I've hesitated writing something so negative in the past about HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) because I was hopeful that they were taking some steps forward when it came to helping ALL animals, in particular all dog breeds. But a recent dog fighting case in Wilkesboro, North Carolina has changed my mind. Just today, the judge in the case ordered all 127 dogs be euthanized. From the article:
Judge Ed Wilson entered the order after hearing arguments from Wilkes County officials, from the prosecutor and from The Humane Society of the U.S. that the dogs are dangerous and would pose a risk if adopted into homes.
My emphasis added in red. This comes after another article about the same case in which John Goodwin, the manager of animal-fighting issues for the HSUS said "...the dogs have been bred for fighting and it would very difficult and expensive to re-train the dogs, even the puppies, so that they could be adopted." Donna Reynolds over a BAD RAP has an excellent blog post in which she describes the absolute lunacy of Goodwin's statements and I encourage you all to read it yourself here.
So why is this so outrageous? After all, these are "fighting dogs" right? They are bred to kill? Well, the HSUS (and PETA) said the EXACT same thing about the Michael Vick dogs - they can't be rehabilitated, they're all killers, you can't adopt them out, blah blah blah. And what happened? Groups like Best Friends and BAD RAP begged and pleaded with the judge in the Vick case to let them have an opportunity to take the dogs. After working with the Vick dogs, many of them have been able to do exactly what HSUS and PETA said could not be done. In fact, many of the Vick dogs have surpassed any and all expectations and are living wonderful lives. They are living in homes with children, working as therapy dogs and hanging with other pit bulls, even frisbee champions. Similar events occurred in recent dog fighting cases in Oklahoma and Missouri. Brent Toellner at KC Dog Blog has one of the Oklahoma dogs now. Have the people at HSUS learned nothing from these cases???? This is reprehensible. At least with the dog fighters out there, we all KNOW their agenda - they don't care of the safety or humane treatment of their dogs. But let's look at the HSUS's "State of Principles and Beliefs" - this is from their own website, copied today:
The mission of The HSUS is to create a humane and sustainable world for all animals—a world that will also benefit people. We seek to forge a lasting and comprehensive change in human consciousness of and behavior toward all animals in order to prevent animal cruelty, exploitation, and neglect, and to protect wild habitats and the entire community of life.
"For all animals." For ALL animals. "to prevent animal cruelty" What about the dogs in the Wilkesboro case?? Are they not animals that deserve prevention from cruelty? Euthanizing them in this case, without any individual determination of behavior of each dog and when there are groups out there willing to help, is murder, pure and simple. These dogs are not suffering and many of them could go on to have lives every bit as grand as those of the Vick dogs. This is NOT euthanasia, it's murder.
I normally try to stay on an even keel with these issues and especially writing blog posts but I'm very angry with HSUS's action in this case. Please tell your friends about this, spread the word, the HSUS is not what most people think it is. Please give your donations to a more deserving group, not to the HSUS.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Nice posting. One point of clarification. There has been no evidence pointing to the Newkirk, OK dogs as being part of a dog fighting operation. The situation there more closely resembled a hoarding situation than a dog fighting one. But make no mistake, there were several "humane" groups that were pushing for all of the OK dogs to be killed also -- even though they weren't part of a fighting ring.
We really need to demand more out of groups that say they are working to benefit animals -- but their actions lead to countless animals senselessly being killed.
I'm reminded of when the HSUS was soliciting funds via mass emails for the "care" of the Vick dogs, that they (so claimed at the time) had custody of (see link below and TY Caveat for digging that one up not too long ago).
Mean while they were pressuring authorities to have them all euthanized.
http://tinyurl.com/bojjob
I should clarify my comment. The local Sheriff in Oklahoma did say something to the media about these dogs being "clearly used for fighting." However, from the people at Bad Rap and MABBR that were down there, there doesn't appear to be much evidence to support that these dogs were used for fighting. Nor has the man who owned the dogs been brought up on fighting charges. There is a big difference sometimes saying that the dogs were used for "fighting" and it actually being true.
Thanks for the clarification, Brent. We need to keep banging this drum - most people have no idea what the HSUS is all about thanks to the millions they spend on marketing.
'Exploitation' is an animal liberationist dog whistle for 'pet ownership'.
They killed all the dogs owned by two different supposed 'dogfighting kingpins' before the cases went to court. Both people were exonerated of all charges. Too bad the dogs were all dead, isn't it?
The HSUS isn't a humane society. People need to get that. Goodwin is a convicted felon who came from ALF. Pacelle came from Peta.
I was told that in the late 80s, they bought up thousands of memberships, flew everybody to the AGM and voted the AL people to the board. Hence the ideological shift.
Since mainstream media can't be bothered, I guess it's up to us to keep discrediting the HSUS at every opportunity.
Post a Comment