As a hunter, fisherman and trapper, I know that the Humane Society of the United States is a very powerful, wealthy, politically active animal rights organization that opposes any use of animals, period, and especially hunting, trapping and even fishing.
For some time, I’ve been dismayed as to how the wonderful people at our local animal shelters could be part of a group like that. The short answer here is that THEY ARE NOT! Local animal shelters are often known as Humane Societies and are wonderful groups of dedicated animal lovers who run shelters like the ones where we have gotten two of our dogs, and often give their time for little or no pay. The confusion comes from the fact that local Humane Societies and the HSUS are two totally different organizations using the same name. The following information comes from a recent issue of the trapping magazine Trappers Post.
In 1887, the American Humane Association was formed as “the nation’s voice for the protection of children and animals” and was instrumental in every major advance in helping protect children, pets and farm animals from neglect and abuse, including federal regulations for humane livestock slaughter. The AHA is an animal welfare organization, meaning they advocate humane treatment of animals. The HSUS on the other hand is an animal rights organization which believes killing animals in any way, shape or form is murder.
In the early 1950’s some AHA people realized that vast amounts of money could be raised by appealing to peoples’ emotion and asking them to help animals. That group eventually named itself the Humane Society of the United States and split from the AHA to concentrate mostly on fund raising and in 1980 formally adopted an animal rights position. They have since perfected the art of fund raising and today they raise well over $100 million annually. However only a mere fraction of that goes to help animals, and they do not run one single animal shelter. Most of the money lines the pockets of HSUS staff or is spent on more fund raising and on efforts to ban hunting, fishing and trapping.
A watchdog group called Humane Watch (www.humanewatch.org) has provided the following figures from HSUS’s 2013 tax return.
• 2013 fundraising expenses: 42 million, 35% of their budget
• CEO Wayne Pacelle’s 2013 compensation: over $400,000
• In 2013, HSUS reported 5 million in lobbying expenses alone.
• In 2013, HSUS paid out 44.3 million in salaries and compensation
• Also in 2013, HSUS paid over 15 million to settle a federal racketeering lawsuit naming them and two of their employees
• In 2013, HSUS spent less than 1% of their annual 120 million budget to aid animal shelters
Hunters, fishermen and trappers, please be aware that the Humane Society of the United States and local Humane Societies are two completely different organizations. Many people make contributions to HSUS thinking they are helping their local animal shelters, when in fact they are just being ripped off by giving more money to an enormous fund raising machine that cares little about animals and whose agenda is raising millions of dollars to spend on efforts to ban hunting, fishing and trapping.
Please continue to support your local animal shelters and Humane Societies, but please do not contribute to the Humane Society of the United States and lets all help educate the public on the difference between the two. Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors.
Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].