who know as much about Pibbles as this whiny little nitwit.
The official press release, from the Best Friends website:
UPDATE: The widget service I used to make the HSUS widgets has gone subscription only, so they are no longer available. I am working on a new, simple java script version, which I’ll add to this post when they are complete. In the meantime, go and read Humane Watch – devoted to exposing the truth about Peta and the HSUS
No matter what the HSUS might have been at one point in time or another, what they are now is a group of con artists, sucking money out of sympathetic donors to ‘save dogs’ that they have nothing to do with, no shelter to place them in, and no intention of helping.
Where I come from, we call that ‘fraud’, and it’s no different than people who raise money for ‘Tsunami relief’ who don’t use it for anything of the like (or, hey! It’s like people who raise money for ‘Hurricane Katrina’ animals that they have no intention of helping. Hello again, HSUS!).
Morality is based on truth — aggressive fund raising for dogs you have ZERO to do with is bull. You don’t get to raise money to ‘save’ dogs on one hand, while calling for their death with other — not without some of us calling ‘Shenanigans!‘ on you.
The following was posted in response to an article in the Baltimore Sun Newspaper. The article, which lauded the ‘fine work’ of HSUS president Wayne Pacelle, contained several reminisces by Pacelle of the lessons learned and great accomplishments of the HSUS during Hurrican Katrina, and the Michael Vick case.
Someone writing as Pacelle’s ‘Aunt Harriet*’ took umbrage with the article, and wrote this fine, scathing rebuttal (note: added links and images are mine):
Aug 17, 2008
Interesting piece of fiction. However, it is time for a reality check. I am Wayne’s Aunt. You can call me Harriet.
I am really surprised that Wayne Pacelle, my nephew, would re-visit Michael Vick or Hurricane Katrina.
Let’s examine his request for “special donations” for Michael Vick’s dogs. And, before we do that, first you must understand that at no time … that means NEVER for the animal rights’ faithful … were these dogs in the care, custody, and control of the HSUS. They wanted these dogs dead. That was recommended by the HSUS to be their fate. HSUS had “no business” telling anyone what to do with these dogs once they were no longer considered as evidentiary.
Pacelle hires criminals. Case in point is John “JP” Goodwin, the HSUS “dog fighting expert.” What exactly are his qualifications you might ask? What was Wayne hoping to find on the resumes of prospective candidates for this position… DOMESTIC TERRORIST perhaps? The FBI has Goodwin higher up the food chain than Al Qaida!
Goodwin is a high school dropout who set fires. When he couldn’t sit down in an intelligent fashion to get his point of view expressed in any other manner, he simply set another fire. Would you like to see his photograph in his ANIMAL LIBERATION FRONT t-shirt?
In a telephone conversation that I had with HSUS office last August, I asked about the credentials and qualifications for JP Goodwin. This was the quote I vividly recall from that conversation …“Are we to judge people by their past actions? We have many people working here from PETA & ALF!!”
Good God! Pass the collection plate and tell me how to apply. I actually have a few degrees that Wayne might consider useful. Oh, let me re-think that. He would have a serious problem with me. My brain is NOT pre-programmed to the Tower of (Pacelle) Babel. I am not fast tracking to buy his baloney. He can’t sell it to me. Since I was never a PETA-trained “operative”, he wouldn’t be able to flip my switch and hardwire me to his way of thinking.
Pacelle, my nephew, is an AR zealot at the controls of a cash-generating machine. No less. No more. His agenda is so clear that it is transparent. Irwin, the former Prez, was an “ordained minister.” Boy, that sure came in handy when he appealed from the animals rights’ pulpit to SEND MONEY, SEND MONEY, SEND MONEY.
Every time there is a fire, flood, or crisis in the United States, you can bet your last dollar that Wayne Pacelle and his “volunteers” will be there for a photo opportunity and, within hours, he will be pleading for more money.
Pacelle knows his ship is taking on water. His days of rhetoric spewing are numbered. There are too many eyes watching him … and … following the money!
Let’s ask it once again — Why is anyone still giving money to the HSUS?
Note: we have no idea if the author is actually Wayne’s aunt, although I do find it telling that he’s not yet spoken out to take issue with the claim of authorship.
It’s amazing the bits and pieces that can all eventually come together after a day or so of web surfing.
A comment on the Bad Rap Blog tipped me off to the fact that, while HSUS said “no thanks” to helping the suffering Pit Bulls of Oklahoma, they were right there when a recent North Carolina dog fighting bust went down. According to an article in the Wilkes Journal Patriot,
The 127 pit bulls were taken away with help of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Control personnel with four vans. A tractor-trailer belonging to the Humane Society of the U.S. also was used to transport dogs.
On the HSUS website, a press release about the raid says
“The raid of this suspected dogfighting operation is the culmination of an extensive investigation, and dogfighters everywhere should worry that they could be next,” said Chris Schindler, deputy manager of animal fighting law enforcement for The Humane Society of the United States.
“We are grateful to the Wilkes County Sheriff’s Office and Wilkes County Animal Control department for acting quickly and efficiently against this suspected dogfighting operation.”
It is a felony to possess a dog for the purpose of dogfighting in North Carolina. Those involved in illegal dogfighting can receive four to 10 months in prison.
