Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Animal Lovers Work Capitol Hill
Over 300 animal welfare activists met with lawmakers and aides on Capitol Hill on July 27 as part of the Humane Society of the United States' annual "Taking Action for Animals" conference.
HSUS, one of the nation's most powerful voices on animal protection, staged a vegan banquet on Saturday night, drawing Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., who met with attendees from the animal welfare sector and dined on faux meat.
"Everyone raved about the food, even the hardcore carnivores," boasted HSUS president and CEO Wayne Pacelle.
The conference weekend and lobbying day served to bolster the citizen advocacy component of HSUS's aggressive lobbying efforts. Annually, the group and its affiliates allocate about $8 million on advocacy efforts, which includes grassroots, federal and state lobbying and work on ballot measures, according to chief operating officer Michael Markarian. In 2008, the group spent about $200,000 on direct federal lobbying, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
"We're in the process of building a powerful social movement," Pacelle said, pointing to HSUS's citizen advocacy efforts at every level of government and its undercover investigation this year that unearthed violations in animal welfare law at primate research labs--an effort quickly followed by USDA action.
(Photo of Humane Society's Markarian, actress and animal rights activist Ginnifer Goodwin and Moran following the group's lobbying meetings on Capitol Hill courtesy of HSUS)
So how did HSUS's lobbying conference work?
First HSUS staff helped their activists set up meetings on Capitol Hill with their local legislators and aides prior to their arrival. Prior to those meetings, HSUS activists received training on how to lobby.
Activists attended role playing sessions, discussions with HSUS's registered lobbyists, and lessons from"guru" Stephanie Vance, of the consulting firm Advocacy Associates', which specializes in teaching lobbying skills. The schedule was aimed at "demystifying the legislative process," Markarian said.
Advocates also learned how to bring their lobbying skills home after they leave D.C., such as ways to follow up with district offices, and tools for persuading other animal devotees to become effective communicators on legislation.
"We stressed that people should tie the issue back to their own experience, and talk about the problems in their own communities," Markarian said. "If you run an animal shelter, you can talk about the problem of overpopulation of dogs."
The training also emphasized that activists should discuss the benefits of animal protection beyond animal welfare. Talking points for the "Truth In Fur Labeling Act," for instance, include consumer issues and the right to "know what you're buying," Markarian said, since the bill could help prevent deception about whether shoppers are purchasing faux or animal fur.
In total, the activists were trained to talk about four animal protection bills that have a chance of being considered in Congress this year: the Great Ape Protection Act, the Equine Cruelty Act, the Truth In Fur Labeling Act, and the Southern Sea Otter Research and Recovery Act, Markarian said.
After the Hill visits in the morning, HSUS finished with a rally on Capitol Hill featuring celebrity advocate Ginnifer Goodwin, an actress, and remarks from Pacelle and Moran.
"When members hear directly from their own constituents, they listen closely," Moran said afterward through a spokesman. "If it's brought directly to the members' attention that there is a sizable, focused and motivated group of people in their district, they will be much more likely to take the issue seriously. Grassroots activism does work."
Debra Teachout, 57, a vet from Lemont, Ill. who attended the conference and lobby day, especially appreciated the role playing training sessions when a few aides she spoke with were quiet, making it difficult for her to "detect whether the Senators were with each bill or not." Her meetings were with aides to Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. and Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill.
"It's nice to have that preparation if you've never done it before, so you know kind've what to expect," said Teachout, who has lobbied in her state capital, as well. "It's all about getting to the point quickly, so they can ask you questions."
Pacelle said face time with lawmakers at the banquet was particularly useful. Sitting at a table with Conyers and his family, he told the representative--who had "organized to make dogfight and cockfighting a federal felony"--how widespread these practices remain.
"He was shocked," Pacelle said.
The activists' work seems to have been effective. Although it had a pretty solid outlook prior to the HSUS meetings, the sea-otter bill passed the House 316 to 107 Tuesday night, just one day after HSUS's activists finished their lobbying day.
"We are pleased that our advocacy helped push the bill over the finish line," Markarian said.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Betty
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Betty
http://smallpet.info
Monday, August 3, 2009
Allie
I was glad to attend Taking Action for Animals for the first time this year! Beyond the food, it was inspiring to be surrounded by animal activitists who are bringing positive change to more humane treatment of animals. I am proud to be part of the 'social movement,' as Wayne Pacelle puts it, and look forward to speaking up for animals who don't have a voice.
Monday, August 3, 2009
John B
As usual, the fringe critics of The Humane Society of the United States fail to address the central issue -- the suffering animals. They cannot defend industries, like puppy mills, that feed off cruelty. So they try and change the subject. Well, it won't work. It takes only a minute to find the truth -- humanesociety.org
Monday, August 3, 2009
Elizabeth
7 Things You Didn’t Know About HSUS
(The Humane Society of the United States)
1. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is a “humane society” in name only, since it doesn’t operate a single pet shelter or pet adoption facility anywhere in the United States. HSUS operates sanctuaries for large animals only, not shelters within the commonly accepted definition of shelter. During 2006, HSUS contributed only 4.2 percent of its budget to organizations that operate hands-on dog and cat shelters. In reality, HSUS is a wealthy animal-rights lobbying organization (the largest and richest on earth) that agitates for the same goals as PETA and other radical groups.
