HSUS Always Seems to Have Another Angle

Pacelle's list of good deeds, Rich Landers writes, is slow in arriving.
May 17, 2001
Rich Landers - The Spokesman-Review


After the November elections, I received a phone call from Wayne Pacelle, the handsome talking face for the Humane Society of the United States. I only get calls from people who make twice my salary when they are ready to pounce. I've never received a phone call from Pacelle for the hundreds of columns and stories I've devoted to wildlife conservation. This was no exception.

Pacelle called from his East Coast office to tell me I misrepresented him in a story I had written about the lies and deception HSUS had spewed across Washington last fall.

HSUS was the financial clout that rammed Initiative 713, the anti-trapping measure, down our throats.

Using emotional video shot in other states and compiled on the East Coast, HSUS misrepresented the type of trapping that was legal in Washington. The group whipped up the moral fascism that smolders in cities, where the real-life interface between humans and wildlife has been lost.

Notice that Pacelle didn't say anything in my story was wrong, because nothing was. He just felt that it "misrepresented" HSUS as an outside propaganda group. In reality, he said, HSUS does immeasurable good for animals in Washington.

As usual, Pacelle chose his words carefully. It's true that one can barely measure the good HSUS has done for wildlife in Washington.

I told Pacelle I wanted to set the record straight. I pleaded at least four times for examples of HSUS commitment in Washington other than introducing costly anti-hunting and anti-wildlife management initiatives. He had no immediate answer but promised to send me the list of good things HSUS does in this state.

That was six months ago, and I presume Pacelle is still searching.

Here's a little bit of what I've found out about HSUS while waiting for Pacelle's call.

First, the Humane Society of the United States is not the same critter as the Humane Society that does the thankless work of running local animal shelters. The Spokane Humane Society verified that it receives no funds from HSUS to care for the continuing epidemic of abandoned and abused pets.

In fact, HSUS, with assets of more than $100 million, may be more of a detriment than a help to the local Humane Society shelters in this state.

"People donate money to the Humane Society of the United States and they think they're helping local shelters, but the money doesn't come to us," said one shelter manager who asked to remain anonymous. "We're always struggling for money."

The HSUS Comparative Financial Operations Report for 1999, a general breakdown of income and expenses the group provides to media, indicates expenses of nearly $55 million.

What was the highest single line item expenditure? Fund-raising -- more than $16 million worth.

Remember that.

A few years ago, HSUS was exposed, thanks to the Washington Post and U.S. News and World Report, which diverged from the press's usually sympathetic treatment of animal-rights groups.

HSUS, based in Washington, D.C., is the nation's largest animal advocacy organization. In 1995, it had raised nearly $40 million from two million donors. That's enough money to run an animal shelter in every state and have plenty left over to spay, neuter, feed and save thousands of cats and dogs every year.

However, HSUS did not run a single animal shelter.

HSUS was under investigation for illegal financial activity, according to the Washington Post. Meanwhile, the chief executive, John Hoyt, earned $237,871 a year plus perks amounting to tens of thousands more. The group's president, Paul Irwin, earned $209,051.

This is why you don't see animal rights groups working with wildlife biologists to solve management problems.

This is why animal rights groups will never acknowledge the prudence of sacrificing a fraction of the bison, coyotes, cougars or maybe even wild horses in order to maintain healthy ecosystems for all wildlife.

There's no money in it.

In 1996, Wayne Pacelle was instrumental in duping Washington environmental groups into believing there was a need to ban the already strictly controlled practice of hunting cougars with hounds.

The initiative passed.

The Washington Legislature had to come back and reauthorize limited hound hunting after two kids were mauled by cougars in northeastern Washington and thousands of reports were received about cougars stalking pets and stock.

The state has spent more than a million dollars responding to the increase in cougar problems. That's a service that used to be provided for free by hunters.

HSUS has money to burn on these contrived issues. Unfortunately, the in-state groups that tried to counter the outside propagandists spent money that otherwise would have been channeled to the unheralded work of real conservation.

Local sportsmen raise money to plant willows for stream restoration and stage controlled burns for the urgent issues involving wildlife habitat.

Pacelle fabricates issues in order to raise money to justify his six-digit salary.

Remember that.

The anti-trapping initiative that passed in Washington last November was another example of a contrived issue boosted with outside HSUS money. From the voter's pamphlet to the television screen, HSUS misrepresented the value of controlled trapping. The measure passed.

Washington's rural citizens are once again paying the price. Orchardists and tree farmers are finding themselves with limited defenses against gophers. Ranchers are having to lean more heavily on costly and dangerous aerial gunning to reduce their calving losses to coyotes.

And, as predicted by experts in my November story, fish hatcheries are being affected, too.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife says the initiative appears to prohibit using body-gripping traps that traditionally had been set to protect fish against otters and other predators at fish hatcheries.

Perfect, say some animal rights groups, which already are putting pressure on the Boy Scouts to discontinue offering a fishing merit badge.

Wayne Pacelle and his ilk always have another angle.

Remember that.

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