Wayne Pacelle: A Humane Nation

Three Steps Forward, One Step Back

I am in Orlando today, at The HSUS's Animal Care Expo. It's one of our signature events, and attracts animal sheltering professionals from throughout the nation and the world, though it's a treasure trove of information and instruction for any animal advocate. We are 1,700 strong at the conference, and had a great opening session this morning with MUTTS cartoonist and HSUS board member Patrick McDonnell and Outland cartoonist and Pulitzer Prize-winner Berkeley Breathed, who both gave humorous and emotionally powerful presentations. Also this morning, Zootoo.com's Richard Thompson, in a joint project with The HSUS, handed out more than $100,000 in contributions to 20 shelters, and next week the winner of the $1 million Shelter Makeover will be announced on Fox News and in USA Today.

It's great to be down here, with so many caring animal advocates who are hungry for information on becoming better advocates and organizations.

This morning, I updated the crowd on the immense amount of activity that happened yesterday and today, and I want to share some of this information with you, too. Yesterday, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter signed legislation to phase out the use of veal crates and gestation crates, after The HSUS engaged in a seven-month negotiation with leaders in the animal agriculture industry and the Governor, Agriculture Commissioner John Stulp, and key lawmakers. We're very pleased with this outcome, and it's a model for future action to improve the welfare of animals in agriculture.

© iStockphoto

In Washington, D.C. yesterday, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would list the polar bear as a "threatened" species under the Endangered Species Act. This is a generally positive outcome and an acknowledgment of the long-term threats faced by the bears because of climate change. One consequence of the listing, which takes effect immediately, is to halt the import of sport-hunted polar bear trophies from Canada into the United States. The United States does not allow sport hunting of polar bears in Alaska, but Canada does and most of the people who kill the bears are U.S. trophy hunters who have been allowed to import the heads in our country. The HSUS has been campaigning in this Congress for a policy to end the imports made by American trophy hunters. Last year, we prevailed on a Senate amendment to stop this killing of polar bears, but failed on a similar House amendment after the NRA, Safari Club, and U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance argued for more killing of the beleaguered and declining bear populations. The Administration's action should take care of the issue, and we'll be watching for maneuvering by trophy hunting extremists to continue their terrible behavior.

The other good news from yesterday was the House passed the conference report on the Farm Bill. It did so with what appears to be a veto-proof majority—the vote was 318-106. And today, the Senate passed the Farm Bill 81-15. So if the President vetoes it, both chambers should have enough votes to override the veto and that will mean three major new reforms for animals, which I wrote about earlier in the week: 1) sweeping new animal fighting legislation that will make all animal fighting and training and possession of fighting animals a federal felony, assuming it affects interstate or foreign commerce in some way; 2) legislation to ban the import of puppies from foreign puppy mills, which will save tens of thousands of dogs each year from misery and suffering; and 3) an upgrade in penalties from $2,500 to $10,000 for violations of the Animal Welfare Act. All in all, perhaps the biggest legislative achievements for animals for the entire Congress, and all in one bill!

I am sorry to report that there was also a dose of bad news yesterday, too. At the insistence of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, the Chicago City Council reversed the city's ban on the sale of foie gras—a product that comes from the diseased livers of ducks and geese force-fed so much that their livers swell to ten times their normal size. It's a cruel and degrading practice, all done for a table treat. Mayor Daley has shamed Chicago with his action, and the City Council exhibited not only a lack of compassion, but also a failure of resolve and fortitude. We'll be following up and urge you to contact the Mayor, who has certainly demonstrated he's no friend of animal protection. Polite, professional phone calls can be directed to his office at 312-744-3300.

Cultivating Animal Protection

The eyes glaze over, and it sounds very boring to the average American. But the Farm Bill—a massive multibillion-dollar hodgepodge of provisions that relate to agriculture and that the Congress takes up every five years or so—is the bread-and-butter bill for anyone interested in food and nutrition policy, agricultural commodities, conservation, energy, trade, and increasingly even animal protection.

Last week, House and Senate negotiators on the Farm Bill agreed to the terms of the legislation, and the final bill (called a conference report) is slated for an up-or-down vote in the House and Senate this week. It's controversial for a number of reasons, mainly its $300-billion price tag and the subsidies that wealthy farmers, including sugar growers, are slated to receive at a time when they are already reaping record profits. For that reason, President Bush is considering a veto. It appears though that the measure has broad, bipartisan support in Congress; there's something in it for everyone (kind of like a Department of Defense authorizing and appropriations bill with a nugget for every district and major player), and if Bush vetoes it, both chambers may override.

Payments to farmers, conservation provisions, more promotions of fruits and vegetables, surplus sugar purchases for ethanol, and other items of the measure have garnered the most attention. But tucked into the bill are several enormously important animal protection provisions, and that's why The HSUS is urging the House and Senate members to approve the legislation and urging the President to sign it.

© iStockphoto

The Farm Bill includes a provision, inserted in the original Senate bill by Majority Whip Richard Durbin, to curb the import of puppies for commercial sale from foreign puppy mills. A growing number of breeders in Eastern European countries, China, Mexico, and other foreign countries see the United States as a potential market and are shipping tens of thousands of dogs in, even though there is a strong domestic dog and cat breeding industry here and there are millions of pets available from shelters, rescue groups, and U.S. breeders. The provisions require that any dog imported into the United States for commercial sale be at least 6 months old, to ensure that young, unweaned, and unvaccinated puppies are not forced to suffer from harsh, long-distance transport. They also ensure that any dog entering the United States be deemed healthy prior to entry. Exceptions are provided so as not to interfere with shelter and rescue work, veterinary treatment, or research purposes.

