From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1999

JUNE EDITORIAL

Humane Societies, Guts, & Moral Leadership

Because Japan annually kills almost twice as many Dall's porpoises
as scientists believe the population can withstand, Switzerland on May 27
asked the International Whaling Commission meeting just concluded in
Grenada to protect small whales as well as large.
"It's none of their business," fumed Japanese delegate Mayasuki
Komatsu, storming out. "We are going to continue to kill Dall's porpoises
just like you kill cows."
Conservationists countered that Japan does not breed and raise
Dall's porpoises--but that missed the point. Even if Dall's porpoises
could be factory-farmed with the heartless efficiency applied to pigs and
chickens, neither porpoises nor any other species should be raised en
masse in misery and wantonly killed.
Four thousand miles away, Lynda Imburgia of Langley, Washington,
hit the same note in a letter to the South Whidbey Record, published on
May 29. "I am a meat eater," she wrote, "and would be a hypocrite to
condemn the Makah whalers. What happens to the meat most of us eat is far
more inhumane, on a much vaster scale."
Rather than quit eating meat, even knowing the production process
to be inhumane, Imburgia defended other cruelty.
The 1985 Canadian government paper Defence of the Fur Trade
anticipated the Imburgia response, as did the 1989 American Medical
Association Animal Research Action Plan. So long as "the general public
[is] not prepared to give up meat," the AMA authors explained,
vivisectors can defend almost anything they do by comparing it to meat
animal husbandry and slaughter.
Other animal use industries got the message. Just in the two days
it took to draft this editorial, we saw whalers, sealers, furriers,
trappers, hunters, bullfighters, and rodeo cowboys--among
others--reflexively reaching for the meat argument as their ultimate
rejoinder.
Tacitly acknowledging that standard agricultural animal husbandry,
slaughter, and hunting practices are inherently inhumane, meat producers
and hunters have even achieved legislation exempting themselves from humane
laws in at least 29 states.
Yet the meat habit is not invulnerable. The ethical arguments
against meat convinced whole Asian nations to go vegetarian as long as
3,000 years ago. Their educated descendants are still overwhelmingly
vegetarian, chiefly for ethical reasons. So many younger Americans are
giving up meat now, from a combination of ethical and health concerns,
that per capita spending on meat of all kinds, including chicken and fish,
is a third lower among people under 35 than among those 55 and older.
The ecological arguments against meat were never stronger. A Union
of Concerned Scientists study published on Earth Day 1999 confirmed that
meat-eating, after driving motor vehicles, is the most environmentally
damaging of all U.S. consumer activities. Producing grain-fed beef, the
Union of Concerned Scientists found, is 17 to 20 times more damaging than
making the same grain into pasta. Meat and poultry production contributes
half again as much to global warming as crop cultivation--and 70% of U.S.
grain crops are raised as fodder.
The Economic and Social Research Institute of Ireland published
similar data just a week later, finding that raising animals for meat
produces about 29% of the Irish "global warming potential," and 49% of
total "acid rain precursors."

The front line and the bottom line

Meat-eating is thus both the front line and the bottom line in the
struggles against cruelty and habitat degradation.

But where are humane societies?

