HumaneWatch

This document is the official program from the Humane Society of the United States's "Taking Action For Animals" conference held in Washington, DC from July 23 to July 26, 2010.

Of particular interest is the top-sponsor billing of the American Anti-Vivisection Society. The group's ad (see page 25) describes its mission as working to...

legally and effectively end the use of animals in science...

The conference program identifies ten financial sponsors, none of which is directly engaged in pet sheltering (just like HSUS).

This Humane Society of the United States direct-mail fundraising letter was received by countless Americans on the animal rights group's mailing lists in July 2010.

In the three-page letter, which was packaged with a "2011 Pet Lover's Calendar," HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle writes:

One of my goals is to build this nationwide animal protection organization from 1,200,000 to 2,000,000 members.

This startling statement is directly at odds with HSUS's long-standing practice of claiming it has "11 million supporters"—a statistic which now appears to have been inflated by more than 900 percent.

This two-page letter, titled "From the desk of Wayne Pacelle," was sent to HSUS contributors in 2009 in an attempt to induce them to renew their memberships.

The letter's language seems to indicate HSUS's full awareness that most of its members are primarily (or even exclusively) interested in animal welfare issues pertaining to dogs and cats. This is how Pacelle ends his letter (emphasis added):

I know that you are a person who is appalled and outraged about animal cruelty, abuse and neglect, and the terrible things that happen to puppies, kittens, dogs, cats and other pets. That's why you joined The HSUS in the first place!

So stay with us — please. We need each other.

It will take only a few minutes to renew your membership for 2009. By doing so, you'll be helping us continue to speak out for the animals who cannot speak for themselves.

NOTE: This file is more than 10 megabytes in size. We recommend that you "right-click" on it and save the file to your computer before reading or printing it.

This 208-page document contains selected portions (those related to the Humane Society of the United States) of the collection of papers left to Texas Tech University upon the death of Amy Freeman Lee in 2004.

The papers were retrieved in November 2006 with the assistance of the Special Collections Library at Texas Tech.

Notable contents include:

• pp. 2-7: program from the 1992 HSUS Annual Conference
• p. 37: table of contents from The Humane Society of the United States News, Summer 1977, indicates that HSUS was engaged in "accredit[ing]" animal shelters 23 years ago
• p. 54: a May 1993 San Antonio Express-News op-ed written by Amy Freeman Lee, indicating that HSUS worked "pro bono" to upgrade and improve San Antonio's municipal animal shelter (a service for which today's HSUS charges tens of thousands of dollars)
• pp. 55-56: A "Report to the Board [of HSUS] Regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement," which describes how HSUS "has been working closely with ... The Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and Friends of the Earth" to water down NAFTA—especially concerning animal-related federal laws that NAFTA (they feared) might supersede.
• pp. 79-82: program from the 1985 HSUS Annual Conference
• pp. 105-108: program from the 1972 HSUS Annual Conference
• pp. 109-112: program from the 1970 HSUS Annual Conference
• p. 117: agenda from the 1975 HSUS Annual Conference
• pp. 119-122: program from the 1973 HSUS Annual Conference
• pp. 129-132: program from the 1979 HSUS Annual Conference
• pp. 142-146: a cumulative list of HSUS Board members and their years of service, from the group's inception through October 1996
• pp. 147-150: a listing of "Speakers and Guests" at the HSUS 1996 Annual Conference
• pp. 161-165: program from the 1996 HSUS Annual Conference
• pp. 173-178: program from the 1989 HSUS Annual Conference
• pp. 181-182: list of HSUS "Officers and Staff in Attendance at the 1989 Annual Conference"
• pp. 203-204: 1993 HSUS direct-mail "Action Alert" urging members to lobby their U.S.Congressmen on a proposed marine-mammal law
• pp. 207-208: 1993 HSUS flyer against biology-class laboratory disscetion, published by HSUS's "youth education division" (Note: today this issue is more closely identified with PETA and other more obviously radical organizations)

Amy Freeman Lee, a well-regarded artist and Texas philanthropist, was a member of the HSUS Board of Directors for 35 years—the longest-serving Director in the organization's history.

NOTE: This file is more than 10 megabytes in size. We recommend that you "right-click" on it and save the file to your computer before reading or printing it.

A 1989 Vegetarian Times profile of three key PETA leaders—Ingrid Newkirk, Alex Pacheco, and Kim Stallwood—included a quote from Wayne Pacelle, then Executive Director of the Fund For Animals.

Pacelle lavished praise on PETA's "visionary and professional leadership," noting that "PETA has really done so much in a short time to...promote animal rights."