This provision has potential to dramatically slow the inhumane trade in puppies into the United States. That will bring great relief to dogs right now, but it will also be a bulwark against the development of a massive puppy breeding industry in China and other countries that might see the United States as an even more lucrative market for puppy sales, notwithstanding serious animal welfare concerns.

© The HSUS

There's also what I call the Michael Vick provision, and this measure has potentially enormous consequences for the future of dogfighting and cockfighting in this country. The Congress upgraded the federal animal fighting law last spring at The HSUS's urging, making it a federal felony to move fighting animals in interstate or foreign commerce. Then the Vick case broke, and there was unprecedented national attention on the scourge of dogfighting. The Vick case prompted a raft of state legislation to upgrade animal fighting laws, and it also prompted the introduction of new bills by Sen. John Kerry and Reps. Betty Sutton, Elton Gallegly, and Earl Blumenauer to further upgrade the federal law against animal fighting. Sen. Kerry offered his bill as an amendment on the Senate Farm Bill, and it was accepted. In the conference committee on the Farm Bill, thanks primarily to the exceptional work of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (with the assistance of his Senate counterpart, Patrick Leahy), the legislation was strengthened further to toughen the federal animal fighting law by making it a crime to knowingly possess or train animals for fighting, enhancing the penalty for animal fighting offenses from a potential three-year prison sentence to a maximum five-year prison sentence, and making any animal fighting affecting interstate or foreign commerce a federal crime.

In addition to cracking down on all staged animal fights that are organized in the United States, the federal legislation also bans the export of fighting animals to other nations. Yesterday, Jeremy Schwartz of Cox News Service wrote a story about how U.S. fighting birds, specifically birds from Georgia, are dominating in fights in Mexico. Under existing law, shipping fighting birds outside of a state—to another state or another country—is a felony-level offense. So the federal government can crack down on it now. But if the animal fighting provision in the Farm Bill is approved, it will strengthen the federal case against these lawbreakers even more.

True, if viewed in the broadest sense, the overall bill might logically be considered a disappointment for animal advocates (not just because conferees struck language approved by the House and Senate to put a stop to Class B dealers, and their nefarious work in collecting "random source" dogs and cats and selling them to research facilities, often for painful and terminal experimentation). The lawmakers who wrote the Farm Bill do not proactively address any core concerns that animal advocates have about animal agriculture, including intensive confinement systems, cruel mutilation procedures (such as tail docking), the rampant non-therapeutic use of antibiotics on factory farms, or greenhouse gas emissions from farm animal agriculture. Indeed, it was the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production—an independent group chaired by former Kansas Governor John Carlin and that included former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman—that took on these questions squarely in its historic report issued two weeks ago. It would be a failure of Congress not at some point to consider the Pew report and take up many of its recommendations.

But politics is the art of the possible, and the members of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees who write the Farm Bill are tied too closely to the agriculture industry to readily take on these issues in a proactive way, and they come from districts with a heavy demographic tilt toward established agricultural interests. But some lawmakers do seem more willing than ever to address animal abuse problems that do not relate centrally to the agriculture industry, and we're grateful for that.

Bull's-eye!

Thank you U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance. The Ohio-based radical hunting organization derailed a program we launched with Meijer to generate an additional $5,000 for our fund to help pets and shelters affected by the home foreclosure crisis. I updated you on the issue yesterday—noting that we'd eclipsed our goal of raising twice the amount ($10,000) in order to help animals and teach USSA a lesson.

Well, in this update, I am happy to report that we have continued our fundraising surge, thanks to you. As a result of my call to action we've now raised $43,000 for the foreclosure fund, and more than $10,000 for the wildlife abuses campaign—for a total now exceeding $53,000—more than 10 times what USSA tried to deny us, and the animals. A hearty thanks to all of you who stepped up to help and to send USSA a signal.

Now that we have this tool in place, we'll use it every time USSA tries to rear its ugly head and disrupt a business relationship. We'll not take their nonsense any more.

So, I say to USSA—thanks for the lift in fundraising to allow us to help pets and take on the wildlife abuses you so happily defend. They'll be receiving a formal letter of thanks from me soon, indicating that they've hurt their cause and allowed us to expand our programs in a major way.

P.S. Outdoors writer Ted Williams, in his blog on Fly Rod & Reel, had a great post on the issue that I wanted to share with you.

Routine Abuse

I just spoke at a standing-room-only press conference at our Washington, D.C. headquarters to reveal our latest undercover investigation and video. I announced that our investigations unit had looked at the handling of "downer" cows before they arrive at a slaughter plant—specifically, at intermediate transport points known as livestock auctions. People sell and buy animals at auctions, and from there, animals often go to slaughterhouses. This was a follow-up to our Hallmark/Westland hidden camera investigation, unveiled on Jan. 30, which triggered the largest meat recall in American history.

Our undercover investigators visited four auction sites in four states—in Maryland, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Texas—and at every location they found downer cows languishing and suffering. What they also found was that no one was taking charge or taking responsibility.

In the Hallmark investigation, the abuses of the downer cows occurred even though the U.S. Department of Agriculture had inspectors present. Today's investigation revealed that these animals are in regulatory limbo—there are no federal or state humane inspectors who are a regular presence at the auction sites. And neither the farmers delivering the animals nor the auction house personnel receiving them were humanely euthanizing the animals, even when they were languishing in open areas in plain sight for hours.