2. Beginning on the day of NFL quarterback Michael Vick’s2007 dog fighting indictment, HSUS raised money online with the false promise that it would “care for the dogs seized in the Michael Vick case.” The New York Times later reported that HSUS wasn’t caring for Vick’s dogs at all. And HSUS president Wayne Pacelle told the Times that his group recommended that government officials “put down” (that is, kill) the dogs rather than adopt them out to suitable homes. HSUS later quietly altered its Internet fundraising pitch.
3. HSUS’s senior management includes a former spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a criminal group designated as “terrorists” by the FBI. HSUS president Wayne Pacelle hired John “J.P.” Goodwin in 1997, the same year Goodwin described himself as “spokesperson for the ALF” while he fielded media calls in the wake of an ALF arson attack at a California veal processing plant. In 1997, when asked by reporters for a reaction to an ALF arson fire at a farmer’s feed co-op in Utah (which nearly killed a family sleeping on the premises), Goodwin replied, “We’re ecstatic.” That same year, Goodwin was arrested at a UC Davis protest celebrating the 10-year anniversary of an ALF arson at the university that caused $5 million in damage. And in 1998, Goodwin described himself publicly as a “former member of ALF.”
4.HSUS raised a reported $34 million in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, supposedly to help reunite lost pets with their owners. But comparatively little of that money was spent for its intended purpose. Louisiana’s Attorney General shuttered his 18-month-long investigation into where most of these millions went, shortly after HSUS announced its plan to contribute $600,000 toward the construction of an animal shelter on the grounds of a state prison. Public disclosures of the disposition of the $34 million in Katrina-related donations add up to less than $7 million.
5. After gathering undercover video footage of improper animal handling at a Chino, CA slaughterhouse during November of 2007, HSUS sat on its video evidence for three months, even refusing to share it with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. HSUS’s Dr. Michael Greger testified before Congress that the San Bernardino County (CA) District Attorney’s office asked the group “to hold on to the information while they completed their investigation.” But the District Attorney’s office quickly denied that account, even declaring that HSUS refused to make its undercover spy available to investigators if the USDA were present at those meetings. Ultimately, HSUS chose to release its video footage at a more politically opportune time, as it prepared to launch a livestock-related ballot campaign in California. Meanwhile, meat from the slaughterhouse continued to flow into the U.S. food supply for months.
6. According to a 2008 Los Angeles Times investigation, less than 12 percent of money raised for HSUS by California telemarketers actually ends up in HSUS’s bank account. The rest is kept by professional fundraisers. And if you exclude two campaigns run for HSUS by the “Build-a-Bear Workshop” retail chain, which consisted of the sale of surplus stuffed animals (not really “fundraising”), HSUS’s yield number shrinks to just 3 percent. Sadly, this appears typical. In 2004, HSUS ran a telemarketing campaign in Connecticut with fundraisers who promised to return a minimum of zero percent of the proceeds. The campaign raised over $1.4 million. Not only did absolutely none of that money go to HSUS, but the group paid $175,000 for the telemarketing work.
7. Research shows that HSUS’s heavily promoted U.S. “boycott” of Canadian seafood—announced in 2005 as a protest against Canada’s annual seal hunt—is a phony exercise in media manipulation. A 2006 investigation found that 78 percent of the restaurants and seafood distributors described by HSUS as “boycotters” weren’t participating at all. Nearly two-thirds of them told surveyors they were completely unaware HSUS was using their names in connection with an international boycott campaign. Canada’s federal government is on record about this deception, saying: “Some animal rights groups have been misleading the public for years … it’s no surprise at all that the richest of them would mislead the public with a phony seafood boycott.”
Want evidence? Visit www.AnimalScam.com • www.ActivistCash.com • www.consumerfreedom.com
Revised October 2008. Complete sources and documentation available upon request.
www.exposeanimalrights.com
Friday, July 31, 2009
alice
Who said:
“I don’t have a hands-on fondness for animals…To this day I don’t feel bonded to any non-human animal. I like them and I pet them and I’m kind to them, but there’s no special bond between me and other animals.”
Who said:
"We have no ethical obligation to preserve the different breeds of livestock produced through selective breeding. . One generation and out. We have no problem with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding"
Who said:
"When asked if he envisioned a future without pets, “If I had my personal view, perhaps that might take hold. In fact, I don’t want to see another dog or cat born"
If you guessed Wayne Pacelle you would be right..
Friends Don't Let Friends Donate to the H$U$
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Greg
"Faux meat"? A soybean composite created via monoculture crop production of a nonnative on land that used to be prairie, open to grazers, game and wild birds sustainably hunted for protein.
"Faux fur"? Synthetic clothing produced from oil drilling, a plastic product -- literally. Impossible to get rid of and the world certainly doesn't need any more of it!
Is this the direction the animal "lovers" want to take us? Sounds like a vegan oil convention!
Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play
Where the vegans are gone and the days are long and Humane Wayne is far, far away!
It's gorgeous outside. Adios! Gone fishing!