HumaneWatch

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.

This is a scan of the back of a blue envelope sent out with an HSUS direct-mail fundraising letter in 2008. (The envelope was meant to contain the recipient's pledge form and financial donation.)

Two of the "5 ways to help farm animals" endorsed by HSUS include "reducing our consumption of animal products" and "replacing animal products with readily available vegetarian alternatives."

This is Google's "cache" of an HSUS Internet fund-raising pitch dated July 18, 2007.

It asks Americans to:

"make a special gift to help The Humane Society of the United States care for the dogs seized in the Michael Vick case ... your gift will be put to use right away to care for these dogs."

Two weeks after Google captured this page, HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle told The New York Times that his organization (1) didn't have custody of Michael Vick's dogs; (2) didn't know anything about the conditions in which they were being kept; and (3) recommended to federal government authorities that all of them should be euthanized.