November 18, 2010

Don't be fooled by HSUS – it's all about the money

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The billboard pictured above can be found at the corner of 10th and “L” Streets in downtown Lincoln thanks to the group HumaneWatch.org. (For a breakdown on the math showing how little money HSUS spends on animal care, click here.)

The billboard appears just in time for the arrival of the Humane Society of the United State's chief suit Wayne Pacelle. He's scheduled to chat about the organization's animal protection rights work this coming Sunday in Lincoln at the downtown Holiday Inn.

HSUS does NOT support your local animal shelter or local humane society. It just wants you to think that in the hopes that you'll fork over your hard earned money to an animal rights organization that has a bigger payroll than the White House. 

Of course when you spend more than $20 million a year to raise $100 million to support a $100 million budget while sitting on $160+ million in assets and nearly $25 million in cash, I guess you can do whatever you believe you can get away with. Even continue to promote a false image of your activities or run a "university" to promote animal protection rights studies.

Anyway, from the HumaneWatch blog post that includes a shot of the billboard above:
Of note, a local cattle rancher will appear in Lincoln to introduce Pacelle. Why, you ask? Good question. The rancher in question is a small all-organic, grass-fed beef producer who apparently believes Pacelle’s HSUS will leave him alone (and give him a competitive edge) while it pursues a veganized America.

He’s wrong, of course. 

Winston Churchill once famously said that “an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” Sound familiar?

Let’s be very clear about something: Pacelle is a vegan who will never actually endorse (much less eat) a steak, even if the animal it came from was produced and finished on a prairie with daily pedicures, and a staff of servants feeding it organic hay in between belly-rubs.

So why is Pacelle a credible guy? What gives him a position of authority from which to lecture Nebraskans about how to produce the food that most of us eat? Another good question.

Mostly, it’s HSUS’s money.

3 comments:

  1. HSUS speaks on behalf of the meat buying public. Animal agriculture is the only industry in America that refuses to listen to the consumer. Fulton Farms is organic, sustainable and humane and can't keep up with demand. Farmers that resist change will be left in his dust.

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  2. @Pamela - Thanks for the note. While it is good to hear that the farm you reference "can't keep up with demand," it is incorrect to say other livestock and poultry producers do not listen to consumers.

    In fact I would say the opposite is true. The bottom line is people want affordable, safe, nutritious and wholesome food, including meat, milk and eggs – and that's exactly what farmers work to provide.

    When it comes to beef, most consumers say taste is their highest priority. However, consumers’ lifestyles and budgets have changed over time and beef production has evolved to meet those needs. It's all about choice. Farmers provide consumers with corn- or grain-finished, grass-fed or grass-finished, certified organic and natural beef products.

    While each kind of beef offers something different to the consumer, all beef shares one common denominator that continues to spark demand: a safe, wholesome and nutritious meal.

    Organic production is a niche market and that is great, but it takes all methods to meet consumer demand and keep meat affordable.

    Modern cattle feeding operations help increase the efficiency of beef production and enable us to produce more pounds of beef using fewer resources such as land, feed and water, and they strive every day to protect soil, water and air quality. That's sustainability.

    These are things HSUS does not recognize or appreciate. And certainly HSUS does not speak on behalf of myself or most people I know – most of the meat buying public. Certainly HSUS leadership can cloud the issues, generalize and pump out a lot of misinformation in an attempt to mislead and sway public opinion, but those who take the time understand farming, livestock/poultry production and the real issues at hand see through the charade.

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  3. Right on and more and more people are coming to realize the sham organization that HSUS and PeTa and the THLN are as they are nothing more than animal rights groups who want to end all use of animals.

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