Wayne Pacelle on Hunting, 1991

About twice a month, our director of research does an interview segment with NRA News, a radio program that's broadcast on the Sirius satellite network (on the "Patriot 144" channel), and also online. So we've learned a good deal about what hunters have had to contend with from HSUS.

Here's a neat little piece of history. Back in 1991, Wayne Pacelle was the national director of the Fund for Animals, an organization that he would later merge into HSUS. (It's now known as the Humane Society Legislative Fund.)

In a December 30, 1991, the Associated Press quoted Pacelle saying:

[I]f we could shut down all sport hunting in a moment, we would. Just like we would shut down all dog fighting, all cock fighting or all bull fighting.

We think it's odd (but telling) that Pacelle lumped sport hunters with dog fighters and cockfighters, as though they were morally equivalent.

Maybe it's just us.

Curiously, during a June 2009 interview with AgriTalk Radio's Mike Adams, Pacelle denied ever having said this:

Adams: I want to ask a quick question about hunting. You have said, “If we could shut down all sport hunting in a moment we would.”

Pacelle: I didn’t say that. I didn’t say that. From what source? Yeah, right.

Adams: This is a quote attributed to you by the Associated Press.

Pacelle: Stuff kicks around the Internet and they have been quoting stuff since the 1980s and early 1990s. I have been with the organization since 1994. There has been so much fabrication out there.

Now, to be fair, if someone read you three sentences and told you that one of them was a quote you gave to a reporter nearly two decades ago, you might not get it right on the first guess either.

But the sentiment behind Pacelle's 1991 statement—that hunters are the moral equivalent of Michael Vick—is clearly something he identified with. With hindsight, it sure looks like he was denying it to make himself seem more moderate.

And isn't it HSUS that's partnering with Michael Vick anyway?