"Quotes from the Anti’s"
Who They Really Are – In Words from Their Own Websites
Updated December 30, 2003
"Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)"
The Humane Society of the United States, commonly known as "HSUS", is the largest anti-hunting and animal rights organization in the United States, with headquarters in Washington, DC.
About their involvement in Maine:
"The HSUS and Maine Citizens for Fair Bear Hunting are joining forces to stop the cruel practice of bear baiting, hounding and trapping in Maine." – HSUS Website 2003.
The following news release was published by the Bangor Daily News, and is also repeated on the Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting’s ("CASH") website:
"A coalition of groups including The Humane Society of the United States, Maine Friends of Animals, the Fund for Animals and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have joined in a campaign to put a referendum on the ballot in November 2004 to ban bear baiting, hunting bears with dogs and the use of bear traps in Maine. To this end, the Humane Society of the United States and Maine Friends of Animals have formed a political action committee called Maine Citizens for Fair Bear Hunting."
As of September 30, 2003, HSUS had contributed 60% of the funding for the referendum campaign in Maine. Its partner, the Fund for Animals, had contributed another 19%.
"Against All Hunting – In their Own Words"
Here it is - HSUS wants to stop ALL sport hunting, not just bear hunting, in the words of their leader, and from their own website:
"If we could shut down all sport hunting in a moment, we would." – Wayne Pacelle, as quoted by the Associated Press in Impassioned Agitator, December 30, 1991.
"Our goal is to get sport hunting in the same category as cock fighting and dog fighting." – Wayne Pacelle, as quoted in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, October 8, 1991.
"Sport hunting—the killing of wild animals as recreation—is fundamentally at odds with the values of a humane, just and caring society." – HSUS Website 2003.
"All Hunting of Any Species"
The HSUS wants to stop hunting for all species and for all methods, not just hunting bear with bait and dogs. Their own words are very clear:
About Bow Hunting - They hate bow hunting, saying that bow hunters use "Brutally inhumane weapons such as the bow and arrow."
About Different Species (including ducks, game birds, rabbits, coyotes) - Which animal species will be next on the referendum list? Perhaps they will start with their own list of species that they believe do not need population control:
"The vast majority of species that are hunted—waterfowl, upland birds, mourning doves, squirrels, raccoons, rabbits, crows, coyotes, etc.—provide minimal sustenance and do not require population control." – HSUS Website 2003.
More about waterfowl and game bird hunting – HSUS believes that all bird hunting must be stopped, that it is a wasteful, cruel sport:
"Duck hunters often exceed their bag limits or kill protected species because most hunters cannot identify the species of duck that they shoot." – HSUS Website 2003.
"Waterfowl, pheasant and dove hunting are no more than shooting at living targets." – HSUS Website 2003.
In fact, HSUS has recently launched a nationwide campaign to stop all pheasant hunting – claiming that pheasant stocking programs should be ended. Not only is it a threat to hunting, but also to almost all sport fishing as they lay the ground work against put-and-take fishing and fish stocking programs.
"The pheasant hunt has…developed into a pathetic blend of factory farming and canned hunting…the "sport" is non-existent…makes a mockery of ethical field conduct." – HSUS Website 2003.
"Who is the Humane Society of the United States?"
HSUS raises $65 million each year, and has total assets of over $100 million. This huge pot of money goes toward a continual barrage of political campaigns and lobbying to stop hunting and trapping – with almost zero being contributed toward caring for lost or abandoned pets (less than 1.8% given to local programs – and even then mostly for anti-hunting and anti-trapping political campaigns like Maine’s Bear referendum.
In addition, HSUS partners with many other radical animal rights groups to share the financing for their anti-hunting campaigns. Their partners include the Fund for Animals, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).
As a charity, HSUS has often been criticized by watchdog groups for its wastefully high fundraising expenses, and for misrepresenting who and what they are. HSUS has also been criticized for the huge salaries of its very well paid campaign managers and organizers – the top managers receive over $200,000 in annual salary!
Even Merritt Clifton, publisher of "Animal People", a newsletter written by animal rightists for animal rightists, singled out HSUS for appearing to be something it is not. In December’s 11th annual report on fundraising, under the heading "How they fool the world", he writes:
"The most misleading appeals that Animal People sees on a regular basis are those which misrepresent the sender. Over time, such appeals can create an image for an organization which is sharply at odds with what it actually does."
"The Humane Society of the U.S., for instance, is not and never has been a collective voice for all, most, or any other humane societies. Neither does it shelter animals, adopt out animals, neuter animals, or share funding with local humane societies. In fact, HSUS is an advocacy organization representing just itself."