In the most appalling case of abandonment and mistreatment, one downer cow in Westminster, Md. was left for dead in the mid-afternoon, and the auction house left her there overnight, even after the auction ended. Her misery ended only the next day after our undercover investigator called the local humane society to come out to dispatch the animal with a firearm.

The issue should be covered on your evening news tonight, since there was a bank of 12 cameras at our press conference today. You can also view our web feature and narrated video. We'll continue to provide you updates on humanesociety.org.

We Did It

You responded, and we are sending a major message to the extremist wing of the hunting lobby. Yesterday, I issued a call to raise $10,000 after the radical U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA), in a despicable move, intimidated Meijer department stores into dropping its support of a fund we created to help keep pets with their families during home foreclosures. Already, supporters have donated more than $25,000—and counting—to help the pet victims of the foreclosure crisis and to save wildlife from horrible abuses such as captive shoots and polar bear trophy hunting. If you’d like to join me in giving USSA a pointed lesson about compassion, please donate to our campaign to end wildlife abuses or to our Foreclosure Pets Grant Fund.

I will soon send a letter to the Sportsmen's Alliance and let them know that they've helped us raise money for pets and for fighting canned hunts and the other inhumane and unsporting practices that are the group's favored activities.

And if they attempt to tamper with our business relationships to help pets or other animals, we'll do the same the next time.

Unsportsmanlike Conduct

Let's not let them get away with this. I need your attention to an important issue—and I need your help.

Last week, in a cynical and destructive maneuver, the Ohio-based U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance (USSA) targeted Meijer department stores for agreeing to donate up to $5,000 through a pet photo contest to a restricted fund administered by The HSUS to provide relief to pets abandoned during the foreclosure crisis. As you probably know, as people have had their homes foreclosed, we've seen a rash of animal abandonment cases, with dogs and cats even left in locked-up homes to languish and die. We've been hearing reports of this from shelters across the country, and we set up a fund to help shelters deal with the influx of animals.

The Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Meijer agreed to help with the foreclosure fund. But for some reason, Meijer capitulated to the extremists at the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance, which is a de facto trade association for arms and ammunitions manufacturers, bowhunting companies, hunting guides and outfitters, and other suppliers of hunting equipment and services. The group has a very small rank-and-file membership, but it masquerades as a group speaking for sportsmen. It's really just an arms and bowhunting industry front group.

It's time to teach the USSA a lesson, and I hope you'll help.

So this group has denied pets the help they need. They'll continue to attempt to intimidate businesses from helping animals until they see that their actions are counterproductive.

Here's the plan. Let's raise at least $10,000 right now, with $5,000 to go to pets who are the victims of foreclosures and an additional $5,000 to fight the horrible wildlife abuses that the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance loves.

So, in short, every time USSA tries to bollix up a deal, they'll actually motivate us to generate more revenue not only for the specific cause we're looking to help with, but also to raise funds to fight the abuses that USSA so dearly wants to preserve—like captive shoots, polar bear trophy hunting, bear baiting, aerial gunning of wolves, and the use of steel-jawed leghold traps.

If the USSA nixes a $5,000 deal, we'll raise $10,000. If they disrupt a $10,000 donation, we'll raise $20,000. We'll use their tactics to motivate our supporters and double the money going to the cause of protecting animals. More money will mean more pet protection, but also more ballot initiatives to restrict inhumane and unsporting hunting practices, more state legislation, more local ordinances.
And when we succeed, USSA will have second thoughts about such petty tactics—and, more to the point, the group may realize that it makes no economic sense to launch these campaigns.

I'm putting in $250 today to start us off. Will you please donate $10, $50, $100, $250, or $1,000 right away? This is no gimmick. This is a fundraising plan with a programmatic purpose. I'll keep you apprised of our progress on the blog, and then I'll personally send a letter to USSA thanking them for helping us raise money to fight their inhumane hunting practices, as well as to help the pets that their misguided campaigns are structured to harm.

I assure you that the leaders of the USSA read this blog. They are now notified. They've awakened us now, and we are on their trail.

Art, Examined

During the last month, I've received a torrent of email about Costa Rican artist Guillermo Vargas featuring a starving street dog as “art” in a Nicaraguan gallery. According to accounts we've received, Vargas picked up the poor creature and displayed him in the gallery—attempting to make the point that such an animal on the street would go unnoticed, but in a gallery setting would be a spectacle. A local animal welfare group says the dog escaped after a day in the gallery.

This and other widely circulated photos show the dog
purportedly used in the exhibit.

Vargas's supposition about the shock value of his exhibit was prophetic. But even more so than he could have imagined, or bargained for. The image of the plaintive dog, presumably left to languish and suffer in the presence of gallery visitors and Vargas himself, was too much to fathom for many people who learned about it on the Internet. There was a spontaneous outburst of online petitions and condemnations of the supposed artist—a not uncommon phenomenon in the Internet age when shocking information goes viral.

Two observations. First, this circumstance underscores that there must be some limits in artistic expression, even if they are self-imposed by the artists themselves. Free expression is itself a moral imperative, but it is not absolute. It's one thing to document cruelty, but another matter to play a part in it, to exploit the suffering of other creatures, and to fail to provide any social context for it. Art and other cultural forms can be powerful media for promoting awareness of animal suffering and abuse, and for celebrating animals as creatures who deserve our admiration and respect, but this was not one of those cases. Obviously, if Vargas had taken photographs of starving street animals and called attention to the problem, then his art or documentary would not have provoked any calumny.