(A 2004 editorial in Animal People also notes that Pacelle "hypothetically proposed a three-way merger of HSUS, the Fund [For Animals], and PETA as long ago as 1988.")

In the January 1989 issue of Vegetarian Times, then-HSUS vice president Dr. Michael Fox discussed his leadership of the HSUS-affiliated Center for Respect of Life and Environment (CRLE).

In the intervnew, Fox admitted to using CRLE to promote meat-free diets through a "covert vegetarian message."

He then goes on to say that such a stealth approach also "is part of the ecumenical approach that the HSUS follows." (The whole interview can be found here.)

This is a letter from U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer to IRS Exempt Organizations Director Lois Lerner, dated May 12, 2010.

On March 23 of that year, Luetkemeyer had sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman conveying the concerns of his constituents regarding HSUS's significant lobbying activities as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt group.

In this particular letter, Luetkemeyer refers to a May 5, 2010 conversation between himself and Lerner about these concerns, and attaches additional information about HSUS's activities.

Luetkemeyer writes:

The attached information unquestionably demonstrates that HSUS invests a substantial amount of time and money in political campaigns and attempts to influence specific legislation, a clear and direct violation of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

On April 28, 2010, U.S. Congressman Pete Visclosky (R-IN) wrote to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, and attached correspondence from one of his constituents who was concerned about HSUS's lobbying activities.

Rep. Visclosky wrote: "I would appreciate your addressing her concerns."

This is a March 23, 2010 letter from U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer to IRS Commission Douglas Shulman.

In it, Rep. Luetkemeyer writes that many of his constituents have conveyed concerns about HSUS's tax-exempt status, given its wide-ranging lobbying activities.

Luetkemeyer's letter includes several appendicies with screenshots of various HSUS websites and blogs that describe the group's lobbying activities.

This is a circulated draft of an agreement in principle reached on June 30, 2010 between:

• The Humane Society of the United States;
• Ohio Governor Ted Strickland; and
• The Ohio Farm Bureau Federation

It outlines a series of actions that the parties reportedly agreed to pursue as a condition of HSUS not pursuing a November 2010 ballot initiative in Ohio. HSUS's proposed ballot question would have dictated specific livestock standards to the state's Livestock Care Standards Board.

This is the Humane Society of the United States' annual "Report of the President" for 1988. It contains passages from then-HSUS president John Hoyt as well as a number of vice presidents.

In it, VP John Grandy notes that "We won a lawsuit which will go far toward guaranteeing that The HSUS and similar organizations have the right to bring legal actions on behalf of the animals in U.S. District courts across the nation."

This is an opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, issued on February 16, 1988.

HSUS and its then-associate general counsel Roger Kindler had previously sued the Secretary of the Interior over the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's decision to expand hunting in wildlife refuges. A lower court had determined that HSUS did not have standing to bring the complaint.

The Court of Appeals reversed in part and affirmed in part the lower court's ruling.

This document contains 48 copies of "Form 15" submitted to the Ohio Secretary of State in relation to a campaign to put an HSUS-favored question on the state's November 2010 ballot.

Specifically, "Form 15" notifies the State of Ohio that the signer intends to be paid (or to pay a third party) for gathering signatures related to a ballot initiative. "Ohioans for Humane Farms," an HSUS front group, supervised the campaign in question.

These forms are organized according to the organizations they represent, as follows:

• pp. 1-5: Mercy For Animals
• pp. 6-9: M+R Strategic Services (a for-profit firm)
• pp. 10-12: Progressive Campaigns, Inc. (a for-profit firm)
• pp. 13-14: DRW Campaigns (a for-profit firm)
• pp. 15-16: Professional Petition Consultants (a for-profit firm)
• pp. 17-19: Farm Sanctuary
• pp. 20-28: The Humane Society of the United States
• pp. 29-32: Ohioans for Humane Farms
• pp. 33-39: Miscellaneous non-Ohioans
• pp. 40-48: Miscellaneous Ohioans

Of particular interest, page 1 is the form submitted by Nora Kramer, who provided an e-mail address related to Ohioans for Humane Farms along with the mailing address of Mercy for Animals.

Some of this paperwork (those copies submitted on an obsolete version of Form 15) may be invalid. They include pages 10-16, 24-25, 29, 33-38, and 40-47.

This is the Form 990 tax return that the National Federation of Humane Societies filed with the IRS for fiscal year 2006.

This is the Form 990 tax return that the National Federation of Humane Societies filed with the IRS for fiscal year 2007.