Many of HSUS’ leaders have been radical anti-hunting activists all their life. A large portion of the current HSUS leaders came from extreme groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the Fund for Animals, Animal Liberation Front, and other organizations.
Cutting Through the Double-talk!
In a 1992 debate on WJNO Radio in West Palm Beach, Florida, Wayne Pacelle, currently HSUS Vice President for Campaigns, then representing the Fund for Animals, admitted his goal to ban ALL hunting. Here is a portion of his statements in that interview:
Interviewer: "Where would your organization support Black Bear hunting - anywhere in the United States?"
Pacelle: "Nowhere"
Interviewer: "Where does your organization support the hunting of deer - anywhere in the United States?"
Pacelle: "Nowhere"
Interviewer: "Where, in the United States, does your organization support any hunting of any species?"
Pacelle: "Nowhere"
Interviewer: "So the real agenda and goal of Fund For Animals is a total ban on all hunting everywhere?"
Pacelle: "Yes."
Interviewer: "So all this debate about whether or not the Black Bear is threatened or endangered and the actual number of Black Bear that we have in Florida is really irrelevant since the goal of your organization is to ban all hunting everywhere?"
Pacelle: "Yes"
About HSUS’ Plans and Strategy to Stop All Hunting - Here’s what Wayne Pacelle, HSUS Senior Vice President, had to say:
"We are going to use the ballot box and the democratic process to stop all hunting in the United States… We will take it species by species until all hunting is stopped in California. Then we will take it state by state." – Wayne Pacelle, quoted in an interview published in the magazine Full Cry, October 1990.
About Wayne Pacelle – He is a radical animal rights fanatic, who follows the "Vegan" religion – eat vegetarian, wear no animal products, and hold animals above all humans. One of his ultimate goals is to force all mankind to eat vegetarian. However, he ignores the fact that billions of birds, mammals, bison, rodents, insects and other animals are displaced, even made nearly extinct, as land is used up to grow the favorite vegetarian crops like soy beans and wheat instead leaving the land as healthy, natural wildlife habitat.
"For the sake of animals, there’s nothing more powerful than changing your diet." - 1998 interview with Pacelle by Erik Marcus published on www.vegan.com.
In college (Yale), he formed an anti group, the Student Animal Rights Coalition, where "we protested deer hunting."
Pacelle started another anti group in Connecticut, the Animal Rights Alliance. He even used animal rights issues when he ran for city council as a Green Party candidate.
As National Director of the Fund For Animals, he claims that he "did a lot of work on wildlife issues, particularly against sport hunting." His specialty there seemed to be hunter harassment:
"We did a lot of field protests against hunting where we would walk with hunters and talk with them about hunting. And in the process they were seldom able to make a kill (the distraction and six people tromping with a hunter scared away the animals). We also challenged the constitutionality of state hunter harassment laws." – 1998 interview with Pacelle by Erik Marcus published on www.vegan.com.
Pacelle’s preferred state referendum tactics include:
"Tabling, hosting house parties, and distributing literature near polling sites are all essential ingredients of a successful statewide initiative." - 1998 interview with Pacelle by Erik Marcus published on www.vegan.com.
Ultimately, he views humans as the big problem, and Nazi-like population control as the means to place animals above people:
"Human population growth is ultimately one of the most significant that we as a movement have to grapple with." - 1998 interview with Pacelle by Erik Marcus published on www.vegan.com.
Pacelle doesn’t even want you to have pets, and not only wants to ban all pet breeding, he wants pets to be extinct:
"We have no problems with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding." – Animal People News, May 1, 1993.
Get to know what these radical activists are all about.
Read more from some other anti-hunting groups . . .
"Friends of Animals"
Position Statement on Hunting:
"Hunting is cruel. It is deceitful. It is socially unjustifiable. It is ecologically disruptive. Friends of Animals opposes hunting in all its forms."
"The cruelty of hunting involves the causing of gratuitous pain to wild animals."
"Friends of Animals is unequivocally against hunting and the destructive methods of "wildlife management" that caters to, and fosters hunting. Hunting is an act against Nature on both moral and biological grounds."
"Maine Friends of Animals"
On hunting with dogs - "The dogs chase and tree the quarry, and the trophy hunter shoots the exhausted and frightened animal from a tree."
