Anti-gun activism can come from the most unlikely places, even organizations like the innocuously named Humane Society of the United States. You may have seen one of their heart-wrenching television commercials. Styling themselves as your local humane shelter, the HSUS does not actually run a single pet shelter.
Instead, the HSUS uses the dollars donated by people thinking they are funding shelters for purposes every bit as radical as those espoused by PETA.
The HSUS presses an agenda against using animal products like meat, cheeses, and even ice cream.
So why should gun rights activists care about this group? Along with being anti-meat, HSUS is also very anti-hunting, with their CEO Wayne Pacelle referring to hunting as “murder,” and saying “if we could shut down all sport hunting in a moment, we would.”
Their group has spent a large portion of their $140 million dollar budget pressing for legislation banning hunting in national parks and even the sale of lead-based ammunition.
Pacelle is also no fan of the NRA, claiming it is “led by extremists.”
“The NRA’s invoking of the noble principles of freedom and constitutional rights to defend hunting, as with its inflexible stance on gun control, is only a smoke screen for extremism,” Pacelle stated.
The bottom line is attacks on your rights can come from anywhere, even a group posing as your local humane society. Always research before donating, and tell your friends HSUS is not what it appears to be!
(Editor’s note: This article was a submission from freelance writer Mike Doran)
Just goes to show some people are dumber than animals. Replacing natural habitat, with chainsaws, asphalt, concrete and humans is what has attributed to the loss of life to animals in 99.9% of cases, the exception, are the whales. You take killing the natural habitat out of the equation humans killing animals still is a part of the natural balance in the food chain. For example if plant eaters are not reduced to proper numbers they can eat there food supply up in certain regions and die. This has happened in the Midwest before mountain lion hunting was regulated. The deer ate their food supply up and died in many numbers.
Personally I have not hunted for 30 years. I don’t object to lawful hunting, especially for food. My issue is defense of self and others. I want the best battle proven weapons I can afford. NO one should interfere with that very basic right.
Wonder if the Humane folks like chicken?
Something to note: the Humane Society of the United States is NOT the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The ASPCA is the organization that runs the “Dog pounds” and works to provide care for our animal companions.
The HSUS is a political organization with no connection to the ASPCA. It uses the similarity of identity to project its political aims and focus and does squat for actual prevention of cruelty.
Keep this in mind, the ASPCA is relatively mute on most political matters unless they concern domestic pets and livestock. The HSUS is a front for an anti-gun lobby. Help the ASPCA by adopting and reporting cruel treatment of pets and treat the HSUS the way you’d treat a less-than-honest organization hiding behind a sound-alike name.
Just a reminder that honesty is a foreign concept when it comes to political agendas.
Wow! Thank you for this info.
Funny… I guess it’s OK for the Humane Society to put their strays down when they are unable to find homes for them, in effect, housing animals who live under a constant threat of death, administered by the caring hands of the HS!
What perverse irony – they can kill the animal simply because the animal is unwanted.
And yet, these same humane people would disallow real people from determining their Second Amendment right to legally defend themselves when they find themselves in similarly life threatening situations.
Methinks the Humane Society is more an advocate of “termination,” rather than “determination.”
Please note that the HS strives to save lives but is overwhelmed and full to capacity with left-behinds from selfish and uncaring people who don’t give a good crap. I do volunteer work and encourage donations as the alternatives are worse. Also, i have owned firearms since a youngster and have never had the urge to hunt. Maybe if the playing field was leveled by let’s say, arming a bear with a nice Tommy gun or something.
The HSUS is well-known among animal rescue groups for being a fraud, primarily interested in raising money to pay the bloated salaries of the radical zealots that run it. Pacelle, who now runs it, moved to HSUS from PETA and their criminal subsidiary, the Animal Liberation Front. Their oft-stated agenda (which they know will take decades, if not longer) is to eliminate all livestock, all pets and all zoos. This would also outlaw leather, wool and any other animal product — though they’re a bit wishy-washy on milk production.