This controversy comes on the heels of a similar debate that erupted last month over an exhibit at the San Francisco Art Institute by the Paris artist Adel Abdessemed titled "Don't Trust Me." According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "the show included a series of video loops of animals being bludgeoned to death with a sledgehammer in front of a brick wall. The animals killed included a pig, goat, deer, ox, horse and sheep." An outcry ensued, and the Art Institute pulled the exhibit, and rightly so.

My other reaction is that we should rechannel our anguish and anger about Vargas and direct our energy to combat street dog problems in the developing world. Vargas is probably no more than a struggling artist, and we need not waste our time with further denunciations. But let's focus our energy on fighting the street dog problem and working to develop programs and infrastructure that can bring some relief to these creatures. This is a massive problem in the developing world, affecting hundreds of millions of animals, and our global affiliate Humane Society International has a Street Animal Welfare program to develop humane care, spay and neuter, and vaccination programs. Please do get involved with HSI. Get on our email list and get plugged in to our many international activities to help street dogs, to fight factory farming, and to stem the wildlife trade.

We cannot turn our gaze from this terrible problem throughout the world. And when we do focus on the problem, we must turn our anger into action, and select the right targets. Let's pivot from Vargas and focus on the ongoing cruelty, rather than seek retribution.

Response Required

Every animal protection organization worth its salt has known that trafficking in "downed animals" is inherently inhumane. This moral question was brought to light in a dramatic way with The HSUS's Hallmark/Westland Meat Co. investigation—with large, ailing downed cows being tormented in the most barbaric and cruel ways to move them in the direction of the slaughter area.

© The HSUS
A cow is struck at Hallmark/Westland.

But as we saw the costs associated with this case roll up—the largest meat recall in the nation's history, the dissolution of Hallmark itself (a $100 million company), the strained U.S. trade relations with beef-purchasing nations, the further loss in consumer confidence in the food supply and the regulatory systems that oversee it—it has become obvious that mistreating downed animals does not make good economic sense, either. The industry was trying to squeeze more profits out of these hapless animals, but the costs of this practice far exceeded the profits from slaughtering sick and crippled cows. The accountants within the meat industry had to rise up eventually and trump the lobbyists and corporate kingpins.

Finally yesterday, some of the most recalcitrant forces within the livestock sector—the American Meat Institute, the National Meat Association, and the National Milk Producers Federation, which had long worked to keep legal a trade in downed cattle, thwarting repeated efforts for a ban in Congress—made an emphatic statement urging a complete ban on slaughtering downer cows. They're awfully late to the game, but their central role in the trade in downers makes their statement important and significant. But it's also not enough.

The Hallmark case has made it plain that a series of reforms are needed within the slaughter plant industry. It starts with a ban on downers. But we also need criminal penalties for egregious abuses—ramming animals with forklifts, jabbing them in sensitive areas with electric prods known as “hot shots,” dragging them with chains, subjecting them to high-pressure water hoses to simulate drowning, and the like. We also need more meaningful civil penalties for plants that are defying the law; the current enforcement tool of simply suspending the plant's slaughter lines for very short periods is not enough. And we need greater oversight and transparency, achieved in part through the use of video cameras in the off-loading and handling areas.

USDA had a "no downer" policy on the books from January 2004 through July 2007, but it subverted it with orders to its on-the-ground personnel to allow downers to be slaughtered. It was a thoroughly dishonest maneuver by the agency. Maybe under new Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer there will be an honest application of the law, if the USDA does indeed modify its current pro-downer policy and accede to the chorus of voices demanding a ban on the slaughter of all downer cattle. But there's no substitute for congressional action—the kind of comprehensive congressional action that constitutes a proportional response to the raft of policy and regulatory and industry "best practice" defects that came to light from the Hallmark investigation.

If a downer ban is the only significant policy outcome, then the nation will not have responded properly to Hallmark. Congress and the USDA must do more.

Put a Fork in Global Warming

It's Earth Day, and we rightly hear exhortations on recycling, responsible energy use, and lightening our step on the planet. This year's celebration of Earth Day is dominated by discussions of climate change, and the personal and public policy responses to the crisis. Indeed, the matter has become a top tier public policy matter, since the effects of climate change may have life-altering implications for animals, human settlement, business, and the global economy. But still, there is a nagging lack of attention on one of the primary generators of greenhouse gases: farm animal agriculture (cartoonist and animal advocate Dan Piraro dedicated today's strip of his popular comic, Bizarro, to the subject, and it's worth a look).

This HSUS ad makes the link between
animal agriculture and global warming.

I've asked one of our specialists, Danielle Nierenberg, to offer some comments on the issues. I also urge every HSUS supporter to study the issue, to modify your own consumption habits appropriately, and to spread the word, whether through conversation, letters to the editor, or other means. Also, please make a donation to our campaign to run the advertisement you see on this page and support our other efforts on behalf of farm animals. Danielle's thoughts follow:

Recently I attended two meetings that made me more hopeful about agriculture, and particularly the state of the world’s farm animals. They focused on how agriculture can feed the world in the face of threats from population growth and climate change, while also reducing poverty and environmental degradation.

The important nexus of the two gatherings was the acknowledgment that past policies promoting agricultural “productivity” have come at huge environmental and social costs, including extraordinary contributions to climate change. According to a report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the animal agriculture sector contributes a larger share of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions than all transportation combined, and farm animals are “one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems.” And, of course, the billions of animals raised and killed each year for milk, meat, and eggs—increasingly confined intensively in barren factory farms—suffer enormously.

We cannot continue to support today’s animal agricultural practices, which are increasingly degrading the land and the water, and harming citizens. For the Earth, the people, and the animals, we must address the harrowing consequences of factory farming.

