Wayne Pacelle: A Humane Nation | The Humane Society of the United States

[Guest guest]

Please sign the thank you card for the Obama's and let them know how happy you are that they are going to adopt a shelter puppy.

Nancie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wayne Pacelle: A Humane Nation | The Humane Society of the United States

 

 

 

 

 

Yes We Can (Adopt)

Posted: 06 Nov 2008 04:33 PM CST

 

Click here to thank the Obama family.

I’ll be blogging in the coming weeks and months about the new administration, and the appointments of President-elect Obama will have enormous implications for our policy work in animal protection, particularly his appointments for the top positions at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Interior. There will also be a raft of new senators and representatives in Congress, most of them Democrats, and we will be excited to share our agenda for the 111th Congress with them.

But for now I wanted to congratulate and welcome Barack Obama, and ask you to join me in signing this online thank you card. Mr. Obama and his wife Michelle had previously announced they would adopt the puppy they’d promised to their daughters—and here’s a chance to show our gratitude for that right choice. This is, after all, National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week, the perfect time to highlight the importance of adopting animals from shelters.

 

 

 

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Forwarding the message.

 

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Wayne Pacelle: A Humane Nation | The Humane Society of the United States

On the Ropes

Posted: 05 Jan 2009 01:16 PM CST

Two weeks ago, meat industry groups announced they’d filed a legal challenge

to portions of the upgraded Downed Animal Protection Act in California, passed

last year by the state legislature in the wake of our investigation into a

southern California slaughter plant formerly called Hallmark/Westland. And also

last week, the Montana Supreme Court rejected a legal maneuver by game farms to

secure remuneration for any loss in business attributed to a 2000 statewide

ballot initiative that stopped them from allowing trophy hunters to shoot

captive animals on their properties. I asked Jonathan Lovvorn, our vice

president and chief counsel for Animal Protection Litigation and Research, to

offer his observations about these important legal cases—the meat industry

case just launched, and the canned hunting case now decided.

Along the pathway to any social reform, there are leaders—like the groups

and individuals who pushed for passage of Proposition 2 in California. And there

are laggards.

But every once and again you find players who are stuck in the mud, knee-deep.

A good case in point is the recent surprise decision by the National Meat

Association (NMA) and the American Meat Institute (AMI)—two trade groups

representing major packing and slaughterhouse companies—to file suit seeking

to overturn key provisions of California’s newly upgraded law banning the use

of sick and disabled animals in the food supply.

These groups are taking dead aim at the law enacted in response to an HSUS

investigation that exposed torment of downer cows at a southern California

slaughter plant. The Hallmark/Westland plant, based in Chino, was the nation’s

number two supplier of ground beef to the National School Lunch Program.

 

© The HSUS

A downed cow is shoved with a forklift at Hallmark/Westland.

The resulting scandal over the abuse of dairy cattle at Hallmark exposed major

gaps in food safety and humane handling, and probably cost the meat industry and

the federal government more than $1 billion when all costs were tallied.

According to the groups’ papers, they think California lacks the authority

to protect school children from mad cow and other foodborne illness, or to

prevent wanton cruelty to farm animals. They also claim that the law is

“unnecessary†because many downed animals are simply tired, and “could

recover with rest time.â€

Did these groups already forget the shocking images of workers using

forklifts, electric prods, and high pressure water hoses to force disabled

animals into the slaughter plant? Did any of these animals look like they were

just a little tuckered out and needed a rest?

Even one of the livestock industry’s own commentators decried the move,

wisely noting that “victory in court will prove much more costly than the loss

of an extremely small number of non-ambulatory animals... Watching two of the

most influential meat industry trade associations fight and win a court battle

on a legal technicality will do nothing to help restore [public] confidence.â€

And if NMA and AMI are expecting the courts to declare the California law

invalid, they are likely to be disappointed.

Two federal appeals courts have already ruled that states have the authority

to ban the slaughter of certain animals (in those cases, horses rather than

disabled animals) where the slaughter and sale of such animals is contrary to

the state’s interest in preserving public morals and protecting public health.