I’ve raised & trained working dogs for 25 years, judged the competitions, and have been doing strictly rescue for the past 15 years. I have 36 rescue dogs in my house, most too old or otherwise unlikely to ever be adopted. They stay here as long as they have any quality of life, and then get buried here on the farm. We have adopted out over 300 rescue dogs to good homes, and don’t get one penny of government money (and not enough donations to even mention). Fortunately my $950 Social Security check covers their food — barely — so my retirement check is left to pay vet bills.
Sending donations to HSUS, the ASPCA, or anything with the name “humane” in it … is a waste of your money, since only a tiny fraction ever goes to what they CLAIM is their real mission — saving animals. The ASPCA does run animal shelters, true — but under contract to local county or city governments, and they most DEFINITELY make money from it. Technically it’s tax-exempt, since it goes right into their treasury …. and then goes to pay all those six-figure salaries, plus “costs,” many of which (such as printing & public relations) are usually owned by the organizations’ officers or their families. I’ve worked with probably 70 or 80 different shelters in five different States, and grow more disgusted with those organizations each year.
If you really want to help save animals, find a small local rescue and then visit them to make sure they are legitimate & the animals are healthy & well-treated. Chances are that they spend their OWN money to do this and could save even more animals with a bit of financial help. Most of them are 501c3 groups, so your money is tax-deductible.
Needless to say, actually adopting a rescue dog is the best way, and you’ll never find a better friend. A dog KNOWS you’re the one who rescued him, and he’ll never forget it.
I think Nugent hit the nail on the head because here is another one.
For years it has been known that HSUS was an anti-hunting organization so this is not new news. I applaud the notion that giving to local shelters is a good idea. The let us then remember the thousands of adoption organizations who actually find homes for these abandoned and often abused dogs and cats. I have supported these organizations as well as my local shelter for years. As a Police Officer I drove around for sometimes hours answering calls with a lost or abandoned dog or car in the squad (good company) while I also looked for their owners. I only took them to the shelter as a last resort but I also tracked them to make sure they were not put down. If they looked like they were going to be put down I alerted the rescue groups to try to save them lord knows that I have supported numerous abandoned and starving cats and dogs over the years. I felt it was a responsibility to have them neutered or spayed and giv3n their shots often at my expense. So look to the volunteer animal adoption organizations in your community and also support them as well as the animal shelters.
Thanks for all you’ve done for those animals. I wish more people would get involved to make up for the countless BAD owners who dump their dogs on the highway or at the shelter. My wife and I run a dog rescue from our home, now filled with 36 dogs that deserved better than being thrown away. One that we picked up from the County shelter had been dumped there, and on the Surrender Form they signed, under “Reason for Surrender” they had only one word ….”Old.” There must be a special place in Hell for people like that. That old Beagle girl lived another two years here, went from 17 lb. to 34 lb., and was pretty happy & healthy until her last few days. Many of the dogs we take in were either in some clown’s hunting kennel, or just lived in a yard, or were chained out, and they have to learn to be a house dog; fortunately, the rest of the pack trains them by example, and most are OK within a few days. You can always tell when a dog has never been taken into a building before, and sometimes they get really scared the first time.
Anyone considering a rescue dog should think about adopting an OLDER dog. The down-side is obvious, and I can tell you that burying them never, ever gets any easier — but they are usually so grateful and devoted to you that they’ll do anything to make you happy. You just have to explain it to them. And knowing you gave them perhaps their only happy years with good food & a warm bed, in a place where they were loved …. you’ll never be sorry.
I love all my pets like family. Wish more people were like you.
These groups are even against fishing and I think it was PETA who put out an anti-fishing video, “fish feel pain”.
PETA also got caught on video stealing dogs off of porches and put them to death, for money of course.
God Bless the USA!
Start giving to your local animal shelters & stop giving your hard earned money to this leftist un American enterprise.
Well, I don’t think I could support HSUS, but I am a very strong supporter of PETA. When I worked in medical research I always tried to get a PETA event going, especially when we had extra pigs that they did not use. They made wonderful sausage, chops and ribs, but our director thought people would not understand our “People Eating Tasty Animals” events… 😀
If they are acting as a hedge fund why not report them to the S.E.C. and the I.R.S.