This Earth Day, in addition to celebrating the planet and pledging to improve your individual efforts to live more lightly, each one of us can—and must—also commit to making more environmentally sustainable and animal welfare-friendly food choices. It is one of the best ways to lessen your individual environmental footprint.

For comparison, as reported by the New York Times, a 6 oz. beef steak requires about 16 times more fossil fuel energy to produce than a dish of vegetables and rice, and generates 24 times more greenhouse gases. And an article published last year in The Lancet, one of the world's most prestigious medical journals, advocates a 10-percent reduction in meat consumption—to 90 grams (or about 3 ounces) per person, per day—in order to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions from this sector. The authors write, "For the world's higher-income populations, greenhouse-gas emissions from meat eating warrant the same scrutiny as do those from driving and flying."

Please make a personal pledge to reduce your consumption of meat, dairy, and eggs. If each American cut back on animal consumption by just 10 percent, approximately 1 billion fewer animals would be raised for food. Our online guide to reducing, refining, and replacing animal products can get you started.

Protecting the Vulnerable

© North County Times
The infant bear cub.

Warning: dangerous video. Your heart may melt more than just a little watching the footage of a baby bear cub, rescued on a road in southern California and then taken to refuge at The Fund for Animals Wildlife Center in Ramona, Calif. 

In the video, you'll see not only a cub who is beyond adorable, but also more than just a little needy.  She was born to bond with her mother, and she is unrelenting in her efforts to get closer to her surrogate human mother. Despite their own instincts to bring him close, the staff at our center are keeping some distance to avoid human habituation. If the bear cub becomes too accustomed to people, that would make her release back into the wild—some months down the line when she can fend for herself—all but impossible.

© The HSUS/Marcus Gyger
A seal pup, photographed just days before the 2008 hunt.

She's every bit as fetching as the baby seals in Canada, who have been featured on our website now for several weeks. These babies miss their mothers, too. It's almost unthinkable that any decent person would harm any creature so vulnerable.

That's the emerging consensus world opinion, and the sealing industry and its enablers are scrambling to defend and justify their conduct. Yesterday, the Premiers of Newfoundland and Nunavut proposed banning the use of clubs, or hakapiks, to kill seals. They are now in full panic mode over the European Environment Commissioner's proposal to ban the import of seal skins from any hunt that is inhumane. They suggest just shooting the pups as an alternative, even though the loss rate is so high because the animals may be struck and lost in the water.

At the end of the day, the government officials are defending something that just does not pass the test of civilized comportment. It's archaic and inhumane, and their vain attempts to put a nice sheen on their killing tools won't sway the public.

Killing a helpless baby seal is an indefensible action, no matter the instrument of torment and death.

Safer Fate for Seals

More news from Rebecca Aldworth, our director of Canadian wildlife issues. She's been monitoring the seal hunt and speaking to press throughout the world about the horror of this slaughter.

As we leave Newfoundland—bringing the observation of the 2008 seal hunt to a close—I think forward to a time when this is all over.

When the skin of a baby seal has no value on the international market, and the Canadian government has finally ended the seal hunt.

I imagine coming back here—anonymous again amongst the people of the East Coast of Canada.

© Nigel Barker
A harp seal pup seen on March 27.

I’ll charter a helicopter for a few hours on a still and sunny day, and fly out to sea. We’ll land on a pristine ice floe, and I'll walk across to where the seals are, spellbound as always by the brilliant colors reflected around me.

Fat, silvery baby seals will look up at me trustingly, their luminous eyes full of curiosity. I’ll lie down on the ice and slowly move into the group—a temporary guest in their nursery. The pups will touch noses, moving quietly around me. Soon they will begin to fall asleep. For awhile, I’ll lie there with them, knowing that peace has been restored to the ice.

And then I’ll apologize to the baby seals, tears streaming down my face.

For all the seals I saw brutalized and killed and did not intervene because the law prevented it. For all the suffering I bore witness to helplessly. For not being able to end it faster.

But these seal pups won’t know what happened here. They will live their lives as they were meant to, sleeping in their nursery, taking turns splashing in shallow pools on the ice. Becoming more and more confident until they finally slip into the ocean and silently swim away.

I wonder if the images of the slaughter will slowly start to fade, if time will make the suffering of these seals somehow seem more distant. But I know that will not happen. There are some things that can never and should never be forgotten. So instead I’ll hope the pain of the past can serve as a lesson for the future.

© Nigel Barker
A sealer swings a hakapik on March 29.

Coming back to the present, I know that our battle to reach that day—when the hunt is over for good—is at its most critical.

This year, sealskin prices are so low that most sealers are saying it is not worth their while to participate in the hunt. In the Front, less than 100 sealing vessels have hailed out—down from 700 in previous years. Just the thought of an EU ban on seal products has been enough to stop the majority of sealers from hunting this year.

Then days ago, the European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas confirmed he will propose a ban on seal products originating from inhumane hunts. Back in Canada, the ProtectSeals team rejoiced. Because if the EU adopts such a ban, seal products from Canada will never again be traded in the EU.

Our observation out here has been difficult, but we have gathered the evidence we need to prove that Canada's commercial seal hunt remains every bit as cruel as it has always been. That evidence will be provided directly to the European Commission and Parliament.

And we have more good news from the United States, with more major grocery chains and restaurants joining the boycott of Canadian seafood products. Because of this economic pressure, Canadian fishermen are fast realizing they are losing more from hunting seals than they can ever hope to gain.

Thank you for standing with us and bearing witness to the 2008 commercial seal hunt. We are so close to stopping this cruelty—with your support, we’ll make it the last slaughter of baby seals in Canada.