The U.S. Supreme Court has twice rejected requests to reconsider those rulings.

But these animal-use groups are often slow to pick up on changing currents in

the law.

 

© iStockphoto

 

Take the example of the Montana Supreme Court’s decision last Wednesday

rejecting a legal challenge to the state’s canned hunting ban—which was

enacted by voters through a ballot initiative in 2000. Canned hunt

operators—people who make their living collecting fees from unethical trophy

hunters who want to shoot elk and other tame animals behind a fence—challenged

the law years ago. They argued the state somehow owed them financial

compensation for the loss of their “right†to operate canned hunting

facilities, a theory the Montana supreme court categorically rejected.

It’s a claim we hear a lot—whether it’s the “right†to cram factory

farm animals into tiny wire cages, the “right†to fight animals for

gambling, or the “right†to slaughter American horses for foreign diners.

Time and again, these arguments are summarily rejected by the courts.

Indeed, every single legal challenge to an HSUS-backed animal law that has

been brought in the last five years has failed.

These animal-use groups march into the courts because they have already lost

in the court of public opinion and in the nation’s legislatures, and the

courts represent one last Hail Mary maneuver on their part.

Ironically, this was traditionally the recourse of the animal protection

community—shut out of the legislative and political process, and focused

primarily on difficult and sometimes hopeless one-at-a-time legal challenges to

laws and policies that had already been decided against our interests.

The humane movement has proved more adept in recent years, and taken the lead

in enacting humane laws, changing public opinion, and using litigation as a tool

for advancing the larger social agenda.

This noticeable inversion in position—wherein those who profit from animal

cruelty and abuse are now the ones stuck filing the last-gasp legal

challenges—means a lot of things for the animals and our movement. But more

than anything, it’s an unmistakable sign that we are winning.

 

 

 

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Enjoy life and smile.

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

It has come to my attention that it looks like I have sent Wayne's

great messages more than once. Wayne Pacelle of The Humane Society of

the United States titles all of his messages the same, so the content

is different in each message. I could send the same message more than

once, but not this time around.

 

, Neil <rojony57 wrote:

>

> Forwarding the message.

>

> " Wayne Pacelle: A Humane Nation " <blog wrote: Wayne Pacelle:

A Humane Nation h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff !

important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul {

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{border:none;} Wayne Pacelle: A Humane Nation | The Humane

Society of the United States

> 2008: A Look Back

> Posted: 30 Dec 2008 01:29 PM CST

> I’ve had the privilege of being president of The HSUS for short

of five years now. I had hoped, in taking the post, that I could

enhance the organization's reputation as a powerful, mainstream force

for animal protection†" a force that could take on the major forms of

institutionalized cruelty and achieve results that made a difference

in the lives of animals.

>

>

> Thanks to the support of our members and the work of our talented

staff and board, that’s happened, and now the task is not to relent,

but instead to continue to strengthen and grow this capability. In

looking back at some of my blogs written in 2008, I pulled 10 of the

most popular. I think they provide a valuable chronicle of some of the

big picture items and controversies over the last year.

> Here's the list:

>

> A Look Ahead: Obama's Ag and Interior Chiefs (Dec. 17): Reaction

to President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet selections for Agriculture

