The Most Dangerous Organization in America
Category: Pets and Animals

If you care about continuing to be able to have your pets and animal based business, please read this, pass it along to your friends and ask them to do the same. _________________________________________

This Week's Column - The Most Dangerous Organization in America

California's Proposition 2 was all over my radar this week, with the CEO of the United Egg Producers speaking to the Ohio Ag Council, and Oprah Winfrey talking animal agriculture on her show this week. Here are my thoughts on the root of this very problematic ballot initiative.

The Most Dangerous Organization in America

On November 4th, Americans will make a number of very important choices about the towns, counties, states, and the nation in which they live. In our area alone, voters will decide local and county elected officials, school funding issues, statewide office holders, and the President of the United States. Voters in California, however, will decide the fate of animal agriculture in the Sunshine State, with repercussions stretching far beyond the borders of the Left Coast.

Proposition 2, a ballot initiative proposed and campaigned by the Humane Society of the United States, would essentially outlaw both modern cage and cage-free housing systems for egg-laying operations in the state. If passed, Proposition 2 is estimated to create shortages in locally produced eggs and higher overall costs for consumers. In addition, the proposition would ban swine gestation crates and veal crates, although few veal calves and less than 9,000 sows are produced in the state. Costs for farmers to comply with this measure would be 76 percent higher than costs for current cage systems.

Why is this of issue for you as a consumer? Two very important reasons: first, that Prop 2 will become a precedent-setting piece of law, and secondly that it will drive the cost of food higher. Let's start with the first issue: precedent. Anti-animal agriculture activists have long tried to ban modern farming practices across the country. Legislative efforts championed in states from New Hampshire to New Mexico have been beaten back by common-sense legislators and industry education efforts. With the failure of the activists' legislative agenda, however, these radicals have not simply packed their tents and given up the fight. Instead, they've turned to the much more challenging tactic of ballot initiative to spread their social agenda.

Ballot initiatives are much more challenging to defend than legislative initiatives because the audience is much, much wider. When attempting to influence a piece of legislation, an organization needs to form strong ties with the appropriate members of a committee, give good and enlightening testimony, and generally persuade a majority of the elected body that a given position is the best position on the issue at hand. With a ballot initiative, however, the defending organization has to convince a majority of the electorate that a given position is the best position to support. This means massively expensive media and advertising campaigns, meaning the position that wins the day might very well be an issue of monetary resources rather than convincing argument.

Case in point is the battle over Proposition 2. On the offense is the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), while defending the position of farm families is a coalition of agriculture and business groups, led largely by the United Egg Producers, the industry organization representing egg farmers across the country. So on one hand you have a radical activist organization, whose non-profit status allowed them to amass a war chest of over $200 million in 2007, and on the other hand you have a small group of family farmers and their associated business colleagues. Organized agriculture typically invests industry funding in research and development, looking at ways to improve farming practices and the rural way of life. Instead, these funds are now being diverted to battle Proposition 2 and similar efforts HSUS has waged over the last few years in states like Florida, Colorado, and Arizona.

So who, exactly, is HSUS? I prefer to refer to the organization by its acronym for one reason: the name Humane Society implies that the group is somehow tied to your local Human shelter, which couldn't be farther from the truth. The Humane Society of the US couldn't care less about the puppies and kitties at your local animal shelter. The organization's name was chosen for the simple fact that the vast majority of Americans will assume that HSUS is tied to local Humane Societies, and donate accordingly, thinking their donations are going to help abandoned and mistreated pets. At no time do those HSUS donor dollars go to any sort of local animal rescue or care efforts. HSUS funds are used explicitly for the purpose of ending animal agriculture, and more specifically meat consumption, as a way of life in the United States.

Most Americans are familiar with PETA, the other major anti-animal agriculture organization in this country. As has been reported numerous times, PETA uses extremely visible PR stunts to advance its radical agenda. The most recent, calling on Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream to abandon cow's milk in favor of breast milk in its ice cream production, largely drew ridicule from mainstream America. Because of these wild-eyed stunts and rampant exploitation of women in its campaign against farming and meat consumption, the average American largely ignores PETA. The group no longer has the power of persuasion it once enjoyed. HSUS, on the other hand, isn't about to squander its influence on a simple PR campaign.