If their 501 status is taken away then their cover is blown.
The Humane Society of the United States scandalously only gives 1% of its budget to local pet shelters, and it doesn’t run any pet shelters of its own. But it has plenty of money to bury in the sand. Deep in HSUS’s latest tax return is the group’s admission that it made “investments” totaling $25.7 million in the “Central American and the Caribbean” region. There were no reported investments of any kind abroad in HSUS’s previous three years of tax returns.
Why is a group that pledges to rescue animals in need quietly burying $26 million in Caribbean accounts? And where exactly is this $26 million “invested”?
It turns out HSUS funneled mega-bucks to several funds located in the Cayman Islands. The secretive place where secretive people stuff their secretive money. Bond villain-type stuff. According to its 990-T and supplemental forms, HSUS made the following “investments”:
$500,000 to Ascend Partners Fund I, L.P., a Cayman hedge fund
$253,000 to BKM Holdings (Cayman) Ltd.
$8 million to Fore Multi Strategy Offshore Fund, Ltd., in the Caymans
$5 million to Hayman Capital Offshore Partners, L.P. in Bermuda
$6.7 million invested in Fir Tree International Value Fund in the Caymans
Why would a U.S. charity be putting $26 million in the Caribbean? (And the figures above only add up to a little over $20 million—where’s the other $5 million?) HSUS is a non-profit. It’s not in the business of investing money in hedge funds to make a profit. It’s in the business—according to its ads—of saving animals now. Now means right away—not in 10 years when HSUS may have made a loss on its Caribbean investments. (HSUS reports losing $61,000 in 2012 on various partnerships in the 990-T.)
There’s a reason people write “H$U$.” It’s because money seems to come first for the cynics and the bean-counters running HSUS. And it’s one more reason to give to your local shelter directly, not to a questionable national organization that might stick your donations in the Caymans instead of helping the shelter pets it cynically uses in its ads.
Check out HumaneWatch.org for more truth about HSUS, it’s not pretty.
Apparently the bloated salaries of their officers (and most of their headquarters staff) are not sufficient to give them the kind of retirement package they want, so they launder money thru Caribbean banks to augment their retirement plans.
And of course running money thru banks owned by Caribbean drug lords makes it easier to funnel money to the extremist groups that HSUS & SPCA pretend not to support, like the Animal Liberation Front (ALF).
Don’t fall for those tear-jerking ads on TV. Ignore the charlatans in those big organizations and find LOCAL rescue groups you can help.
HSUS is as crazy as all that and should not get donations, BUT this organization is NOT the same as local humane societies who do need support. Your local HS is not affiliated with HSUS so make sure you check into it before donating money. HSUS is damaging local humane societies through a deceptive name.
The right to hunt is right up there with the right to eat. Hunting is plenty restricted already. Nothing like Bamby
roasting on a spit! PETA? People eating tasty animals.
When some neighbor killed our dogs with antifreeze, I wrote or phoned to all of the animal rights groups. PETA could not get off the phone fast enough. HSUS blamed me for their deaths. . . .
Peta and humane society both would outlaw pet ownership in a moment if you let them. Both spend more donations on themselves then the animals. Peta also has a kill policy in their shelters. They blame the owners for the animals’ death, not their policies. More of “do what I say, not as I do.
Their entire stance is anti-hunting, which isn’t at all surprising considering that they are the HUMANE Society. The NRA doesn’t run any gunshops. Does that make them anti-gun? Do all 2A zealots believe everything that the almighty NRA tells them to believe? The Humane Society has demonstrated that they are not who they claim to be on many occasions but they aren’t “comin, fer yer gunz”. Given the fact that the BATF has just made obtaining NFA weapons much easier by no longer requiring a CLEO signature, I’d say that they’re not “coming to get yer gunz” either.
It would be interesting to know how much of their funds go to Leftist, Socialist organizations….including the DIMocRAT party!!
DOE guards nuclear sites. That’s why they need to be armed.
Makes more sense to support your local independently operated shelters.
