HSUS Goes Out of (the Dog Food) Business?

Remember “Humane Choice” dog food, a brand that HSUS launched in early 2010? The vegetarian kibble made in Uruguay and imported thousands of miles into the US that HSUS laughably dubbed “ethically responsible”? With the odd headshot of CEO Wayne Pacelle on the bag?

Yeah, that stuff. It looks like the so-called “Humane Choice” has been voted off the island. We can’t find it for sale anywhere.

The “Humane Choice” website, www.thehumanechoice.com, is no longer active. What about Petfood Direct? “This item is no longer available,” says the company. What about Petco? Nope. Same with Whole Foods. Even Google Shopping turned up zero results.

That’s probably for the better. We were skeptical of it, as were a host of others including HSUS fans on Facebook. Even a former HSUS vice president panned the idea of vegetarian diets for dogs, saying that dogs do best with a diet that includes (gasp!) animal protein. As a veterinarian with NYC Veterinary Specialists put it: “Dogs and cats, they’re carnivores and they do eat meat as part of their natural diet.” Another veterinarian stated, “Dogs need meat in their diet.”

HSUS promotes vegan diets for people, so we assumed that this was an attempt to extend its human ideology to pets. But as pet expert Tracie Hotchner told CNN, we should “respect each species for what it was meant to be.”

Hey, at least HSUS hasn’t ventured into the vegan cat food business.

PETA and HSUS: Who’s Horsing Around?

There’s been a lot of press devoted recently to the possible (probable?) reinstatement of horse slaughter in the United States. As expected, HSUS made hay out of horse slaughter’s potential return—while, oddly, HSUS’s little sister in the animal rights movement, PETA, had a different take. Speaking to the Christian Science Monitor, PETA co-founder Ingrid Newkirk said:

It's quite an unpopular position we've taken. There was a rush to pass a bill that said you can't slaughter them anymore in the United States. But the reason we didn't support it, which sets us almost alone, is the amount of suffering that it created exceeded the amount of suffering it was designed to stop.

We hate to say it, but PETA is the voice of sanity here. (Is it out of place to mention that it’s not like PETA has a problem with animals being killed?) After the ban on domestic slaughter, horses were simply shipped to Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered—a long distance to travel outside of the purview of USDA inspectors and US humane slaughter laws. Last year, the number of horses going to slaughter abroad totaled 138,000. In other words, it’s arguable that HSUS helped cause a decrease in animal welfare.

Meanwhile, horse abandonment has increased domestically. Recent research presented in the Journal of Animal Science found that 100,000 unwanted horses turn up every year, but the capacity of horse rescues is only 13,400 animals.

HSUS president Wayne Pacelle retorts that abandonment has increased because of economic circumstances. He has a point, but he doesn’t answer this one question: If slaughter is totally banned, where are all those horses to go?

Horse sanctuaries across the country are already filled to capacity. So, predictably, some animals have been left to die of starvation. Their owners can’t sell them and can’t afford the cost for a veterinarian to euthanize the animal.

Meanwhile, Pacelle’s response is normative: People shouldn’t own horses unless they can care for them. OK, sure. But who can predict an economic downturn? Welcome to reality, where things don’t always go as planned. (And it’s not like everybody has a six-figure salary and pension plan like Wayne Pacelle.)

To HSUS’s credit, it does operate a horse sanctuary out in Oregon called the Duchess Sanctuary, which holds 200 horses on 1,120 acres. But since we haven’t seen any ideas from HSUS as to what to do with 138,000 horses if all horse slaughter was banned, let us suggest that HSUS build a Duchess Sanctuary for all of them.

By our calculation, HSUS would need to build ranches exceeding 1,200 square miles in size to house all of these animals.

That would require a lot of hard work and a lot of money. Doable? Possibly. But HSUS would have to “pony up” in a major way.

Of course, it’d be far easier for HSUS to continue making hay out of the horse slaughter issue and raising money off of it. If HSUS is going to continue to oppose horse slaughter, hopefully it offers some practical solutions—for the horses.

Happy Thanksgiving from HumaneWatch

It’s Thanksgiving time again, so it didn’t shock us to see news stories of scantily clad “Puritans” from the notorious People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) handing out Tofurky. If you can’t guess from the name, Tofurky is a fake-meat, vegan replacement for turkey. The news reminded us of a little-known fact: Tofurky is the only food product bearing Humane Society of the United States’ logo.

We don’t care if you choose to eat Tofurky or the real thing. That’s each person’s decision to make. But it’d be nice if HSUS stopped pretending that it’s for “humane” meat, eggs, and dairy products when, in fact, it isn’t.

After all, in a moment of rare clarity a few years back, HSUS’s vice president for farm animal issues revealed that HSUS’s goal is to “get rid of the entire industry.”  In other words, HSUS wants all Thanksgiving dinner tables to be turkey-free, and without pads of butter for the rolls. Somehow, that doesn’t make it into HSUS’s fundraising appeals.

If you want to read more about ungrateful activists, our executive director wrote about some—including HSUS and PETA—over at The Daily Caller. But we’d like to give some positive shout-outs instead of just pointing to HSUS’s deception.

First, we should thank the animals themselves, for providing us companionship, food, or whatever the case may be. We should thank farmers who raise their animals well. And we should thank pet shelters for caring for companion animals that need food and shelter.

It’s almost time for our second annual “Shelter Supply Saturday” event. But you should support your local pet shelter as much as you can throughout the year. And if you’re feeling particularly generous this Thursday, slip your own pets some food under the table.