Where PETA will stage a rally with protestors dressed as cows being led to harvest, HSUS uses the much wiser tactic of threatening to deploy its activist members into contested Congressional elections. If an elected official doesn't side with HSUS and its celebrity CEO Wayne Pacelle, the group will dump thousands of dollars and thousands of volunteers into the campaign of that official's competitor in the next election. By focusing on coercing, intimidating, and stiff-arming public officials rather than grabbing headlines and spotlight, HSUS stays under the radar of public scrutiny, but right in the middle of the radar of powerful politicos.

HSUS has one simple agenda: end consumption of meat in America. This social agenda has nothing to do with animal welfare. The radical leaders of the organization have long maintained that their top priority is to coax, coerce, and eventual completely compel Americans into a vegan lifestyle, devoid of animal products. This agenda will be difficult to force on Americans long accustomed to eggs and bacon and leather shoes. By fooling consumers into believing their agenda is one of animal welfare and compassion, and by focusing on active lobbying and an electoral offensive, HSUS has taken a long-term perspective on their success. They are patient, knowing that if they can force 19 million California laying hens out of production, egg prices will climb, and if egg prices climb, consumption of eggs will decline. This is a long-term process, but one to which HSUS is committed, and one which HSUS has the funds to sustain.

The Humane Society of the United States exists solely to promote a radical activist agenda. They should no longer be afforded tax-exempt 501c(3) status, allowing them to promote and eventually force their extremist lifestyle on the populace with no tax burden. Consumers must be aware of what HSUS is really all about, and send their donations to the local animal shelter instead.

Andy' weekly column appears in the Logan County River Current, and will soon begin appearing in Farm World and the Indian Lake Current.

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Buckeye Ag Radio Network

This Week's Column - The Most Dangerous Organization in America

10/16/08

http://www.buckeyeag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=7&title=this_week_s_column_the_most_dangerous_or&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

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This is the same group who pushed for the Slaughter Ban. After reading this I ask you to think about why they might have wanted to be involved if their goal is to eliminate animals. One answer is clear - MONEY - the slaughter issue tugs at our hearts, and opens our pocketbooks. These people are shameless to use the American Public is such a deceitful way.

I visited a horse auction last night. At least 70% of the horses there were dangerously thin, tick infested and had no spark left in their eyes. They were there to be dumped, their owners have had no money or pasture to care for them for a while already. There were no killer buyers there, so these poor creatures were purchased largely by people with little money looking for a bargain horse, who will take them home and subject them to more of the same treatment. Those poor animals are existing in a living hell. HSUS, you've sure been a big "Help" to all of them.

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HSUS is a major player in the Slaughter Ban. We question their motives.

Do you know the goal of The Humane Society of the United States?

“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 selective breeding.”

Wayne Pacelle, CEO of HSUS, former board member of PETA - Animal People News 1993

"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, Senior VP Humane Society of the US (HSUS), formerly of Friends of

Animals and Fund for Animals - Full Cry Magazine, October 1, 1990.

"My goal is the abolition of all animal agriculture."

JP Goodwin, employed at the Humane Society of the US, formerly at Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, as quoted on AR-Views, an animal rights Internet discussion group in 1996.

Things you may not know about the HSUS and how they use donations taken in by the public.

1. The HSUS does not operate or have direct control over any shelter. Buried deep within HSUS website is a disclaimer noting that the group "is not affiliated with, nor is it a parent organization for local humane societies, animal shelters, or animal care and control agencies.”

* See notation at the end of this report regarding update to this paragraph.*

2. Since its inception, HSUS has worked hard to limit the choices of American consumers, opposing dog breeding, conventional livestock and poultry farming, rodeos, circuses, horse racing, marine aquariums, hunting, fishing, fur trapping and medical research.

3. HSUS raises enough money to help finance animal shelters in every single state with money to spare, yet it doesn't operate a single one anywhere. Instead, HSUS spends millions on programs that seek to economically cripple meat and dairy producers; eliminate the use of animals in

biomedical research labs; phase out pet breeding, zoos, and circus animal acts; and demonize hunters as crazed lunatics. HSUS spends $2 million each year on travel expenses alone, just keeping its multi-national agenda going.

4. While most local animal shelters are under-funded and unsung, HSUS has accumulated $113 million in assets and built a recognizable name by capitalizing on the public notion its very name evokes.

