Dr. DeHaven takes the Humane Society of the United States, and specifically HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle, to task for favoring scare tactics and emotionalism over science and real expertise:
Tugging on people’s heartstrings to raise money is easy. Finding real solutions to animal welfare concerns and the challenges that go with them is not easy. HSUS certainly excels at the former … Mr. Pacelle is ignoring the legitimate concerns, and the perspectives and expertise, of legitimate animal welfare scientists and veterinary experts. And he is misleading the public to further his own organization’s agenda. If Mr. Pacelle truly cared about the welfare of animals, he would not be so quick to criticize and minimize the expertise of veterinarians … A knee-jerk response based solely on emotion, and ignoring all of the relevant science, might not be in the best interest of the animals.
I noted this morning that HSUS’s own online “Leadership” list doesn’t include a single veterinarian. That just seems wrong, especially at a time when HSUS is trying to compete with the AVMA by running its own activist-oriented “Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association.”
That organization (HSVMA) was originally called the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights (AVAR). But HSUS changed its name shortly after annexing it in 2008, apparently recognizing that leaving the words “animal rights” in the title might give people the wrong right idea.
The HSUS is a major corporation whose only welfare of interest is their own. How can you have an organization of this nature and not include veterinarians in leadership positions?