What goes around comes around

Last year the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS) filed suit – and lost – against Feld Entertainment, Inc., the parent company of Ringling Brothers Circus’. The suit claimed mistreatment of circus elephants.

Filing such a suit is par for the course for HSUS, which flies under the banner of an alleged animal protection organization or “humane society.”

Animal welfare. Healthy puppy, healthy cattle. This is not what HSUS does.

The fact that such a high-profile animal rights organization lost a law suit should have been big news. After all, the fact that HSUS convinced Californian voters to kill their poultry industry was huge news, and every single “successful” HSUS operation receives primetime commentary and front page billing. HSUS’s recent failure was greeted with deafening silence across the airwaves and zero ink in the nations most prestigious newspapers.

Nor has it been reported that Feld Entertainment vigorously riposted against the malicious action brought by HSUS, counter-suing and alleging “…a litany of charges ranging from bribery to money laundering to racketeering.” Though the high-powered attorneys for HSUS, whom the organization compensates with an aggregate of more than $3 million annually, moved to have the charges dismissed, District of Columbia Federal judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled that the case must proceed under the RICO Statutes – statutes designed to combat Mafia gangsters, among others.

There’s a reason why there’s been little or no reporting of this matter. More on that later. First let’s turn over the slimy rock and see what HSUS looks like in the light of day.

You’ve seen the ads on television, the ones showing a parade of sick and abused puppies and kittens. HSUS, sponsor of the ads, leads you to believe that YOU can make a difference in the lives of those poor, abused creatures. For just $19 per month, or $228 per year. A mere pittance. What’s a few dollars when it comes to saving puppies and kittens? Perhaps you’ve signed up. The slick commercials present a compelling (though substantively empty) emotional argument. And it’s easy to donate. Just a brief phone call or a few mouse clicks, and there you are, a warrior against the abuse of puppies and kitties.

There’s just one slight problem, and if you’ve donated, you probably know what it is. There’s probably a sneaking suspicion in the back or your mind that, as your parents told you, if it’s too good (or cheap, or easy) to be true, then it probably isn’t. Here’s the problem in a nutshell. If you’ve donated, you’ve been scammed.

You see, HSUS isn’t about protecting animals. By their twisted logic, they support animal rights. As in human rights, only for animals. As Ingrid Newkirk, founder of PETA famously said, “…a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.” No animal should ever be the property or pet of a human being. That’s slavery. And no animal should ever be eaten. That’s cannibalism.

The other side of the coin, that practiced by 99.999 percent of livestock producers and most pet owners, is animal welfare. From this perspective, humans who own animals are responsible for their wellbeing. I won’t belabor the difference. If you’re an adult, and capable of objective reasoning, you can figure it out for yourself.

To achieve their ends, the HSUS scams people and organizations to generate cash, which it uses to sue, badger and lobby politicians and businesses into adopting a radical animals rights agenda. Any objective observer would have to conclude that it’s a despicable way to behave.

Exhibit one. How much of a $19 monthly donation goes to support shelters for kitties and puppies? Care to guess? Seventeen bucks? No. Fifteen? Uh, nope. Ten dollars? Not even close. Okay, cut to the chase. Seven cents. No, not seven dollars. Seven cents. Seven pennies. In a whole year a whopping 84 cents of the $228 donation to HSUS goes to puppy and kitty shelters. That’s less than couch change.

Exhibit two. The shelters the HSUS supports have the highest euthanasia and lowest adoption rates of all pet shelters. According to Veterinarian Patty Khuly, the shelter euthanasia rate across America is 34 percent. In HSUS supported shelters the euthanasia rate is 97 percent. Why is the HSUS euthanasia rate so high? Because the HSUS position is that animals are better off dead than existing as property or as a pet. Also, most state laws require adopted dogs and cats to be spayed or neutered. This costs money. It costs almost nothing to euthanize a dog or cat.

Exhibit three. What happens with the remaining $227.16 of an annual donation? Here are some numbers, gleaned from 2010 HSUS tax records. HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle was paid $287,786. HSUS employed 636 people, 29 of whom make more than $100,000. HSUS pumped $2.6 million into it’s pension plan. It spent $3.6 million lobbying state and federal lawmakers. HSUS spent $47 million on fundraising. They spent 0.418 percent on puppy and kitty shelters, most of which went to euthanasia. All the rest went to salaries, promotions, pensions, and lobbying.

And that may be why HSUS is presently facing federal charges of racketeering, obstruction of justice, and malicious prosecution.

Now we return to the lack of media coverage. Why haven’t you heard a peep about this RICO prosecution? Well, honestly, why would you? The major media, including CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, the Associated Press and countless major newspapers gave HSUS more than $34 million in free advertising last year. It’s all there in the tax records.

You see, HSUS doesn’t just run a $19 per month numbers racket. They maliciously threaten American citizens with expensive legal action and violence. They pay top dollar to manipulate the legal system to achieve their unsavory and often criminal ends.

At the end of the day, they want all animals to be free. Even if they have to kill them.

This lawsuit easily could bankrupt HSUS, put it out of business and send some of its top executives to prison.

And it’s about time. These animal rights and environmental extremists have been pushing policy in this country for more than 20 years, through duplicity, malicious threats, strong-arm tactics, and violent criminal behavior. They’ve grown immensely wealthy through their lawsuits and racketeering schemes. They’ve misrepresented their true nature and goals.

There’s no room in this country for such criminal behavior. It needs to be stamped out.