Animal Rights or Human Responsibility (AR-HR)

To quote the old slogan, “You’ve come a long way baby!”  Although originally started as an animal organization, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has moved a long way from its initial goal of animal welfare to its current animal rights consistent stance.

This positional shift towards an animal rights approach began with the 1980 HSUS convention call for “pursuit on all fronts… the clear articulation and establishment of the rights of animals”.¹  In 1986, former HSUS director of laboratory welfare John McArdle was quoted as observing “HSUS is definitely shifting in the direction of animal rights faster than anyone would realize from our literature”.²  Interestingly, John McArdle was fired from his position with the HSUS shortly after this statement, allegedly for being ‘an animal rights activist, despite a similar observation made in 1986 by HSUS president-emeritus John Hoyt, “This new philosophy [animal rights] has served as a catalyst in the shaping of out own philosophies, policies and goals”.³  Being HSUS president-emeritus, John Hoyt was not in a position over which the HSUS could exert leverage.

This philosophical shift continued through the 1990s through former PETA employees joining the HSUS, such Cristobel “Kitty” Block and members of other animal rights organizations such as Wayne Pacelle, lauded in 1997 as “one of America’s most important animal rights activists”, formerly of Friends of Animals and Fund for Animals.^12,13

·         Ms Block has been promoted from her previous position as an HSUS investigator (starting prior to 1995) to the position of Vice President of Humane Society International (HSI), the international arm of HSUS and is currently responsible for many of the HSI campaigns and legal challenges are led by HSI.^9,10,11  

·         Wayne Pacelle, who joined the HSUS in 1994, has risen from chief lobbyist and spokesperson to President and CEO.

Support for the animal rights position was further exhibited by HSUS’ significant participation in the 1997 Animal Rights National Convention with HSUS speakers including:

·         Martin Stephens: then and current Vice-President of Animal Research Issues ^{4, 5}

·         Patricia Forkan: then Executive Vice President, current Senior Vice President & International President, Humane Society International ^{4, 5}

·         John Lyman:  then director of Eating with a Conscience campaign ⁴

·         Michael Fox:  then Vice President of Bioethics and Farm Protection and current member of Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights^4,6

The inclusion of animal rights activists into the HSUS executive continued with the hiring in 2000 of John “JP” Goodwin.  Mr. Goodwin is currently Manager, Animal Fighting Issues and formerly of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and founder of the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT). ^5,7,8

Despite the progressive incorporation of Animal Rights Activism into the HSUS, there continues to be significant activity to curtail public awareness of this information:

• Through referring to Animal Rights philosophy as Animal Advocacy
• Through members of the executive changing their referenced first names as in the cases of Cristobel Block, now referred to as Kitty Block, and JP Goodwin, now referred to as John Goodwin. These minor changes make it more difficult to hold these members of the executive accountable for their controversial former affiliations
• Through the manipulation of public information as demonstrated by the continual removal of unfavorable information from the HSUS Wikipedia page, which has a long history of extremely close monitoring by a small number of individuals.

All of this combines to throw a veil of doubt over intentions of the HSUS, as the sheep’s clothing throws a veil of doubt over the intentions of the wolf.^14,15

Copyright 2009 by Erica Saunders
All rights reserved          

References

1. HSUS, Animal Rights and Human Obligations, 1981 publication, as cited in The Humane Society in the US: Its Not about Animal Shelters, Daniel Oliver
2. John McArdle, quoted in Katie McCabe, “Who Will Live, Who Will Die,” Washingtonian August 1986, p115, as cited in The Humane Society in the US: Its Not about Animal Shelters, Daniel Oliver
3. John Hoyt, quoted in Katie McCabe, “Katie McCabe Replies,” Washingtonian October 1986, pp109-110, as cited in The Humane Society in the US: Its Not about Animal Shelters, Daniel Oliver
4. The Humane Society in the US: Its Not about Animal Shelters, Daniel Oliver http://saova.org/articles/HSUS_ItsNotAboutAnimalShelters-Oliver.pdf
5. The Humane Society of the United States website, 2009  http://www.hsus.org/about_us/board_and_staff/experts/
6. Self-disclosed biographical information, Michael Fox, http://tedeboy.tripod.com/drmichaelwfox/id1.html
7. New York Times article, Anti-Fur Groups Wage War on Mink Farms, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E6D8153CF933A05752C1A960958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2
8. No Compromise article, Fur Wars Heat Up: A.L.F. is on the Warpath! , JP Goodwin, http://www.nocompromise.org/issues/04furwar.html
9. http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/04/7-8/7.04.swf
10. http://www.hsus.org/about_us/board_and_staff/experts/experts/kitty_block.html
11. http://www.pewwhales.org/whalesymposium/agenda.php
12. http://www.humaneusa.org/humaneusaboard.htm#Pacelle
13. http://friendsofanimals.org/
14. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Humane_Society_of_the_United_States&action=history
15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Humane_Society_of_the_United_States