A few days ago this ad ran nationwide in USA Today.
The ad was sponsored by a group called "HumaneFORPETS.com
I do not know this organization. Having been out of the animal rights movement for over 16 years it has been a long time since I followed or even cared what the various groups are doing.
I still have my love for all animals and as I grow older I am increasingly disgusted and angered by the continued cruelty that many people perpetuate on our fellow creatures who inhabit this planet with us.
But those of you who know me are well aware of my complete disdain for the national groups, especially HSUS, who make tens of millions of dollars in profit annually and do (in my opinion and obviously in the opinion of others, notably this "Humane For Pets" group), little to nothing to reduce the killing of dogs and cats (our companion animals) deemed surplus by society.
No dog or cat should ever be killed in the USA simply because we cannot find them a home.
This problem has been an epidemic and a badge of infamy for all US citizens for decades.
Many national groups like HSUS raise millions of dollars largely by creating the perception they are working to protect dogs and cats when in point of fact they do little more then provide lip service to ending this tragedy.
I raised "hell" about the lack of effort and funding to solve the pet overpopulation crisis when I was at HSUS in the early nineties.
My subsequent personal "Waterloo" within HSUS is well (though seldom accurately) documented.
I always maintained a large part of the motivation behind the character and career assassination that I felt I endured from the HSUS leadership was do to my challenging what I saw as an unethical, almost criminal manipulation of the public's perception and the lack of any meaningful effort to stop the pet overpopulation crisis.
The consequence of my "stirring the pot" internally was that I was labeled a purveyor "sour grapes", a trouble-maker, and finally a crook. I finally, having grown tired of the continued distortion and the slander and libel my name carried from that controversy, wrote my own account of my five years with HSUS and published the book, "UnderCover" this year.
So, it was with no small measure of personal satisfaction I saw this ad last week in USA Today.
16 years after my controversy within the HSUS it seems others who love animals are waking up to the fact that the dollars HSUS and other national groups drain from the public's largesse are NOT being used in any meaningful way to save the very dogs and cats, whose faces they use so effectively in their pleas for donations.
No healthy dog or cat need be killed as surplus in the USA in the year 2012 and beyond. The problem is very solvable. It simply takes the will and the funding to create the societal changes that would see pet overpopulation become a relic of a cruel and brutal past.
Groups such as HSUS clearly have the money to get the job done and done quickly.
Jonathan Swift, the great English satirist, once wrote, "I am never surprised to see men wicked, but I am always amazed that they are not ashamed".
Those that take money from a caring public, a public that wants an end to certain societal evils, and then do not use that money responsibly to cure those evils, should definitely be ashamed.
And as the ad suggests people should quit being so generous without demanding an accounting and action.
Nice from
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