5. The current president of HSUS, Wayne Pacelle, is a former officer of PETA.

6. HSUS is currently under investigation by the Attorney General of Louisiana in regards to the disposition of Katrina funds. HSUS has been under investigation by the FBI for their links to domestic terrorist organizations such as the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). One of their current officers, John P.

Goodwin is a former member of ALF and a convicted felon for acts of terrorism related to animals.

7. HSUS consistently jumps on the bandwagon of any animal issue to raise funds even if they are not directly involved. Most recently they used the Michael Vick case as a major fund raiser, even though

Sources:

www.consumerfreedom.com

www.pet-law. com

www.naiaonline.org

The HSUS uses public donations to pay for lobbyists to help pass bills that are detrimental to pet owners, farmers, fisherman, hunters, trappers, and research centers. Their goal is total animal liberation and a vegan society. No pets of any kind, no meat, no fish, no eggs, cheese, milk, or any other type of

animal products. The HSUS is no different than PETA in it’s goals, but only in the way they sugar-coat the delivery of their agenda under the guise of animal welfare. It is an organization of extreme activists who are working diligently to take away your constitutional right to own pets you love.

The HSUS uses your donations for bills being passed into law for mandatory spay and neuter of pets to control animal population. Most cities passing the law are requiring pets be neutered long before reaching puberty, which is proven by research to be the cause of many health problems due to lack of needed growth hormones. It is the equivalent of sterilizing a child at the age of 3. When needed growth hormones are removed before maturity, bones don’t grow right, growth plates don’t close, osteo arthritis can set in, cancers can become more frequent. Those are only a few of a long list of health

problems caused by prepubescent neutering and spaying.

HSUS uses your donations for bills to limit the number of pets anyone can own. They are backing bills to limit breeders to 6 dogs or less, that require breeders to pay licensing up to as much as $500 per breeding dog per year (Dallas TX has already passed this one) for the “privilege” of owning them and

being able to breed. Who is going to feel the effects of this law besides the breeders? The people who would like to own a puppy and can’t afford one.

HSUS uses your donations for bills to outlaw purebred and cross-bred dogs, also referred to as “designer dogs” that have become popular in the last few years. How are they doing this? By requiring breeders to meet specific requirements to be approved for their breeding permits. They have to:

1. Breed only purebred dogs, who are not on a list banned as vicious in their municipality.

2. They have to belong to an approved registry club (There are NO registry clubs who meet all the criteria being written into the bills for approval purposes).

3. They have to be actively showing their dogs. (That also will remove hunting dogs from the breeding pool as hunting dogs are a sporting group).

HSUS uses your donations to back bills for breed specific legislation. Many, many cities have already passed laws outlawing Bully breeds, German Shepherds, Rottweillers, Doberman Pinschers, Boxers, etc.. and include any cross breed dogs who carry those breeds or resemble those breeds. Some have also now added Great Danes, Irish Wolfhounds, St Bernards, etc. because they weigh in excess of 100 pounds, not because they are on a dangerous dog list. The problem with that law is that any dog of any

breed can bite, from teacup to giant. Instead of enforcing dangerous dog laws already in existence and punishing the deed, entire breeds are being banished for the acts of only a few dogs. Many innocent dogs and owners are being punished for the irresponsibility of a few owners.

HSUS uses your donations to back laws to ban the way livestock and chickens are raised for market, and how they are slaughtered. If these laws come to pass, it is the consumer who is going to pay dearly to be able to eat. The United States has the strictest standards in the world for humane treatment of animals bred and slaughtered for food. The way they are housed is done for the safety of the animals, and more importantly, to assure the food you are getting is safe to eat. In order to control disease in the animals, certain types of housing are required.

HSUS uses your donations to back bills to ban the use of animals in medical research. The next time you or a loved one receives medicine or surgery that saved their or your life, or improved your quality of life, remember that if it weren’t for animals used in research to give you that medicine or surgery,

you would not be here reading this information. Remember it when you or a loved one gets insulin, penicillin, cancer surgery, and a myriad of other medicines and miracles, that an animal saved your life.

HSUS uses your donations to back bills to ban zoos, trained animals from circuses, rodeos, aquariums. They make it sound like all these animals are abused and exploited, when in fact the animals are well fed and well treated. They are invaluable learning tools for children and adults alike.

