Humane Society of the United States DOUBLES CONTRIBUTION to animal shelters

The HSUS nearly doubled the amount of money it gives to animal shelters according to it's 2009 tax documents.

But that's not hard to do when you're going from about one half of one percent (0.5%)  to four-fifths of one percent (0.8%).

Here are a few more numbers from the HSUS tax return courtesy of http://www.humanewatch.org/:
•Total revenue: $101.6 million
•Total expenses: $121.7 million
•Net assets as of December 31, 2009: $160.5 million
•Fundraising expenses: $22.3 million (23 percent of every dollar raised)
•Salaries and benefits: $35.8 million
•Total grants to other groups: $6.7 million

Here is some more info from Humane Watch:
•At long last, internal documents reveal what it takes to be one of HSUS's 11 million "members and constituents" (Hint: Just get on the group's mailing.)

•HSUS was for animal abuse registries before it was against them.

•HSUS quickly and quietly retired Humane Society International's $11 million debt in 2009. If you give "$19 a month" to HSUS, those were your donations at work.

If you're not going to http://www.humanewatch.org/ weekly you should be.  I would also encourage everyone in agriculture to make a donation to this group. 

Vegans are now “Vegan Skeptics”

Like many in the farming and ranching community, I watched Oprah yesterday and was unhappy with her promotion of a Vegan diet.  But surprisingly, I think a few vegans were unhappy with her show too.

There’s a growing voice among hard core animal activists that they should not be discussing veganism in the ways it was discussed on the Oprah Show. Here’s a blog on that subject with links to others sharing the same sentiment.

Through that post, I found an interesting paper online titled: “Boycott veganism: Animal rights only begins with your diet “
It’s 14 pages of rationale and documentation as to why promoting a vegan diet is actually harming the animal rights movement. It’s an interesting read with lots of insight into how the animal activists are trying to reshape the animal rights/welfare debate into something akin to this country’s debate of and abolition of slavery.

From the paper….
“When asked why they pass on the cheese, for example, they simply say ‘Because I'm vegan.’ In doing so, they have failed animals and the movement in two ways. First, they have dodged an opportunity to offer a clear and compelling message on behalf of the animals. If the concept of veganism were eliminated, animal rights advocates would lose their rhetorical shortcut (Because I'm vegan), and be forced to offer a powerful, but more challenging, message of injustice and inequality -- e.g. ‘Because killing innocents is wrong’; ‘Because exploiting someone just because they are different from us is not fair’; etc. Without veganism, the focus of the conversation would move to animals and their lives, rather than humans and their french fries.”


“They allow themselves to ignore the fact that every piece of meat is murder, that every egg is oppression, and that their ‘vegan lifestyle’ is not a personal choice, but a moral and political imperative. The message sent by their personal boycott becomes, not just confused, but content-less.”

The rhetoric is about to escalate, and the debate is about to be reframed—read the paper. Those of us who believe that meat is an essential part of the diet will have to be ready with new arguments.

What do you think about comparing meat eaters to slave owners?