HumaneWatch

If you were reading HumaneWatch all week, you learned ...

• We always suspected HSUS inflated its membership stats a bit, but this is getting silly
• Even HSUS’s fans are seeing through its “vegan kibble” gambit
• HSUS’s California ploy may run afoul of the Constitution (you know, that "speciesist" document...)
• HSUS “solution”? Save the geese, damn the planes, screw the hungry
• Listening to HSUS's horse experts brings unintended consequences
• Californians have questions? We have answers.

Come back next week for more truth-telling, research-sharing, and analysis of America's richest animal rights group! (If you need your HumaneWatch fix over the weekend, there's always Facebook.)

• HSUS's celebrity-worship Facebook page is still up, but less than 250 fans "like" it (ouch!)
• HSUS New York leader sides with geese, calls feeding the homeless "unnecessary" (classy...)
• Ohio lawmaker: Buckeye Compromise will have a “negative impact on our communities and economy.”
• Your Daily Shelter: Illinois’s Benld Adopt-A-Pet (Donate. Volunteer. Adopt.)

• Ohio livestock farmer is "somewhat furious" about the Buckeye Compromise
• Kansas farm blogger: “I personally don't want HSUS talking for me…They don't want the American public to know the truth about agriculture.”
• Everyone except HSUS enjoyed the weekend shark fishing tournament
• Will Dallas be the next big city to ban pet sales?
• Your Local Shelter: Idaho’s Northwest Animal Companions (Donate. Volunteer. Adopt.)

On Tuesday we told you about how Humane Society International is claiming to be supported by 11 million people worldwide. Now, it's entirely possible that the Humane Society of the United States (which runs HSI) got its elevensies mixed up. $11 million in debt, 11 million members—you can see how easy it would be to confuse the two.

We suspected that HSI was inflating its membership numbers, but suspicion and proof are two different things. Today we have both.

The European Commission hosts a website called the "register of interest representatives." (Think of it like a Yellow Pages for European lobbyists.) And the entry called "Humane Society International" shows something very, very interesting.

• Outdoor Life blogger sees HSUS literature at vet clinic: "I have to draw a line in the sand"
• Ohio livestock board members speak favorably of the Buckeye Compromise
• Is HSUS trying to assemble an activist army in South Dakota?
• Agriculture columnist: HSUS’s Ohio campaign “has served only to raise funds and gain momentum for its vegan agenda.”
• Your Daily Shelter: Florida’s Humane Society of the Nature Coast (Donate. Volunteer. Adopt.)

Yesterday HSUS began a new wave of promotion for its vegetarian “Humane Choice” dog food, starting with a note on its Facebook wall announcing that this "nutritious, delicious, and cruelty-free" kibble is available at some Whole Foods stores. (HSUS gets a cut of the price from each bag sold.)

Back in February we explored a number of reasons why this venture is a bad idea. Dogs aren’t meant to be vegetarians, for one thing. And it looks like most of HSUS’s own Facebook fans understand this.

While there are some supporters, the comments on Facebook are largely against the idea of selling a dog food containing no aninal protein. Here’s what some are saying about "Humane Choice," and about HSUS's decision to force its politics into the doggy dish:

Sacramento is (as one political writer recently quipped) "where good ideas go to die, and where bad ideas kill them slowly." It's also an iron-clad lobbying stronghold of the Humane Society of the United States.

On Saturday, the paper of record in California's capital published our op-ed about the politics of eggs in the Golden State. Here's a taste:

What's really at stake here is that word: "humane." HSUS seems to want a monopoly on it, even though other animal welfare-oriented groups – and plenty of scientists – disagree with its agenda. And that agenda is where the rubber meets the road: HSUS is run by vegans who don't believe anyone should eat eggs, regardless of how or where they were produced.

Most recently, HSUS has opposed attempts by California lawmakers to specifically define the standards mandated by Proposition 2. The very vague language that California voters approved in 2008 gives HSUS's enormous legal team enough wiggle room to hassle farmers who don't see things HSUS's way.

Of course, enriched chicken cages could be furnished with couches, Jacuzzis, treadmills and iPads, and activists who believe in "rights" for birds would still complain about them. HSUS is among them. And its vision of what's "humane" is outside the mainstream.

Click here to read the whole essay.