Biting Back Against Puppy Mills

"Change can't happen fast enough" declared Christopher Barrett, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau. "What's happening in these puppy mills is atrocious." That's Barrett's reaction to last week's "Oprah" exposé of the puppy mill industry, and his remarks make plain that the people in and around Lancaster County, Pa.—where some of the images broadcast on "Oprah" came from—are not circling the wagons. Barrett knows that the region he cares about and promotes is going to be saddled with a negative image unless something is done.

But how do we take on the larger problem of dogs being churned out by mills as a cash crop? Through the years, many people have condemned puppy mills, but that has not translated into systemic change. In fact, through The HSUS's own investigations, we've revealed that there are probably more puppy mills than ever. At some level, that stands to reason, given that the number of dogs in homes has steadily increased year after year—in short, the mills are attempting to supply a growing market. To thrive economically, the mills merely have to capture a small portion of the market for dogs. With mill dogs going for $300 to $3,000, it's a lucrative industry, and with little or no regulation, their operations are unfettered.

© The HSUS

As I've said before, this problem would be solved if people simply did not purchase dogs from pet stores or through the Internet. The best place, bar none, to get a companion animal is at the local shelter, or through a rescue group. Every time someone adopts from a shelter, he or she is directly helping to diminish the tragedy of animal overpopulation. We all need to do more to promote adoption in the first instance.

But the traffickers of puppy mill dogs are adept at misdirection, and succeed in selling people a bill of goods about the superiority of other sources for animals. They purport to sell dogs only from responsible breeders, even though nothing could be further from the truth. To succeed, the mills only have to dupe a portion of the public.

That's why we'll probably not solve this problem until we have strong laws. There are about 20 states with legislation pending that would have an impact on some mills, and many of these bills are worthy of support. But most of the bills do not address the fundamental problems associated with puppy mills. We need bolder policy solutions, and that will only happen when lawmakers hear a clamor from the public.

The government should limit the number of puppies that any operation can sell, and that alone would put a crimp on mills. Lawmakers should require that all animals be socialized. And they should place limits on the frequency of breeding for females, who are often bred every heat cycle. And elected officials should not allow imports of puppies from foreign operations, which could easily flood the American market with dogs from China, Eastern Europe, and other nations that treat the dogs as a commodity.

And the federal government should be licensing, inspecting and regulating puppy millers selling direct to the public or through the Internet. This entire class of individuals is unregulated and no minimal provision of the Animal Welfare Act applies to these facilities. Congress needs to change the law to reflect the vast lack of oversight of these puppy mills.

We need a zero tolerance policy for puppy mills, in both our laws and our consumer behavior.

It is important for every HSUS supporter to write to your elected officials at the federal and state level and demand action on puppy mills. So please take that opportunity today.

Talk Back: Puppy Truths on TV

"The Oprah Winfrey Show" has a worldwide audience of 40 million people. So once word began to circulate that Oprah Winfrey would be dedicating an episode of her show to the abusive conditions at puppy mills and the related issues of pet overpopulation, euthanasia, and spay and neuter, there was anticipation and excitement in the comments that came into the blog:

I know a lot of people who are really looking forward to this show. I used to foster for a rescue organization, and it's all we've been talking about for the past two days. I was glad to learn today that Wayne was on the show. I'll be taping it and watching it tomorrow night. —Tracy Habenicht

As our nation prepares to watch "Oprah" tomorrow (hopefully everyone here loves Oprah like I do!), I'll be praying the impact of the show will reach far and wide. I look forward to seeing you live for the first time; I’m so proud of you. When I gathered signatures for the farmed animal initiative all I could think about for weeks was where is Oprah. If only she could get wind of the animal suffering around the world, I know she could help bring about REAL change. So I'm holding out for the best outcome for all you do in the name of animals. —JG

The response amplified as the show aired across the country, and I’ve included a sampler of your comments below.

Wayne, I watched Oprah's show yesterday, as painful as it was at times. I'm a volunteer with a rescue group here in Austin, but I've never seen a puppy mill firsthand. Let's hope the show enlightened a few thousand more people. I'm grateful for The HSUS and all the great work you do. Thank you. —Sue Rostvold, Austin, Texas

Thank you for being on Oprah's show on Friday, April 4, regarding the horrors of puppy mills. It was excellent, but so much more needs to be done. Please encourage Oprah to do follow up shows about these horrible puppy mills. The next show needs to focus on the need for federal legislation and tell viewers what they can do to convince their U. S. Representative and Senator to force these commercial breeders to improve conditions for these dogs! Thank you! —Gayle K. Randol

I just finished watching Oprah's show about puppy mills. It was a wonderful show and I am very happy that she now considers herself a changed woman who will, in the future, adopt from shelters. I hope that this does not prove to be her last show on this subject. What I do not understand, however, is why the people who presented the material did not take the opportunity to ask viewers to contact their elected representatives about the lack of USDA inspections of these mills and the need for better laws to govern these breeding facilities. You can preach forever and encourage people to do the right thing, but only legislation and enforcement will make the HUGE changes that are necessary. —Janet White

Great news! After seeing the heartbreaking “Oprah” show today, I called my Congressman, Frank LoBiondo, who is a tireless animal advocate, and before the show even aired he had sponsored legislation that will shut down all puppy mills in this country! Kudos to the Congressman, Wayne Pacelle, HSUS and Oprah! —Maria D. Dicino