What I find most telling is what this press release (so full of praise for the work of Wilkes County officials) fails to reveal – that a successful prosecution will lead to the immediate death of every Pit Bull confiscated in the raid, puppies included.
He said the pit bulls were being kept as evidence at an undisclosed location until the completion of court proceedings in the case, with a goal of moving through court as rapidly as possible.
“If the state wins the case, the dogs will be euthanized, as called for under the county’s Animal Control Ordinance, based on the dogs being trained and used for fighting,” he said, adding that the dogs were therefore considered dangerous.
No condemnation of this policy is found on the HSUS website. On the contrary, this singular fact is conspicuously absent, although calls for more donations to help ‘end dog fighting’ abound. In fact, right next to the press release is a banner touting the HSUS’ $5,000 bounty for information on suspected dog fighting operations. Seeing it there, and knowing HSUS’ “Kill ’em all” policy on Pit Bulls, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the bounties some areas pay for the bodies of dead wolves. I can hardly think that a stance of ‘death to all fighting Pit Bulls’ is also conducive to convincing people to turn the dogs in – unless, of course, you plan to do your level best to prevent the general public from ever learning that the only Pit Bull HSUS cares for is a dead Pit Bull.
Of course, there’s also the distinct possibility that HSUS’ $5,000 bounty kill fee reward is actually a scam, as the author of this blog asserts.
I find it quite striking that when live Pit Bulls (by which I mean, Pit Bulls that were alive, and were going to remain alive) were involved, HSUS wanted no part of the situation – but when dead Pit Bulls (by which I mean, Pit Bulls that will be murdered killed euthanized as soon as the case is completed) were involved, HSUS could send transport trucks across the country. Apparently, while Pit Bulls can be quite useful tools for raising money, HSUS isn’t quite so keen on spending any of those funds to actually keep them alive.
Of course, as the recent cases taught us, the insistence of Wilkes County that the operators of Wildside Kennels should be actually found guilty in a court of law before the Pit Bulls are murdered slaughtered euthanised must be quite frustrating to HSUS. After all, why wait for a court decision? It certainly wasn’t necessary in the Pat Patrick case, where all of his dogs were put down before he’d even had his day in court – an action taken with the full support of HSUS, and their ‘dog fighting Czar’ John Goodwin. Blue Dog State does a phenomenal job of re capping the horrors of the Floyd Boudreaux and Pat Patrick cases – horrors not related to ‘dog fighting’, but to the needless extermination of dogs only suspected of being used or bred for fighting. As Blue Dog State points out, Boudreaux and Patrick both had their charges tossed out – but that didn’t save their dogs. To HSUS, the only tragedy in these cases is the fact that the court cases were lost, and not the needless deaths of literally hundreds of dogs, or the suspension of the rights for the accused to be innocent until found guilty (a grace we should be applying to their dogs, as well).
A recent comment by Jennifer of Adamant Bulldogs tipped me off to HSUS’ recent activities in San Luis Obispo County. Seems that the San Luis Obispo County shelter asked HSUS to come in and help them to overhaul their antiquated shelter system. Aside from the colossal waste of money that this whole fiasco involved (topping $22,ooo!), the recommendations included this sentence (emphasis mine):
The HSUS recommends that no dogs seized from dogfighting operations, even puppies, be placed for adoption or transferred to placement partners.
The full report can be downloaded here, and the specific section mentioned is section 9.9 . In the event that the report disappears, I’ve done a screen cap of the actual section. It just gets progressively stupider, the more you read.
This all cohered into a post for me when I was watching the Dogtown episode on the progress of the Vick Pit Bulls who are being offered sactuary at Best Friends. Aside from the fact that the HSUS was one of the “Animals Rights groups” who called for the murder extermination euthanization, there was the tidbit thrown out at the end of the show that “The Humane Society estimates one million Pit Bulls are euthanized every year”. Well, yes – at their recommendation, and if the HSUS had their way, that number would be even higher.
So, here we have HSUS, busily fund raising on the backs of fighting Pit Bulls with one hand, while calling out for their death with the other. Isn’t there a name for that kind of behaviour, over above the obvious one of ‘hypocrisy’?
As Gina always says, “Why is anyone still listening to PETA?“.
Can I now add my own?
“Why is anyone still giving money to HSUS?“.
Hey, Wayne Pacelle — if you get a chance while talking to Ellen, could you ask her what happened to all of those dogs she adopted and then dumped?
Is the HSUS OK with that, for the record? Are you guys OK with celebrities who adopt pets, only to dump them months or even just weeks after bringing them home? Is that HSUS policy now?
I’m going to assume it is, since you’re happy to hook your wagon onto her star, at least for the sake of publicity. That’s fair – it’s pretty much the same thing Ellen did to Pig, the French Bulldog she pimped on greeting cards and show segments, and then quietly disappeared from her life, and all of her promotional materials.
Could you especially ask her what happened to Pig? Some of us are kind of worried about him. Did she return him to the pet store, or turn him over to rescue, or hand him off to a hairdresser or the guy who details her car? Just give us a hint, if you could. We’d really like to know.
If you can spare time away from dancing with her, that is.