Picking just a few quick examples from incoming newsletters, we
understand the horse-oriented Hooved Animal Humane Society, of Woodstock,
Illinois, apparently still derives funds from an annual benefit pig
roast--as if pigs are not also hooved animals. Individual activists first
protested against the pig roast more than 10 years ago.
Orphan Pet Oasis, of Palm Desert, California, serves staff a
Thanksgiving turkey.
Day's End Farm Horse Rescue, of Lisbon, Maryland, in March 1999
held a "Casino Shrimp Fest," even as shrimpers urged the 106th Congress to
ease requirements that they must kill shrimp in a matter that won't kill
endangered sea turtles as well. But Day's End also offered vegetarian
lasagna.
The Animal Humane Society of Hennepin County, Minnesota, served
meat hot dogs at its annual Walk for Animals.
Asked to explain by Minnesota Farm Animal Rights Movement activist
Julie Derby, Animal Humane Society assistant to the executive director
Michael Petersdorf offered the whole litany of conventional excuses.
"In the 25 years of hosting the Walk for Animals," Petersdorf
began, "there have been an extremely small number of people who have
expressed concern over the choice of food served at this event. Most were
complaints regarding their simply not liking hot dogs, rather than a lack
of a vegetarian entree or lack of empathy for the plight of farm animals."
In effect, Petersdorf argued that because the public doesn't care
about farm animals, the Animal Humane Society need not, either.
"We consider our supporters to be well-educated professional people
who are well aware of how farm animals are treated and slaughtered,"
Petersdorf continued--a dubious claim when neither local news media nor the
Animal Humane Society, by far the largest humane society in Minnesota,
have either aired or discussed on the record the undercover video that
activists Steve Wong and Dug Hanbicki made in early 1998 at the Concord
Meat Processing Company and Long Chen Hmong Livestock Inc., both of South
St. Paul.
ANIMAL PEOPLE specifically asked Animal Humane Society executive
director Alan Stensrud to view and comment on the Wong/Hanbicki video, for
the record, after we ourselves viewed the uncut tape. If he ever viewed
it--and it showed cruelty that appears easily prosecutable despite the
Minnesota exemptions for "standard" farm and slaughter practices--we
received no comment.
Ten years earlier, we understand, actvist Becky Sandstedt had a
similar experience with the Animal Humane Society after videotaping the
mistreatment of downed animals at the South St. Paul stockyards, even
though in the 19th century it was among the first humane societies to
address abuse of cattle.
"Most of our supporters are not vegetarians," Petersdorf went on.
"The Animal Humane Society cannot jeopardize the success of its largest
fundraising event by offering food that is not well-liked by the majority
of the participants," as if there were not a multitude of popular non-meat
alternatives available, from apple pie to corn-on-the-cob.
"In addition," Petersdorf said, "we cannot force our supporters to
become vegetarians at an event that is intended to raise money and create
awareness of our organization," as if even heavy meat-eaters don't on
average forgo meat at about 20% of all their meals.
"The Walk for Animals is the Society's largest fundraiser,
accounting for approximately 16% of our annual operating budget,"
Petersdorf added. "Its main purpose is to raise funds, not create social
awareness or instigate social reform."
Yet the original constitution of the Animal Humane Society,
drafted in 1891, when it was still called the Minnesota Humane Society,
stipulated that "the inculcation of humane principles" should at all times
be the first objective of the organization.
"While the Society does have an obligation to promote the humane
treatment of all animals," Petersdorf acknowledged, "it has chosen to
concentrate its efforts toward the domestic animals it commonly encounters.
Due to budgetary restraints and the amount of work still to be done in
reducing the number of animals surrendered to shelters, the Society must
remain focused on these domestic animal issues."
But focusing day-to-day activity on dogs and cats in no way
precludes adopting policies and promoting attitudes that benefit all
animals. The public and media look toward humane societies to set the
standards of treatment for all species; a so-called "Animal Humane
Society" that neglects that duty is not worthy of the name.
"As you are well aware," Petersdorf went on, "the hot dogs we
receive for the Walk are both donated and easy to prepare," raising the
question as to whether the Animal Humane Society would also accept the
opportunity to raise funds by auctioning donated hunting weapons, or a
round trip to Mexico to watch bullfights and cockfights.
"If the Minnesota Farm Animal Rights Movement could provide a
vendor willing to donate 200-300 vegetarian entrees that can be easily
prepared the morning of the event," Petersdorf concluded, "the Animal
Humane Society would be happy to offer it as an alternative and it addition
to the hot dogs we now serve."
Derby and friends donated several hundred vegan hot dogs--but ran
into resistance from the Animal Humane Society, they said, when they
tried to announce their availability.
Under the circumstances, we were disgusted but not surprised to
receive a report from Joanne Murphy of the Minnesota Animal Rights Coaliton
that Animal Humane Society cruelty investigator Keith Stref, in testimony
at a recent hearing of the Minnesota legislature, allegedly described how
he spends his vacations at his sister's farm killing runt piglets with a
hammer. We asked Stensrud to confirm, deny, or clarify. He did not
respond.

LaRussa sets an example

Unfortunately, these are not isolated cases. Recounts Grateful
Acres Sanctuary founder Shannon Lentz, of her experience earlier this year
as a participant in an online discussion group for humane professionals,
"Someone suggested that a local grocery might donate hot dogs to a
shelter promotion. I respectfully reminded the list that the humane ethic
we try to promote should include all creatures, not just dogs and cats,
and that the public looks to humane workers to set a standard of
compassion. Did I ever get e-mail! These folks were hot! You'd never
have guessed they were in animal welfare." Lentz' message was seconded
only by "a woman from Tony LaRussa's Animal Foundation."
St. Louis Cardinals' manager Tony LaRussa and his wife Elaine are
perhaps the most admired of many vegetarians in professional sports. Even
before they lent their names to a highly regarded no-kill humane society,
they were never reluctant to explain why they gave up meat, for humane
reasons, nearly 30 years ago.
Other humane societies with the guts to put principle first are
beginning to demonstrate that the public will respond positively to the
vegetarian message.
The Progressive Animal Welfare Society, for instance, of
Lynnwood, Washington, is not only a leading dog-and-cat rescue agency and
outspoken foe of Makah whaling, but also blew aside the
whaling-is-no-worse-than-meat argument by devoting the entire Spring 1999
edition of PAWS News to the cover message "Go Veggie!"
This is not the first time PAWS has promoted vegetarianism. And
the PAWS position on meatdoes not seem to hurt their fundraising.
According to the most recent available IRS Form 990 data, PAWS annually
raises and spends almost exactly the same amount as the Animal Humane
Society--against stronger local competition for the animal protection
dollar.
The American SPCA, whose board ousted 14-year president John
Kullberg in 1991 for promoting vegetarianism, has recently published
numerous articles critical of meat-eating in ASPCA Animalwatch.
PIGS: A Sanctuary during mid-May took the issue one step farther.
In keeping with longstanding PIGS policy, the reception for high donors at
the grand opening of a new rescue farm in rural West Virginia was strictly
vegan, as was the concession stand at the public opening the following
day.
"Everyone raved about the food," reports PIGS cofounder Jim
Brewer. "Many of our supporters are not vegetarians, and we had people
visiting just out of curiosity who were not even supporters. People kept
asking who our caterer was. We sold tons of vegetarian hot dogs and
burgers, and passed out vegan soap samples donated by Tom's of Maine. The
key, I think, is that we didn't do anything to make it seem freakish or
abnormal that we didn't serve meat. We just served good vegan food, and
the people ate it up."
Editorialized ANIMAL PEOPLE in September 1994, "If it isn't cruel
to hang eight billion chickens a year upside down and slash their throats,
why should anyone care about a boy who beheads a canary? If it's okay to
shoot cattle in the head, why not shoot dogs and cats? What people choose
to put in their mouths in their own homes may be their business, but at a
humane event, it's our business--and if we don't separate ourselves from
the meat habit, we really can't expect the public to see us as the
principled people we presume to be."
Five years later, it is long past time for the humane community to
realize that only those with the courage to lead have any hope of being
followed.