Thank you so much Wayne Pacelle from HSUS, Bill Smith from Main Line Animal Rescue, investigative reporter Lisa Ling, and Oprah for airing the recent exposé on puppy mills on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” And all the others out there that have committed to this tremendous feat of ending puppy mills forever! I can't imagine how one can sleep at night after visiting these mills and looking into the eyes of these poor little souls. I haven't even been able to get any of the images out of my head since I watched the show. However, as difficult as it was to watch, I knew it was my responsibility to do so. I can be a part of the solution to stop these mills. In fact, I'm so thankful that I do know now so I can spread the word each and every day. I, like many people, had heard of them but had NO idea that the conditions are so horrific. This is a horrible tragedy and it takes place in our country. I'm ashamed that the United States, our government, is aware of what's happening to these animals in these mills and they’re not doing anything to stop them immediately. How is this legal? I thought we had laws to protect animals from abuse and cruelty. Now I learn that we actually allow it. It's sickening. Our government should be ashamed for allowing this to take place and for not banning all puppy mills and bad breeders immediately. Thank God for The HSUS, the rescues and all the animal lovers. We all have to work together to do whatever we can to save these fur kids today… I'm in 100 percent to do whatever I can to help. I've started sending my donations for the fight to stop puppy mills, I've emailed everyone I know and asked for their help. I've emailed my local legislators and asked all my friends and family to do the same. I'm going to post flyers everywhere I know I can. What else can I do? I need to help these animals. We all do… —Sherry

Constant Combat

There's no one in America like Oprah Winfrey, and her show to air tomorrow on puppy mills is sure to generate a torrent of interest. I feel privileged to appear on the show, and it's a rare opportunity to speak to so many millions of Americans about this important issue. Our entire team at The HSUS will work hard to harness the energy that her show generates. Our goal is to turn viewer anger and anguish over cruelty to dogs into action and reform.

But animal abuse is stubborn, and our battles to combat its many forms are rarely won with ease. That's certainly the case with puppy mills—an abusive industry that's persisted for decades despite relatively high levels of public awareness about the problem. And it's even the case with animal fighting. Dogfighting and cockfighting are at the top of my list of repugnant and morally indefensible forms of animal cruelty. You would think reform in this arena would be a slam dunk, but it's not.

© The HSUS

It took us years to pass strong federal legislation to crack down on animal fighting, and we are still defending it—the cockfighters just filed their third lawsuit against the federal law. And it was just last year that we finally banned cockfighting in Louisiana and New Mexico.

This year, we've had yet another surge in lawmaking on animal fighting, driven by our major focus on the issue and by the awareness generated by the Michael Vick case. We passed felony-level penalties for dogfighting this year in the two states that had been misdemeanor hold-outs—Idaho and Wyoming. And we've passed upgrades of animal fighting laws in Oregon and Virginia, and bills to fortify laws in Georgia and Maryland are expected to be signed into law very soon.

But there are another 20 states with legislation to strengthen the law, and we are in slugfests in many of these states, including Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, South Carolina, and West Virginia. In Tennessee—where just two years ago, federal law enforcement authorities closed down two of the largest cockfighting pits in the nation, and uncovered public corruption of local law enforcement officials, massive illegal gambling, chop shops, and prostitution rings associated with the animal fighting enterprises—a bill to make cockfighting a felony barely cleared a key subcommittee this week. Here you had massive criminal enterprises in eastern Tennessee intertwined with animal fighting, yet some lawmakers continue to be apologists for this reprehensible conduct.

In California, there are two bills to upgrade the dogfighting law, but we are running into knee-jerk opposition from lawmakers who do not want to make being a spectator at a dogfight a felony, even though every state surrounding California has such policies. Animal fighting is rampant there, and because the state's law's are so weak compared to its neighbors, it's becoming a regional hub for animal fighting.

The only way we will win these fights is if our supporters get active and demand change. Don't leave it up to me and the other HSUS staff to get the job done. We'll work around the clock, and so will many of our legislative allies. But we need you to contact your state lawmakers and to activate other citizens. Only when the grassroots pressure is unyielding and intense will we get the reforms that the animals so desperately need.

Puppy Mill Horrors to Hit Millions

Last week, dogs enduring confinement, overcrowded living conditions, excessive breeding, and other problems associated with puppy mills gained as strong an ally as they could find in this country: Oprah Winfrey. Oprah taped an entire hour-long program last week on puppy mills and the related issues of shelter adoptions, spay and neuter, and euthanasia. The show is scheduled to air this Friday, April 4 (check your local market for times).

© The HSUS
HSUS investigative footage will be aired in the show.

Reporter Lisa Ling, teaming up with Main Line Animal Rescue founder Bill Smith, investigates puppy mills in Lancaster County, Penn. and then Oprah leads the guests (me included) through a powerful and emotionally compelling discussion about puppy mills and the suffering and misery for which they are responsible. She shows a remarkable amount of footage, including scenes from The HSUS's three recent investigations of the mills and related dog auctions.

Please watch the show on Friday—it will be worth your time. And then the challenge will be for all of us—including millions of new allies who are Oprah devotees—to take collective action to turn this situation around.

It's been a difficult issue for our movement. There's a high level of awareness within the general public that there's a problem with puppy mills, but there's been little effective action to halt the abuses at mills. The key is to convince our friends, coworkers, and family members not to patronize pet stores or buy animals off the Internet. Instead, we must drive them to adopt from shelters. If a consumer insists on buying a dog from a breeder rather than adopting a homeless animal, they must do some research to find the most responsible breeder. And we need legislative solutions, too.

I'll be writing more about that in the coming days. But let's hope the show has the effect it had on Oprah herself.

Bearing Witness

Posted by Rebecca Aldworth

Today I saw defenseless baby seals slaughtered without mercy on Canada’s ice floes. It is with a very heavy heart that I write this, following eight unbearable hours of bearing witness to the slaughter. 