Too many national level organizations have embraced an anti-2A position.
Too many Governmental agencies not related to the military or law enforcement have armed agents; DEA, yes, but DOE??
NOAA is now armed, so I guess if you lie enough then you need arms.
God Bless the USA!
The Agriculture Department agents are all trained on full-auto M-16’s, and Ag has an “unspecified” number in their arsenal (estimated by one “leaker” to be around 800).
Must be expecting a lot of trouble the next time they inspect Frank Perdue’s chicken ranch. Who knew?
No, it makes more sense to support your local rescue groups, NOT necessarily the local shelter — which may be run by ASPCA or other shady groups, under contract from counties or cities.
Ask your vet about local, well-run animal rescue groups. Most are grossly underfunded and could take in & adopt out a lot more dogs & cats if someone donated money or dog food to them.
This is one of the reasons why I no longer belong/contribute to both the Humane Society of the United States. This and the fact that even after you have signed on to give them a regular monthly contribution, they use your money to then send you weekly letters asking for more, and to hire telemarketers to hound you into giving more as well. HSUS was a really big disappointment. This is what happens when the mission of certain non-profits are hijacked by Left Wing Fanatics intent on imposing their anti-Constitutional agendas on the American People.
Even on TV shows are the anti-gun agenda and other issues being rubbed in our faces- from police dramas, to police comedies, to sitcoms, etc. If you go by what TV executives are showing on TV, there are far greater numbers of gays and lesbians in the USA than Blacks, Hispanics/Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, etc. combined, lol.
I don’t trust ANY of these “Gimme your Money” organizations that spend millions advertising on TV. I support my LOCAL organizations, where I can visit and see what they are doing.
Wow, I never knew the “humane society” had a national org that just sucked up donations without helping animals at all. Kinda like back in the old days of long distance telephone, where companies named themselves “anybody”, and “I don’t care” & if that’s who you requested when turning on a phone, that’s who you got. Despicable, and evidently fairly profitable.
It’s pretty profitable. Wayne Pacelle pulls in just around $400,000 in regular salary, not counting bonuses, a huge expense account, a chauffeured car, and other perks. And who knows how much of those millions HSUS funnels to Caribbean banks winds up in his hands ….
He used to front for PETA, but there’s a revolving door among all those animal rights frauds, passing people back and forth just like on Capitol Hill in D.C.
I wish they would stop showing those commercials. Every hour, on just about every channel, as soon as it comes on, i heave a sigh of disgust, and hit the channel button on the remote.
The humane society also does not want you to own the animals you own now and are spending millions lobbying Washington trying to take those rights away as well .
Very informative. I had no idea. As pet lovers (myself included) my mother and brother and one of my sisters donated to the HSUS for many years. I know my mother and brother no longer donate simply because they can no longer afford to on their fixed incomes. I will certainly pass on this article to my sister. HSUS will no longer recieve donations from my family and soon my friends once I share this article.
How rich for Pacelle to accuse the NRA’s “invoking” of principles is only a “smokescreen” for extremism…Everything about everything involving libtards like Pacelle is a smokescreen for their destructive libtard policies.
There are undoubtedly abuses of animals in modern animal farming practices (for example puppy mills, overcrowded poultry farms, pigs raised without ever seeing the sun in overcrowded and fetid concrete styes), and these groups would do well to focus their energies there. The anti-hunting agenda fails to account for the fact that generations ago our forefathers hunted the apex predators that kept the hooved animal populations in check (and if what I hear from ranchers in northern california pissed that a small wolf pack has now moved down from Oregon, will continue to do so), and that without such predators, human predation through hunting is necessary to the health and well-being of the herd populations. They also fail to understand that haunters provide millions of dollars a year in fees and taxes that support wild life preserves and management–something none of these groups do.
And in my area, hunters donate TONS of meat to homeless shelters, thereby reducing the cost to local governments and church groups.
Just another organization with an agenda to eliminate law abiding citizens’ constitutional Second Amendment rights. Does the NRA keep a list of all the anti-gun groups/organizations so we can make an informed decision not to waste our resources on their causes?