"American Humane"
On sport hunting:
"American Humane opposes the hunting of any living creature . . . Sport hunting is a form of exploitation of animals . . . American Humane calls for action to be taken to prevent such cruelty"
They even hate Dog Sledding, because it "subjects dogs to inhumane training and handling practices"
"All-Creatures.org"
"We are dedicated to cruelty-free living through a vegetarian-vegan lifestyle"
On animals - "We feel pain just like you do. Please don't catch and eat us."
"Stop eating and wearing animal products."
"Both the human rights movement and the animal rights movement seek the same end -- a code of behavior that optimally benefits all members of the society. Like all rights movements, the animal rights movement asks that society broaden its definition of itself to include members previously excluded due their "inferior" status."
"CASH - Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting"
CASH shows us how these groups see the future – that of one hunting ban after another, until hunting no longer exists. All these activist groups follow this approach. So don’t believe them when they say they only want to stop one particular form of bear hunting – they will be back time and time again:
"The mission of C.A.S.H. - Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting - is to accomplish what its name says in the shortest possible time. Understanding that abolishing hunting entails a process, a series of steps taken and not a single action that would effect our goal overnight, a time frame cannot be established. We hope for building a succession of wins, and if not wins immediately then at least a succession of stirrings of consciousness. We hope to encourage those who are still silent to speak out, awakening community after community about the heavy hand of state and federal wildlife management agencies. We hope to alter whatever belief still exists that sport hunters are conservationists and champions of the environment to a realization that they are destroyers of wildlife and ecosystems in the narrow and broad sense. Where the natural feeling for wildlife doesn't exist, we strive to engender among citizens outrage that their own rights are violated by legal hunting and that their quality-of-life diminished." – CASH Website 2003.
On Animal Rights - "We do not think of animals in the wild as "meat," but rather feeling (sentient) beings who deserve to, and desire to, live out their lives."
Or about hunting cougars with dogs - "Like all hunting, hunting cougars with dogs is cruel and inhumane."
On fishing - This New York group doesn’t stop with hunting, they won’t even support the right to fish in New York, a state where shoreline landowners apparently have the right to stop fishing in the waters off their shores. CASH recently fought actively against fishing:
"STOP NEW YORK'S "RIGHT TO FISH" BILL! - Bill A. 2260 (introduced by Assemblyman Pete Grannis) the "right-to-fish" bill has passed in the Assembly and is now being considered by the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee. It is going through the Senate under its Assembly number. The bill allows "public fishing from a vessel on all waterways of the state that are navigable in fact or navigable in law." "
"...If we allow anglers to have this legal right to fish, it may be harder to oppose any attempt by hunters to have a law granting them the right to hunt. We must oppose this bill."
On nuisance wildlife, they had this to say about the problem geese in Seattle - "I'm honking mad. I think it's a travesty to kill wildlife in this city. We have so few wild animals anymore, and the ones we have, we're killing them."
"Coalition Against Duck Shooting"
This Australian group has worked for years to stop duck hunting in Australia, and has progressively succeeded in nearly doing so. This is another good example of how the anti’s work – one step at a time, until their goal to stop all hunting is achieved.
On duck hunting - "Duck shooting is not a sport. It is a cowardly, violent, anti-social act…Duck shooting is a one-sided cowardly activity." Their road map of success:
- 1990 – Western Australia bans duck hunting.
- 1990 – Waterfowl Identification Test required for hunters.
- 1994 – South Australia bans lead shot.
- 1995 – New South Wales bans duck hunting.
- 1997 – Semi-auto and pump shotguns banned.
- 2001 – Victoria: Number of duck hunters is 3000, down from 95000 in 1986. Reason given – "the public today sees the shooting of native waterbirds as an outdated, anti-social activity that is no longer acceptable in our society."
- 2002 – All lead shot banned.
- 2003 – Official Victorian Labor Party Policy: "Ban all recreational duck shooting."
From "Honor and Non-Violence for Animals"
On Bow-Hunting - "...a vicious way to kill that animal…It is horrifying to think of any living creature dying in such a slow, painful way…Bow hunting is barbaric entertainment."
On wounded deer - "…documented wounding rates that bow hunters inflict upon deer are appalling...Some of these wounded animals made their ways to roads where they were hit by cars."
Anti-Hunting Website References:
Humane Society of the United States (HSUS): http://www.hsus.org
Maine Citizens for Fair Bear Hunting: http://www.fairbearhunting.org
Fund for Animals: http://www.fund.org
Friends of Animals: http://www.friendsofanimals.org
Maine Friends of Animals: http://www.mfoa.org
All Creatures: http://www.all-creatures.org
Coalition Against Duck Shooting: http://www.duck.org.au
Honor and Non-Violence for Animals: http://www.HonorAndNonViolence.com