Many of the animals who are part of any of the facilities or events above are animals many people would only see in pictures. Seeing them in “real life” has served to spark the interest of people who go on to become biologists, researchers, doctors, animal trainers, etc. It’s because the excitement and

beauty of living, breathing beings with the intelligence and ability to work together fluidly with humans does so much more to incite the desire for more knowledge than a picture on a page. Rodeos bring history to life. To see a whale swimming in a large aquarium brings the reality of the size of these

creatures to those who can only imagine it otherwise.

Here are some of some of the people (and animals) who will be out of work should everyone sit back and allow the HSUS, PETA, and their affiliates be allowed to banish our constitutional right to own animals, which are considered to be personal property.

1. Ranchers

2. Veterinarians (no pets, no livestock, no zoos, no circuses, no rodeos, no aquariums)

3. Pet and livestock feed companies.

4. Furriers

5. Slaughter houses

6. Zoo keepers

7. Animal trainers

8. Farriers

9. Pet Breeders (no dogs, cats, fish, snakes, birds, etc.)

10. Animal control

11. Rodeo Companies (Our only living link to our western heritage)

12. Horse stables

13. Pet boarding facilities/doggy day care

14. Pet groomers

15. Pet./animal transporters

16. Pet/livestock supply manufacturers

17. Fish hatcheries

18. Animal sanctuaries

19. Animal researchers

20. Seeing eye dogs, service dogs, therapy dogs, drug sniffing dogs, search and rescue dogs, guard dogs, dogs for the hearing impaired. (I include these because they are part of the animal industry who will no longer have jobs if the no animal contact agenda is fulfilled.)

Learn the difference between animal rights and animal welfare. All animals, whether pets, livestock, or service animals, deserve humane treatment in our care (that‘s welfare), but they also serve a purpose in our lives and in our society. Fight for enforcement of existing laws that already cover humane treatment and tell our politicians to vote NO to all of the above laws that will do harm to animals and humans alike and are an infringement of our constitutional rights. The quotes below sum up animal rights very

well.

"Not only are the philosophies of animal rights and animal welfare separated by irreconcilable differences... the enactment of animal welfare measures actually impedes the achievement of animal rights... Welfare reforms, by their very nature, can only serve to retard the pace at which animal rights

goals are achieved." Gary Francione and Tom Regan, "A Movement's Means Create Its Ends," The Animals' Agenda, January/February 1992, pp. 40-42.

"...the animal rights movement is not concerned about species extinction. An elephant is no more or less important than a cow, just as a dolphin is no more important than a tuna...In fact, many animal

rights advocates would argue that it is better for the chimpanzee to become extinct than to be exploited continually in laboratories, zoos and circuses." Barbara Biel, The Animals' Agenda, Vol 15 #3.

"It's not about loving animals. It's about fighting injustice. My whole goal is for humans to have as little contact as possible with animals." Gary Yourofsky, founder of Animals Deserve Adequate Protection Today and Tomorrow (ADAPTT), now employed as PeTA's national lecturer

"We are not especially 'interested in' animals. Neither of us [Peter Singer and Ingrid Newkirk] had ever been inordinately fond of dogs, cats, or horses in the way that many people are. We didn't 'love' animals." Peter Singer, Animal Liberation: A New Ethic for Our Treatment of Animals, 2nd ed. (New York Review of Books, 1990), Preface, p. ii.

PETA and HSUS have the same agenda, so I will end this with quotes from

PETA members and some of their supporters.

Ingrid Newkirk, President of PETA:

"Probably everything we do is a publicity stunt ... we are not here to gather members, to please, toplacate, to make friends. We're here to hold the radical line." Ingrid Newkirk, PeTA's president and founder, USA Today, September 3, 1991

“Pet ownership is and absolutely abysmal situation brought about by human manipulation.” - Harpers, August 1, 1988

“In the end, I think it would be lovely if we stopped this whole notion of pets altogether.” Newsday, February 21, 1988

“There is no hidden agenda. If anybody wonders about -- what’s this with all these reforms -- you canhear us clearly. Our goal is total animal liberation.” “Animal Rights 2002” Convention, June 30, 2002

"I openly hope that it [hoof-and-mouth disease] comes here. It will bring economic harm only for those who profit from giving people heart attacks and giving animals a concentration camp-like existence. It would be good for animals, good for human health and good forthe environment." - ABC News interview (April 2, 2001)

