The Humane Society of the United States is a broad-minded animal protection organization, and it is our mission to protect all animals. That includes wildlife, whether the wild animals are victims of oil spills, climate change, automobiles, development, leghold trappers, or poachers.
One of our most important wildlife protection efforts is to combat poaching, which may claim more animals' lives in the United States than lawful sport hunting.
Here's an issue on which both animal advocates and hunters can agree. As Pennsylvania hunting writer Tom Venesky wrote in a recent column:
"Poaching is the lowest of the low when it comes to crimes against wildlife. Considering that the Humane Society touts itself as an animal protection organization and hunting is a sport steeped in ethics, neither group wants to see a trophy bear or any other animal wasted by a poacher's gun."
"The Humane Society is doing its part," Venesky added. "This year, the organization has posted rewards for 25 poaching cases across the country for a total of $62,500. Those cases include bears, eagles, deer, turtles, elk, javelina, porcupines, hawks and mountain lions. Five of those cases happened right here in Pennsylvania."Conversely, I have yet to see a statewide or national hunting organization put up a reward for a poaching case, something that's quite puzzling."
Indeed, we welcome the opportunity to work with hunters on this issue, especially those sincerely interested in cracking down on wildlife crimes.
But there is a small-mindedness among too many within the hunting fraternity, and there's no better example than the controversy playing out right now in Wisconsin.
In that state, the HSUS and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources are collaborating on a public awareness campaign urging citizens to leave juvenile wildlife in the wild, unless they are in obvious distress and would benefit from removal and treatment at a wildlife care center.
Hunting groups rarely if ever address this issue, and the Wisconsin DNR has been strapped for cash. So the HSUS stepped in to help, and the advertising campaign we've helped to fund doesn't even invoke our good name.
In response, a few advocates of the hunting lobby and their allies in the state legislature and in the outdoor press have called, in the most knee-jerk way, for the DNR to terminate the joint awareness program, even though they claim to agree with the message of the campaign. "A partnership like this, even on a non-controversial issue, has the risk to be seen as an endorsement of the HSUS in general," said George Meyer, executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation and former head of the DNR. The most absurd reaction to date came from Republican State Sen. Neal Kedzie who said that the HSUS had "penetrated" and "infiltrated" the DNR.
Mr. Meyer and Sen. Kedzie protest too much. The HSUS opposes cruel traps, and we work only to combat the most inhumane forms of hunting, such as bear baiting or canned hunts. But this measure has nothing to do with hunting -- it is about leaving wildlife in the wild and not picking up baby animals during the birthing season just because you don't see their mother around.
Most hunting groups do quite little to combat poaching, or protecting newborn wildlife. My advice is these outfits just stay out of the way when other groups, including the HSUS, choose to step in to address those issues and to protect wildlife.
The good people of Wisconsin, like the rest of us, remember only too well the era of McCarthyism and the red-baiting that occurred back then. Sen. Kedzie sounds like a chip off the old block. This is baiting of another sort, and it's not becoming to any of the critics of an important and beneficial public awareness campaign.
This post originally appeared on Pacelle's blog, A Humane Nation.
Follow Wayne Pacelle on Twitter: www.twitter.com/humanesociety
You also stated about poaching that "hunting groups rarely if ever address this issue" and "most hunting groups do quite little to combat poaching, or protecting newborn wildlife". That is just absolutly not true. Anti-poaching awareness is a HUGE part of hunter education programs and conservation programs. Seriously, do your research instead of just making stuff up.
If you want to be taken seriously, try getting your facts right please.
One of my goals in life is to cause Proctor & Gamble to go out of business if they don't stop 'testing' their products on live animals. I have information on my page that shows visitors which products to boycott. According to the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, I can be prosecuted and jailed for doing
just that. It has happened.
The Government considers corporations like BP to have the same rights as individuals, but do they also have the same responsibilities? BP is negatively impacting the income of animal-exploiting businesses all along the Gulf coast, but will BP or any of its executives be hauled into Federal court for violating the AETA?
As a matter of fact he routinely slanders anybody critical of him and HSUS as animal abusers.
