Dr. Veg

HSUS’s top MD, Michael Greger, puts out an annual DVD titled “Latest in Clinical Nutrition.” Greger’s spiel is that he searches through just about every English-language journal every day—some 12,000 articles last year, for example—so that we don’t have to. He then presents what he thinks is the most notable science, in what can amount to an hours-long lecture.

(Greger, by the way, says all the DVD proceeds go to charity. We’re not sure which one though. HSUS? PETA? But we digress.)

So what did the good doctor find this year? If you know anything about the propaganda mill that is HSUS, you already have an idea.

HSUS Scrambles for Credibility

There’s big news in the animal agriculture world today: The Humane Society of the United States (the world’s richest animal rights group) announced an agreement with the United Egg Producers (the nation’s largest egg trade group) to support federal legislation mandating a national shift in how egg-laying hens are housed. Both groups will support a new legal requirement for “enriched” (larger) cages by 2030. Everyone expects Congress to pass the law next year.

Just yesterday the Oregonian reported that HSUS believed an enriched cage “barely improves the quality of life for hens.” Yet today HSUS is endorsing a switch to those very cages. Did HSUS have a change of heart overnight? We doubt it.

From what we can see, the game is far from played-out.

Has HSUS’s Lobbying Prowess Been Neutered?

Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The Humane Society of the United States just might be learning this one the hard way.

HSUS, which isn’t affiliated with your local pet shelter, spent more than $17 million of its donors’ money on lobbying efforts between 2005 and 2009 while giving far less than that to hands-on pet shelters.

Currently on HSUS’s lobbying agenda are state ballot initiatives in Washington and Oregon to force egg farmers (and consumers) to go “cage-free.” These are sequels to the group’s 2008 “Proposition 2” campaign in California.

Today HSUS lost the support of The Oregonian, the largest newspaper in the Beaver State. This marks the second major Oregon setback for HSUS in a few months’ time.

HSUS’s political credibility is going to the dogs.