Oct
23
50 Things List Leaves Out #1
Wayne Pacelle’s blog, A Humane Nation, posted an article yesterday titled, 50 Things You Can Do for Animals and the HSUS. For those who don’t know, Mr. Pacelle is the President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).
The list is striking the nerves of some in the vegan community. One user, @MFIoF, tweeted “From HSUS: “50 Things You Can Do to Help the Animals and The HSUS”–not a single mention to go #vegan. So sad/pathetic” along with a link to the list itself. And they’re right. So what did Mr. Pacelle say excactly?
Well, it says, “Follow the 3 Rs of eating: reducing your consumption of meat and other animal-based foods, refining your diet by avoiding animal products derived from factory farming, and replacing meat and other animal-based foods with vegetarian foods.”
He is advocating vegetarianism rather than veganism. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the list goes on reading, “Ask your local restaurants and grocery stores to switch to cage-free eggs, and to protect seals by boycotting Canadian seafood.” Is he implying that we should only purchase seafood from America?
That, after this one, “Adopt a friend for life from a local animal shelter or foster an animal waiting for a home.”
Confused yet? I am. Why bother to suggest adopting an animal from a shelter (one that was most likely saved from slaughter) if you are going to also encourage people to support purchasing eggs? It doesn’t matter if they are “cage-free” or not, it’s still factory farmed. And regardless of that, it’s still contributing to the slaughter of animals. Everyone has seen the baby chicken grinder they use to kill male chicks (Please be aware that the link is to a graphic video – view at your own risk), right?
I feel the same way about promoting people’s “reduction” of their consumption of meat. Reducing the consumption of meat still sends animals to slaughter, whether it’s one cow or two. With revenues into the hundreds of millions, the HSUS is perfectly set up to make a large, positive impact on animal rights issues- specifically the vegan movement. It is well past the time for a large animal rights organization to take a firm stand on the human use of animals. Then real change can begin.
via hsus.com
For that reason alone I do not donate to HSUS, I give all my donations to Mercy for Animals because veganism is their sole focus. (Not to mention I make it a point to never give to non-profits whose President makes over $100k, that just doesn’t make sense to me.)
Pacelle is speaking in Columbus tonight, in fact, but I think I’m skipping it, it’ll probably make me angry just like this list does. Such a shame, with all their money and influence, they could do so much to promote veganism. :-(
Great post. I have supported the humane society in the past and in their magazine they only include vegan recipes. While it is okay to take steps towards veganism, we can all agree that reducing consumption is not good enough. The HSUS should state that complete elimination of animal products should be the end goal for people who truly want to help animals. Shocked that veganism is not mentioned.
Wow – I’m with you. They’re taking a compromising position in a situation where there is NO compromising. Either you are torturing and slaughtering animals or you are not. It’s like saying you can help children by only beating them slightly. Ugh -thanks for sharing about this.