© The HSUS/Kathy Milani
A sealer, moments before clubbing a seal.

I understand why the Canadian government has fought so hard to stop us from observing the hunt this year… While the my government is busy telling the world that this year’s slaughter will somehow be more humane, we have proved today it is the same hunt we have always filmed.

This is my 10th year bearing witness to Canada’s commercial seal hunt, and nothing has changed—the killing is every bit as cruel as it has ever been. I did not see one sealer follow the supposedly new 3-step killing process, and many sealers failed to even check to see if seals were dead prior to impaling them on metal hooks and dragging them across the ice floes.

I watched helplessly from above as one by one, the seals were brutally clubbed, stabbed with hooks and dragged across the ice as they struggled. There are few words to describe how hard it was to see the same pups we filmed just days ago meet such a barbaric end.

© The HSUS/Marcus Gyger
Sealers drag a seal March 29.

Nigel Barker and his film crew were also at the hunt today. Nigel’s words capture so well all of our thoughts at the end of this terrible day. He said, “I witnessed with my own eyes, my own camera and my own video crew blatant violations of the rules and regulations by sealers. Several weeks ago, I documented the birth of the seal pups or ‘white coats,’ and, earlier this week, photographed the beautiful silver, speckled two-week-olds, and today the mass killing of every young seal in sight in the most brutal and barbaric fashion. I will never forget what I have seen and will never stop until it ends.”

But even as we filmed the killing of the seals, we thought of other deaths. Today’s tragedy of three sealers drowning—and one still missing—when their boat capsized in the hazardous ice was just another reason why Canada’s commercial seal hunt should be ended for good. Each year, sealing vessels are ruined by the treacherous ice, sealers are injured—and some even die. In many ways, the sealers are also victims of this brutal hunt.

We call on the Canadian government to immediately take action to end this needless slaughter through a generous sealing license retirement program. A sealing industry buyout would not only save the seals, but it could save the sealers too.

In the meantime, the European Commission holds in its power the ability to right an international wrong. By ending its trade in seal products, the EU can remove the financial incentive for these sealers to kill the pups. I can only hope that this year will be the last slaughter we will have to witness.

Unwanted Observers

Posted by Rebecca Aldworth

Once again, the Canadian government is doing everything in its power to block documentation of the commercial seal hunt. Today, as sealers maneuvered their vessels through the ice floes, searching out baby seals, our permitting nightmare continued. We received a call from fisheries officials at 10 a.m., informing us we would receive permits to observe the seal hunt for the day. However, two hours later as we waited in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans office, we still had no permits in hand. As the weather worsened, it became clear our window of opportunity to document the hunt this afternoon was closing fast.

Today's frustrating series of events proves to independent media and parliamentarians just how desperate the Canadian government is to cover up the cruelty of this slaughter. In coming here, The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International face seemingly insurmountable obstacles at times. From the efforts of the Canadian government to thwart observation, to the physical assaults by sealers on the ice floes, this is one of the most difficult events on Earth to film.

But we will be here as the hunt opens again tomorrow. Our cameras will show the world what happens when seal hunters are allowed to club, shoot, cut open, and skin hundreds of thousands of baby seals for their fur. Please stand with us as we release our first videos and photographs from the hunt tomorrow. Take a moment now to watch our video about what we're up against, and see how you can help us save the seals.

No Cameras Permitted

I am heartsick about what's about to occur in Canada—the slaughter of baby seals that is set to start tomorrow. But I am grateful for the presence of Nigel Barker and my HSUS colleagues who are there to document what occurs and to broadcast the images to the world. And I am especially grateful that our community of animal protection supporters—now millions strong—is focused on the task of ending this slaughter and participating with us in a campaign to achieve that end.

I've asked Rebecca Aldworth, our director of Canadian wildlife issues and a native of a rural community in Newfoundland, to offer first-hand dispatches on my blog for the next few days. Here's her first report.

© Marcus Gyger
Rebecca, on a March 25 visit to the harp seal nursery.

Today brings unbelievable news.

Twelve sealing vessels have already left the Magdalen Islands, and many more are gearing up to go later today so they can be in position to kill baby seals when the hunt opens half an hour before dawn tomorrow. Yet at this time—less than 16 hours before the seal hunt will begin—the Canadian government is refusing to issue observation permits for tomorrow morning to anyone, including journalists.

They say that heavy ice is causing problems for the vessels, and they cannot guarantee the sealers will reach the seals by the time the hunt is opened. But as things stand right now, if the vessels do reach the seals—and there is a good chance they will—the hunt will go on without witnesses. Which is exactly what the Canadian government wants.

Observation of the commercial seal hunt is guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And in the 10 years I have documented this slaughter, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has never refused to issue permits based on the idea that sealers “might not be sealing.” From where we stand, this is yet another desperate attempt on behalf of the DFO to block observation and documentation of the commercial seal hunt.

© Marcus Gyger
Pups like this one are targets of Canada's seal hunt.

Notably, even as the DFO is refusing to allow observers to document the seal hunt, Canadian media is reporting that yet another delegation of sealing industry lobbyists have been sent to Europe by the Canadian government to try to ensure the EU does not ban the seal product trade.

The Canadian government has tried to tell the world the hunt is going to be more humane this year. The fact that they are already trying to stop journalists from filming it is a strong indication they know exactly how cruel this hunt will be.

To know that in just hours the pups we saw two days ago will be clubbed, shot, and skinned for their fur without witnesses is almost too much to bear.