The Ugly Side of HSUS

Things start to get ugly when the Humane Society of the United States doesn't get its way. The organization, which had net assets of nearly $200 million in 2010, is in the process of trying to browbeat Tennessee and its governor into vetoing a piece of legislation that was passed by the state's legislature. That legislation -- the Animal Abuse Reporting bill, HB 1191/SB 1248 -- is not a complicated bill. It says if you see animal abuse related to livestock and you record it, you're supposed to turn copies over to law enforcement within 48 hours. If you don't, it's a misdemeanor and punishable by up to a $500 fine.

I don't think that's hard to understand. Nor is the desire to stop animal abuse as quickly as possible whenever someone encounters it. But the Humane Society of the United States hates this bill and others like it in other states. They call it an "Ag-Gag" bill. They say that they need to go on investigating for weeks or longer when they find abuse in order to establish a "pattern of abuse." What that means, it seems to me, is that they care more about trying to punish as many people as possible instead of trying to end the abuse quickly.

You may wonder what HSUS does with those assets since they take in about $150 million each year in total revenue and they spend less than 1 percent on helping animals in shelters. Well, they lobby legislators. Along with a full-time lobbyist in Nashville (they call her their "state director"), they hired a lobbying firm to help try to stop this bill, so they had about five more lobbyists than usual working for them this year. They also hired Eric Swafford, who has been associated with Tennessee Walking Horses. He's a former state representative and he was supposed to somehow encourage the Walking Horse people to oppose this bill. He was also cited for having a sored horse at a show last year. So, a lot of HSUS money is spent on lobbying.

They're also spending $100,000, at least, to run ads in Tennessee against this bill, trying to get people to ask the governor to veto HB 1191/SB 1248. That's a lot of money from an out-of-state special interest group. But they really, really hate this bill. And Wayne Pacelle really likes to get his way. Even when he has to spend a lot of money and push some poor, dumb farmers around. Because they think we're all dumb in Tennessee and they think farmers are dumb just because they're farmers. Afterall, they eat meat, don't they? And everybody knows (if you work for HSUS) that meat-eaters are dumb.

In fact, Wayne Pacelle hates this bill so much that he even went on the Ellen show this week and asked a national television audience to contact Governor Haslam and tell him to veto the bill.

Of course, I'm just another hick in the sticks in Tennessee so it's great that we have this national organization, led by whiney Wayne, to tell us all what to think and how to do things. How on earth would farmers ever get by without HSUS advising them? Afterall, HSUS has so much practical, hands-on experience with animals, right? Don't they?

Somehow I doubt that Wayne has ever gotten much manure on his pleather shoes or spent much quality time with cows. Not the man who said, "One generation and out. We have no problems with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding.” Yet, as a vegan, he feels it is his right, even his duty, to tell the rest of us how to raise and handle farm animals. Well, I guess when you have $200 million in the bank from gullible people you can do a lot of things. I just wish he would stop doing them in Tennessee.

Please contact Gov. Haslam TODAY and ask him to SIGN HB 1191/SB 1248, the Animal Abuse Reporting bill.  (615) 741-2001 ; e-mail bill.haslam@tn.gov Our legislators carefully considered this bill and we need it in Tennessee. Please don't let an outside group dictate what happens here. We want abuse to be reported quickly and recorded evidence turned over in a timely manner. Don't let livestock abuse continue when someone finds it so they can go on filming for their own purposes. Report it quickly and turn over the evidence! Sign the bill!