"The bottom line is that people don't have the right to manipulate or to breed dogs and cats ... If people want toys, they should buy inanimate objects. If they want companionship, they should seek it with their own kind," (PeTA), Animals, May/June 1993

Even if animal tests produced a cure for AIDS, we'd be against it.- Vogue (September 1, 1989)

One day, we would like an end to pet shops and the breeding of animals. [Dogs] would pursue their natural lives in the wild ... they would have full lives, not wasting at home for someone to come home in the evening and pet them and then sit there and watch TV. The Chicago Daily Herald (March 1, 1990)

Alex Pacheco Co-Founder "We feel that animals have the same rights as a retarded human child because they are equal mentally in terms of dependence on others." - The New York Times (January 14, 1989)

" The cat, like the dog, must disappear... We should cut the domestic cat free from our dominance by neutering, neutering and more neutering, until our pathetic version of the cat ceases to exist."--John Bryant, *Fettered Kingdoms* (PeTA, 1982) p15

"Let us allow the dog to disappear from our brick and concrete jungles--from our firesides, from the leather nooses and chains by which we enslave it."-- John Bryant Fettered Kingdoms: An Examination of a Changing Ethic,p 15

"Liberating our language by eliminating the word 'pet' is the first step... In an ideal society where all exploitation and oppression has been eliminated, it will be NJARA's policy to oppose the keeping of animals as 'pets.'" New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance, "Should Dogs Be Kept As Pets? NO!" Good

Dog! February 1991, p. 20.

"Sometimes I think the only effective method of destroying speciesism would be for each uncaring human to be forced to live the life of a cow on a feedlot, or a monkey in a laboratory, or an elephant in the circus, or a bull in a rodeo, or a mink on a fur farm. Then people would be awakened from their soporific states and finally understand the horror that is inflicted on the animal kingdom by the vilest species to ever roam this planet: the human animal! Deep down, I truly hope that oppression, torture and murder return to each uncaring human tenfold! I hope that fathers accidentally shoot their sons on hunting excursions, while carnivores suffer heart attacks that kill them slowly.

"Every woman ensconced in fur should endure a rape so vicious that it scars them forever. While every man entrenched in fur should suffer an anal raping so horrific that they become disemboweled. Every rodeo cowboy and matador should be gored to death, while circus abusers are trampled by elephants and mauled by tigers. And, lastly, may irony shine its esoteric head in the form of animal researchers catching debilitating diseases and painfully withering away because research dollars that could have been used to treat them was wasted on the barbaric, unscientific practice vivisection." Gary Yourofsky, PeTA Humane Education Lecturer, quoted in the University of Southern Indiana Student Newspaper, The Shield, January 24, 2008

"I do not believe that it could never be justifiable to experiment on a brain-damaged human. There could conceivably be circumstances in which an experiment on an animal stands to reduce suffering so much that it would be permissible to carry it out even if it involved harm to the animal... [even if] the

animal were a human being." Peter Singer, Animal Liberation: A New Ethic for Our Treatment of

Animals, 2nd ed. (New York: New York Review of Books, 1990), p. 85

* It was recently brought to the attention of the author of this report that the HSUS now is in partnership with Armory Black Beauty Ranch, in TX and a couple of wildlife centers in southern California and Cape Cod, Mass. The author was unable to find when the partnership mergers took place, only that they now exist since pet owners have begun to fight back against harmful animal bills now being pushed in many cities, counties, and states, as well as at the federal level. The author, after reading for several hours at the HSUS site and the partner sites, was not able to find any information showing them to be “hands-on” with their care of the animals, other than those comments made by the HSUS themselves. The disclaimer on their site for years, about not being a parent of or affiliated with local humane societies, is now gone and they state instead they are advocates of those shelters, but still are not listing themselves specifically as parents or affiliates of them. It is the author’s understanding

from reading that the HSUS broke away from the original AHS (American Humane Society) because the HSUS does not condone animals sent for use in research. Again, the author thanks the animals who have helped in research who are directly or indirectly responsible for my husband’s life and that of my

sister’s, both of whom are still here because of that research.

This is the html version of the file http://www.masayagreatdanes.com/logos/Know%20The%20HSUS.pdf

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U.S. Horse Owners in Favor Of Re-Opening Slaughter Plants - Online Petition