I’m glad the flight attendant’s inappropriate action is being addressed. And now it’s time to be done with this. Are we not the ones who point out that every kind of business has its bad actors? And uninformed ones? Time to stop piling on.

I think we need to pile on til the word gets out to all of the public and their businesses.  They aren’t going to learn what is going on if we don’t stay with it til our message gets out.  We’ve gotten more publicity since David took on this job and the media isn’t going to listen to us in most places.  The media tells you what they want you to know and that doesn’t mean it is ALL of the news!!

Thank you, David!

Thanks for the heads up.  I am on my way to the hospital for minor surgery, but managed to get my letter of complaint out before I left.

I don’t know that it is time to stop asking questions, Cheryl.  I’ve known Southwest flight crew before, so I know that they are pretty open with their policies on how flight crew use the PA system.  However, that was meant to instill a sense of fun and life into otherwise boring flights.  As a former Southwest customer (who lives near a hub with many other flight options), I want to know what their policy was that an attendant felt she could use the system for promoting her political views and what they will do to address the matter so that other staff realize that fun and life don’t involve electioneering with corporate resources.  That’s a perfectly fair question that their statement hasn’t addressed.  They might not condone the message, but until I know that the policy states no more politics on board, I don’t want to risk getting a political lecture on a flight.

All, my point is that we need to be careful here and not always respond with a hammer just because we have one. We need to recognize that people and companies make mistakes. And when they acknowledge them and work to correct them—when they do what we ask—we need to move on. If you feel the company’s response is not adequate, then by all means, continue to communicate with them. My concern is that I do want us to examine each situation individually and not go on autopilot and become the kind of people we complain about.

I will agree to stop “piling on” when HSUS stops “piling on” which probably means never.

HSUS’s way of doing thing is to put pressure on until people cave and I tend to push back when I’m pressured.

Many people in Ontario are, as we speak, putting pressure on our Members of Provincial Parliment to rescind parts of a bill that includes BSL (Breed Specific Legislation). We will continue to do so until…

1. They listen and change the bill or

2. We remove the political party from power that introduced the bill.

Power to the people, not to some politician who has absolutely NO experience with the issue and forces a whipped vote.

Cheryl, You’re basically promoting a “close the barn door after all the animals have escaped” policy; letting companies off easy and not holding them responsible for the damage already done.  If there are no real consequences, if they can mouth an apology and “we’re working on it” without more, then there’s nothing to stop a repeat performance.  While I will go with proportional reaction, I will not say it’s OK for them to return to business as usual after a nominal apology.

If we all refused to spend our dollars except with those who openly refuse to support HSUS, we’d see a growing number of those companies and a general change out there because there are a lot of us and we spend a LOT of money on our animals.

You and others raise some good points, PJ. Perhaps I am by nature too cautious. I am not afraid of giving offense, but I do think we need to work to preserve relationships, for the time we need them down the road.

It appears that some have forgotten that HSUS pleaded in court to have 40 newborn and 4 week old pit bull puppies euthanized just because they were born to the owner of a dog fighting ring where they were involved in the prosecution of the owner.  Despite the requests of several organizations to care for and raise these puppies, HSUS argued for their euthanization in Wilkes County, NC in 2008—all were euthanized for the crime of having been born.

It also appears that some have forgotten how HSUS targets states with blanket dog raids, whereby they turn around in a matter of days and offer the dogs for sale via shelters—as they did in Chicago with 64 Chihuahuas in 2009—dogs that just days earlier HSUS alleged were suffering from major health issues.

It also appears that some have overlooked the fact that HSUS files multiple proposed laws when they are finally able to find a couple state senators or representatives to sponsor they bills that they write.  Since January of this year, HSUS sponsored 22 dog bills in Illinois alone and have so far taken months of legislative time for a state that nears bankruptcy while issues of keeping the state capitol functional, improving the state high unemployment rate, and home foreclosure rate have all been sent to the back burner.  After all HSUS can raise money at the drop of a hat, and every legislator whose door they grace hopes to be re elected and can use all the financial help that the HSUS can promise.

It also appears that some have forgotten that while some of the HSUS-favored legislators remain loyal, far more have jumped ship when they realize that they have been suckered.

So I feel no compulsion to lay low or feel pity because they have dug their own grave for years by misleading college students who want to become involved in the democratic process and work for a “cause”. They have misled the public at large as well as legislators and even the IRS.

They have convinced veterinarians that spay/neuter is the preferred surgery of choice. So today some veterinarians refuse to perform the far less harmful ear crop or tail drop, refuse to perform a c-section on a bitch in whelp who may lose her pup or her own life, refuse to even perform surgery on the leg of a dog hit by a car until someone with “better qualifications” can perform it 5 days later while the suffering dog is on IV fluids awaiting arrival for the vet “who can”—all to a tune of $500 per day for doing nothing. Yet despite the refusals of licensed veterinarians to perform all of these surgeries, they all are willing and able to perform a spay or neuter of a 9 week old puppy.  Really?

Too many people have been led to believe that a good breeder is someone who breeds fewer litters.  Since when has that logic proved to be the case?  Would you really look for a cardiac surgeon who does cardiac surgery once a year and believe that the surgeon who does cardiac several times a week is the better surgeon?? Yet HSUS has convinced the general public, dog breeders, and veterinarians that is the case.

Lay low? Be careful?  I think not.

Found your blog interesting and posted about it today. Tried to be polite and not argumentative on the subject, as many truly like the HSUS and believe their donations are going to help shelter animals in one way or another. The words Humane Society in the HSUS name is confusing to many.

Becoming aware is the first step…most people I talk to have no idea what the HSUS is up to and when I tell them about some of the things and they go to this sight…they are furious…as I was..to be duped.  I fly Southwest often and I will contact them as well.  We must educate at every opportunity..not alienate..but call people and organizations on their behavior when it is fraudulent.

Thank you Ohio farmers for taking the time to educate. Many of us understand the issue and the possible consequence, but too many do not. This is our opportunity to educate everyone so their is a complete understanding come election time.  Go O-H-I-O, save Ohio’s #1 industry and stand up for our wonderful food sources that feed the world!

It appears that some have forgotten that HSUS pleaded in court to have 40 newborn and 4 week old pit bull puppies euthanized just because they were born to the owner of a dog fighting ring where they were involved in the prosecution of the owner.  Despite the requests of several organizations to care for and raise these puppies, HSUS argued for their euthanization in Wilkes County, NC in 2008—all were euthanized for the crime of having been born. ****
On February 16th, 2009 the HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) pushed a Wilkes County judge to have 147 dogs destroyed. The HSUS said that they did not want to “spread their resources” to have these dogs evaluated… The judge himself said the HSUS should be called the “Inhumane Society” as he ruled and followed their demands. HSUS even went so far as to have the judge order that puppies, some as young as two weeks old, be destroyed. This even after “Best Friends Society” offered to pay for all the eval, and spay/neuter.

Why is inhumane treatment suddenly acceptable when put in the parameters of “a family farm being shut down”? Huge corporate factory farms (which he may fall in the category of) are also someone (in fact many more people’s) way of earning a living, so are drug dealers, illegal weapons manufacturers, etc… It is a known fact that serial killers often times abuse animals as children, but yet the “good ole American farmer” (that hardly exists anymore on a large scale and is in fact perhaps more abusive), is cast in such a better light than a mass murderer. It is terrible that our country casts making more money as more important than treating the animals that keep us going with respect.