and Interior Secretary

> Proposition 2: Views Fit to Print (Oct. 9): The editorial board

of The New York Times endorses Proposition 2, the California ballot

initiative to ban veal crates, gestation crates, and battery cages

> Alarm Bells Over Eight Belles (May 5): A discussion of the

problems with horse racing, following filly Eight Belles' death at the

Kentucky Derby

> No Downers, No Exceptions (May 20): Agriculture Secretary Ed

Schafer announces that the USDA will implement a no-downer policy for

cattle in the United States

> Art, Examined (April 25): Controversy surrounds the exhibition of

a starving street dog in a Nicaraguan art gallery

> Uncaging the Truth (Aug. 11): Exposing the opposition to

California's Proposition 2

> Torture on Tape (Jan. 30): The HSUS investigation of

Hallmark/Westland Meat Co. breaks, exposing the abuse of downed dairy

cows at the Chino, Calif. slaughter plant

> Safer Fate for Seals (April 15): Rebecca Aldworth, The HSUS's

director of Canadian wildlife issues, imagines a future free of

Canada's annual slaughter of baby harp seals

> Puppy Mill Horrors to Hit Millions (April 2): Oprah Winfrey

dedicates an entire hour-long program to puppy mills and the related

issues of shelter adoptions, spay and neuter, and euthanasia

> All Paws on Deck (June 4): The generosity and dedication of The

HSUS's supporters shines through in response to repeated attacks from

the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance

>

>

>

>

> Email Delivery powered by FeedBurner

>

>

>

>

> Enjoy life and smile.

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

 

 

 

 

Dear friends and family-

I am sending you this email to make you aware of the murdering of the baby seals that is happening right now in Canada. I am hoping that you will sign petitions or write protest letters to the Canadian government to end this cruel and inhumane mass slaughter of these beautiful and innocent mammals.

Hugs,

Nancie

 

 

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Wayne Pacelle: A Humane Nation

3/25/2009 8:01:24 PM

deifspirit

Wayne Pacelle: A Humane Nation | The Humane Society of the United States

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wayne Pacelle: A Humane Nation | The Humane Society of the United States

 

 

 

 

 

Hovering Over Hell

Posted: 25 Mar 2009 06:36 PM PDT

 

Rebecca Aldworth, our lead campaigner against Canada’s cruel slaughter of baby seals, has just returned from a difficult day of documenting the hunt. I asked her to share her thoughts, since it’s so important that we tell this story to the world. Here’s her report.

 

 

Today was very hard.

Sealers from the Magdalen Islands (map) had already killed most of the seals allotted to them in their quota by the end of yesterday. So it was likely they would kill the rest today very quickly.

We would only have a few hours to film the cruel reality of this slaughter.

Our helicopters left at dawn, battling gale force winds to reach the killing zone. On the horizon, I could see sealing vessels working their way through the ice floes, slaughtering as many seals as they could before the quota was filled. We came closer, and the blood began to appear. Giant pools of it, spread all across the ice. Every few hundred feet, dozens of carcasses were abandoned in macabre piles.

© The HSUS

Once we reached the vessels and our cameras were rolling, it was only a minute before a sealer violated the Marine Mammal Regulations (guidelines intended to reduce cruelty). He didn’t bother to check to ensure the animal was unconscious before slicing her open. All around, terrified seals attempted to crawl away from the blows of the clubs, but they had no escape.

We filmed everything we could, but within an hour, the sealers had reached their quota.

As the vessels headed back to shore, we landed to film the aftermath. On the ice: silence. The sealers had clubbed to death almost every seal in sight. Open graves of skinned baby seals covered the ice in all directions. So many sightless eyes followed us across the ice as we moved through the area.

Just ahead of us, we saw two live seal pups—left alone in the carnage. These babies were saved by their white fur, which almost entirely covered them. But their salvation is temporary. On Friday, the hunting begins again, and hundreds of thousands more seals will die.

We passed one pup who had crawled into a small cave formed by ice. He hid his head as we approached, clearly terrified. I tried to talk softly to him, to let him know that it would be okay. But he just lay there, hiding his head. This three-week old seal pup had just seen hundreds of others beaten to death in front of him. To him, people now mean clubs and violence and pain.

Today, we filmed this horror—the tiny carcasses such a stark reminder that this is a slaughter for fur. They died by the thousands here, painfully, just to produce fur coats that no one needs.

On Friday, we leave for the second area of killing, and I know what we will see there. But I also know that we are close to ending this, and that we may never have to witness this kind of cruelty again.

As we get ready to leave for the remote area where this next phase will occur, please be a part of our team. Visit humanesociety.org/protectseals to find out what you can do to stop this cruelty forever, and help us spread the word.

 

 

 

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