As the truth about HSUS comes floating to the surface, the HSUS is getting shriller by the moment. Why? Because it's cutting into the donations. And that would include Hillary's pay check.
Follow the money.
If you're going to comment on this subject, you should contemplate American history vis a vis westward expansion, the centuries-old quest to dominate nature, and the hold-over elements of that cultural evolution, such as rodeos, big game hunting and living off the land as a omnivore. Those of my fellow Americans who pursue that kind of thing are never going to get my condemnation - it is part of their way of life.
Not that there isn't a disgusting minority out there that do indeed operate on 'blood lust & diabolical machismo.'
They will stop traffic and let young turtles or baby ducks pass!!
They carry turtles with eggs across the road!!
Where ya coming from?
VT and NH Farmers and residents you are being chemtrailed 5 days out of seven!!
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"Our goal is to get sport hunting in the same category as cock fighting and dog fighting." Wayne Pacelle, Senior VP Humane Society of the US (HSUS),
"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).
So Hillary.. which of these quotes by your now President/CEO calls any hunting "ethical". That is the newest "buzz word" used by Pacelle.. calling some hunters "ethical".. which ones?
Please tell us something more relevant: Has Mr. Pacelle publicly renounced these statements? That's far more relevant than the fact that time has passed since he made them.
Hillary, HSUS
Do we share concerns about hunters using doves for target practice and not food? No. Because that's not true. Everyone I know who hunts doves loves eating them.
Do we share concerns about people hunting bears just for trophies? No. Because everyone I know who hunts bears eats them.
Do we share concerns about high-fence ranches? No, because I know that the stereotypes you present to the public are not the norm.
Do exceptions exist? Obviously, and HSUS has mastered the use of the grain of truth to spread the plague of deception - you folks are as slick as the best campaign ad producers. But hunters who know better aren't buying it.
Asking us to embrace your cause and overlook your tactics is like asking African Americans to ligthen up about the propaganda used in the last century to promote continued institutional segregation. We're not buying it. You get away with it because the majority of Americans are far removed from the notion of where meat comes from, so they can't see through the stereotypes. But that doesn't make your propaganda right or true.
(1) A past quote from Pacelle stated that he wanted to put an end to hunting. Think his philosophy has changed? I doubt it--but that wouldn't fly. Hey, know the fable of the scorpion crossing a river on the back of an animal? Apply to H$U$ "piggybacking" with REPUTABLE animal industries. What's the saying? Make a partnership with the Devil, and you change, but the Devil doesn't? Also appropos.
(2) H$U$ seizes every opportunity that is projected as a good ROI to grandstand their organization and garner donations from well-meaning folks who truly love animals. EVERY TIME the H$U$ can "partner" with a LEGITIMATE animal group, it gives the AR INDUSTRY leader more credibility and allows them to claim (undeserved) spokesmanship/expertise.
(3) Critics of H$U$ are verbally attacked/discredited, BUT Pacelle and others in H$U$’s leadership have convenient amnesia when it comes to interviews/speeches they gave in the past that reveal their anti-human, anti-animal-use convictions. Instead, H$U$ uses "propaganda mill" BIG LIES to deceive the general public, naive organizations, and legislators.
But to say that hunting organizations do little to fight poaching or protect newborn wildlife is ridiculous. Every hunting organization I belong to - and there are many - promotes ethical, lawful hunting. And we do far more to protect newborn wildlife than HSUS will EVER do, because we invest most of our money in habitat so that wild animals will have a place to live and thrive.
It is also ridiculous to say that HSUS opposes "only the most inhumane forms of hunting." You oppose forms of hunting that don't fare well in the polls, such as dove or bear hunting, which provide meat just as valid and edible as pheasant and deer hunting. And you fight these forms of hunting with unfounded and insulting stereotypes.
Regardless of what anyone thinks of the current debate in Wisconsin, it is with good reason that hunters distrust and dislike the HSUS. You slander us at every opportunity. And while it may be unrealistic to ask state agencies to turn down “free money,” it's really no wonder that hunters chafe at the notion that the agencies WE fund are partnering with YOU.