A recent article in the Greenville and the Upstate News exposes some of the many warts of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Unfortunately, little is said about the anti-conservation policies of this gigantic organization.  However, the authors are right on in their assessment of HSUS as an animal rights, as opposed to a mainstream animal welfare organization.  Indeed, HSUS policy has been getting increasingly radical over the past few years, even putting them out of step with some of the more radical rights organizations, such as PETA. For example PETA favors live capture and euthanasia to manage feral cats, whereas HSUS still favors Trap, Neuter, and Release (TNR). TNR has been shown to be an abject failure in controlling feral cat numbers to the detriment of native wildlife, such as small mammals and migratory birds.  Perhaps this article will begin educating donors about the many problems with this privately funded “multi-national corporation” –one that promotes itself as both an animal protection and wildlife conservation organization.  Its policies have shown that it is most definately not the latter.

Michael Hutchins Animal rights, Animal rights organizations, invasive species, wildlife conservation