I'm just finding out about this guy, Frazier. Fascinating!
The first place I look, of course, is Wikipedia. Can't always trust Wiki, I hear, but I find them a good jumping off point.
Here's what
Wiki has to say about Pacelle:
Since 1994, the year he joined The HSUS, Pacelle has played a role in the passage of more than 15 federal statutes to protect animals – including laws to ban the sale of videos depicting animal cruelty (1999), to protect great apes in their native habitats (2000), to halt interstate transport of fighting animals (2002), to halt commerce in big cats for the pet trade (2003), and to require government agencies to include pets in disaster planning (2006). Pacelle has testified before U.S. House and Senate committees on animal protection issues including "canned hunting," funding for the Animal Welfare Act and other programs, the trophy hunting of threatened and endangered species, cockfighting and dogfighting, puppy mills, the exotic pet trade, bear baiting, and Chronic Wasting Disease. In addition, he has been the architect of a number of amendments to end federal subsidies for programs that harm animals, including a halt to funds for the mink industry.
Pacelle has been associated with 26 successful statewide ballot measure initiatives to protect animals, challenging cockfighting, shooting of mourning doves, insupportable hunting practices, the use of steel-jawed traps, and inhumane factory farming methods[8]. He has also been instrumental in the passage of numerous state laws dealing with animal protection.
The HSUS president has also been vocal in criticizing individuals and groups who resort to intimidation, vandalism, or violence in pursuit of animal protection goals.
Kind of reads like an anti-activistcashdotcom entry, doesn't it? I mean, if the guy's done all that, I have to wonder if the quotes offered by activistcashdotcom are maybe a little out of context.
The
WAPO has an interesting article about him too. In it, I read:
Strong accusations. Pacelle just grins. "They all go wild on me," he says, adding that he has even received death threats. "My ex-boss . . . said you could tell a lot about a person by his friends and also by his enemies. I'm happy to have some of these people as my enemies."
Additionally, the activistcash site makes some heady accusations about HSUS:
Despite the words “humane society” on its letterhead, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is not affiliated with your local animal shelter. Despite the omnipresent dogs and cats in its fundraising materials, it’s not an organization that runs spay/neuter programs or takes in stray, neglected, and abused pets.
Those kind of claims are usually easily vetted with Google. And sure enough, it looks to me like activistcash is being a little misleading or downright dishonest in its claims. I found very quickly that they are an advocacy organization, not a network of shelters, so of course they don't take in strays or run spay/neuter programs. But it's wrong to assume that means they are not involved with local shelters, though it is technically true that they are not
affiliated. Technically. It's a technical truth. Which in my book is as good as a lie when it is told to intentionally mislead.
So why all the anti-Pacelle bloggery going on? Read the WAPO article. I found a
lot of truth there.
