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A Better Humane Society?
From Satya
Founded in 1954 by a handful of activists dissatisfied with the ineffectiveness of the national humane movement, the Humane Society of the United States was established to address the surplus breeding of companion animals, the humane treatment of farm animals, and the investigation of animal cruelty.
Some people may be surprised to learn that in addition to supporting local humane societies and low-cost spay/neuter programs for companion animals, throughout the mid to late 1950s and ‘70s, HSUS directed much of its resources into the humane slaughter of farm animals and was a leader in the passage of the Humane Slaughter Act in 1958.
The past half century has seen the HSUS grow into the largest animal protection organization in the country, and one of the most influential worldwide. Last June, after years working as Senior Vice President of government affairs and communications, Wayne Pacelle became the Chief Executive Officer of HSUS. With his promotion came a revamp of the organization’s mission, the development of a new campaigns section with a focus on farm animals, and the establishment of a company-wide vegan policy.
The vision is to consolidate forces. Early this year, the Fund for Animals formally merged with HSUS, and the leadership of one of the most successful grassroots animal advocacy groups, Compassion Over Killing, joined its ranks.
Tireless vegan activist MD, Michael Greger, also moved to HSUS. With an operating budget of over $95 million and roughly nine million members and constituents, people are taking notice.Wayne Pacelle has built a career trying to keep animals out of harm’s way.
A vegan for two decades, Pacelle has worked with many animal protection organizations, including the Fund For Animals. He is credited with leading efforts at HSUS in the passage of more than a dozen federal laws, 15 statewide ballot initiatives, and countless state statutes to protect animals.
Catherine Clyne spoke with Wayne Pacelle about his new role at HSUS, his vision for the movement, and his personal objective of creating “a National Rifle Association of the animal rights movement.”
You’ve been CEO of HSUS since last June. What is your overall vision for the organization?
I want to achieve greater effectiveness and create an even more powerful organization to advance major social changes. One of the greatest difficulties we face at HSUS is the sheer number of issues we confront. I’ve tried to focus the organization on a few key reforms because I believe the only way we are going to achieve change is by putting enough muscle behind specific campaigns—to change the views of policy-makers, corporate decision-makers, and get issues into the media—and to create a grassroots movement to drive these issues forward.
So we’re first focusing on factory farming, the greatest of all animal abuses as measured in terms of animals involved and the duration and acuteness of their suffering.
Second is to have a zero tolerance policy for animal cruelty, to have all 50 states have felony level penalties for animal cruelty, and also to eradicate particularly barbaric spectacles of cruelty, such as dog fighting, cock fighting, and hog-dog fighting.
Third is reviving our campaign against the fur industry, and closely linked to that is our effort to stop the Canadian seal kill.
And fourth is combating particularly abusive hunting practices, such as canned hunts, bear baiting, pheasant stocking, Internet hunting, and similar inhumane practices.
We have a second tier of other campaigns, dealing with puppy mills, greyhound racing, exotics as pets, and the elimination of great apes in research, and it’s on these eight campaigns that we will focus a considerable amount of institutional resources...more at Sayta
Be Sure to view Sayta's other articles on movement activists. Here are some stats they published.
The “Latest” Body Count
The USDA’s mandate to enforce the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) requires all facilities that conduct research on covered animals to submit annual reports, providing an inventory of the number and species of animals used, whether they are given pain or distress relief and, if not, a description of the procedures involved and an explanation of why relief was withheld.
In addition, USDA performs inspections and prepares reports addressing veterinary care, husbandry, record keeping and research activities and noting non-compliant items. The latest information available on the number and species used in research is from 2002.
According to those records, 1,137,718 animals covered under the AWA were used in research, consisting of:
•68,253 dogs
• 24,222 cats
• 52,279 primates
• 245,576 guinea pigs
• 180,000 hamsters
• 243,838 rabbits
• 143,062 farm animals
• 180,488 other animals covered under the AWA
These numbers do not include mice, rats or birds—the majority of the animals used in research—who are not covered under the AWA. —S.I.
