Glen Wunderlich Outdoor Columnist Member Professional Outdoor Media Association
I love animals – and, not just the type that make it to the skillet. Our family pets have included many dogs and cats, most of which have been rescued from otherwise miserable futures. The current stock includes six cats – five of which consist of a recently taken-in stray mother, which promptly had four kittens at our home. The other is a male cat that was abandoned in a devastated apartment, which was flooded after the natural gas had been shut off and the pipes burst from the freezing conditions. Over the years, our animals have had the best of veterinary care by Dr. James Kimento of the Perry Animal Clinic and have been spayed or neutered so as not to contribute to overpopulation.
On another occasion, we literally rescued a mixed-breed dog from Grand River Avenue in Lansing, after it broke free from a chained pole, got struck by a car and lay helpless and near death amid the speeding traffic. We paid the vet bill to get it back to health and kept it, when the owner awarded it to us after creating its bleak existence.
We are also no strangers to the Shiawassee County Humane Society, where we have taken home older cats that were destined for doom. We have donated personal funds on certain occasions of public appeals and have shared homegrown catnip to the caged felines, just so they’d have a temporary reprieve from confinement.
We support the efforts of the local humane society, because it has no hidden agenda; its volunteers truly strive to help unwanted animals. The Humane Society of the United States, however, purports to do the same by virtue of its moniker, but its purpose is vastly different and multi-faceted.
To begin, it operates no pet shelters and in year 2008, contributed less than one-half of one percent of its budget in the form of grants to local shelters. So, what does it do with all its nearly $100 million in annual income? How about giving $2.25 million to a political campaign committee to support an anti-meat ballot initiative in California, while depositing the same amount into its own executive pension plan? Its senior management includes a former spokesman, John Goodman, for the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a group described by the FBI as terrorists. When Goodman responded to media questions about an incident in Utah, where a farmers’ feed co-op was fire-bombed by ALF, and a sleeping family on premises barely escaped with their lives, Goodwin said, “We’re ecstatic!”
So, you see, there’s a big difference in how these whackos love their animals; to them, animal welfare has morphed into animal rights. Mere ownership of pets to them constitutes cruelty because it denies animals the natural lives their species were intended to lead.
Lowell E. Baier, President of the Boone and Crockett Club, in his column, “The Secret World Inside the Animal Rights Agenda”, explains the effect of the 1970 Horse Protection Act and the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act – major programs of HSUS. Political action and litigation by HSUS has compelled the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to strictly interpret the 1971 act causing 37,000 feral horses and burros to free-range on land beyond its carrying capacity. The result is that almost 46 million acres of public rangelands have been hard-packed, overgrazed, and streams polluted. Additionally, 33,000 more feral horses and burros are in government-maintained corrals and pastures costing American taxpayers $40 million each year. Another $42.5 million was spent purchasing land for preserves.
With the help of emotion across “the pond”, HSUS has maneuvered the British Parliament into banning fox hunting. And, HSUS President, Wayne Pacelle has stated, “If we could shut down all sport hunting in a moment, we would.” HSUS has been the lead plaintiff fighting for wolf protections in spite of the fact that their numbers have far exceeded goals and that they are wreaking havoc with ranchers. Elk and deer herds have been so devastated by wolves in Idaho’s Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness that license sales have plummeted by $10 million crippling the state’s game management revenue. Outfitters are going out of business as are ancillary service-related businesses such as motels, sporting goods stores, restaurants, etc. Make no mistake; the goal of HSUS is to grant animals legal rights and standing equal to humans no matter the cost.
Think about that next time it solicits your money.