Founded in 1954 by a handful of activists dissatisfied with the ineffectiveness of the national humane movement, the Humane Society of the United States was established to address the surplus breeding of companion animals, the humane treatment of farm animals, and the investigation of animal cruelty.
Some people may be surprised to learn that in addition to supporting local humane societies and low-cost spay/neuter programs for companion animals, throughout the mid to late 1950s and ‘70s, HSUS directed much of its resources into the humane slaughter of farm animals and was a leader in the passage of the Humane Slaughter Act in 1958.
The past half century has seen the HSUS grow into the largest animal protection organization in the country, and one of the most influential worldwide. Last June, after years working as Senior Vice President of government affairs and communications, Wayne Pacelle became the Chief Executive Officer of HSUS. With his promotion came a revamp of the organization’s mission, the development of a new campaigns section with a focus on farm animals, and the establishment of a company-wide vegan policy.
The vision is to consolidate forces. Early this year, the Fund for Animals formally merged with HSUS, and the leadership of one of the most successful grassroots animal advocacy groups, Compassion Over Killing, joined its ranks.
Tireless vegan activist MD, Michael Greger, also moved to HSUS. With an operating budget of over $95 million and roughly nine million members and constituents, people are taking notice.Wayne Pacelle has built a career trying to keep animals out of harm’s way.
A vegan for two decades, Pacelle has worked with many animal protection organizations, including the Fund For Animals. He is credited with leading efforts at HSUS in the passage of more than a dozen federal laws, 15 statewide ballot initiatives, and countless state statutes to protect animals.
Catherine Clyne spoke with Wayne Pacelle about his new role at HSUS, his vision for the movement, and his personal objective of creating “a National Rifle Association of the animal rights movement.”
You’ve been CEO of HSUS since last June. What is your overall vision for the organization?
I want to achieve greater effectiveness and create an even more powerful organization to advance major social changes. One of the greatest difficulties we face at HSUS is the sheer number of issues we confront. I’ve tried to focus the organization on a few key reforms because I believe the only way we are going to achieve change is by putting enough muscle behind specific campaigns—to change the views of policy-makers, corporate decision-makers, and get issues into the media—and to create a grassroots movement to drive these issues forward.
So we’re first focusing on factory farming, the greatest of all animal abuses as measured in terms of animals involved and the duration and acuteness of their suffering.
Second is to have a zero tolerance policy for animal cruelty, to have all 50 states have felony level penalties for animal cruelty, and also to eradicate particularly barbaric spectacles of cruelty, such as dog fighting, cock fighting, and hog-dog fighting.
Third is reviving our campaign against the fur industry, and closely linked to that is our effort to stop the Canadian seal kill.
And fourth is combating particularly abusive hunting practices, such as canned hunts, bear baiting, pheasant stocking, Internet hunting, and similar inhumane practices.
We have a second tier of other campaigns, dealing with puppy mills, greyhound racing, exotics as pets, and the elimination of great apes in research, and it’s on these eight campaigns that we will focus a considerable amount of institutional resources...more at Sayta
Be Sure to view Sayta's other articles on movement activists. Here are some stats they published.
The “Latest” Body Count
The USDA’s mandate to enforce the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) requires all facilities that conduct research on covered animals to submit annual reports, providing an inventory of the number and species of animals used, whether they are given pain or distress relief and, if not, a description of the procedures involved and an explanation of why relief was withheld.
In addition, USDA performs inspections and prepares reports addressing veterinary care, husbandry, record keeping and research activities and noting non-compliant items. The latest information available on the number and species used in research is from 2002.
According to those records, 1,137,718 animals covered under the AWA were used in research, consisting of:
•68,253 dogs
• 24,222 cats
• 52,279 primates
• 245,576 guinea pigs
• 180,000 hamsters
• 243,838 rabbits
• 143,062 farm animals
• 180,488 other animals covered under the AWA
These numbers do not include mice, rats or birds—the majority of the animals used in research—who are not covered under the AWA. —S.I.
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