The Humane Society of the United States, one of the most rabid and richest animal-rights/anti-hunting groups in the nation, became the subject of scrutiny last week after an Atlanta-based news station's investigative report raised questions over millions in donations to the HSUS.
The report, done by WSB-TV Channel 2, focused on concerns the HSUS may engage in fund-raising tactics in which donors believe their contributions predominately go to help local animal shelters. The report highlighted certain controversies surrounding the HSUS, such as the public disclosure of only $7 million in expenditures for reuniting pets displaced during Hurricane Katrina with their owners despite having raised $34 million to accomplish the task. So where did the other $27 million go that people donated specifically for that cause?
At that time, the Louisiana Attorney General's office launched an investigation. A Channel 2 reporter also attended a local HSUS meeting where the discussions were reportedly focused on activism, not animal care. It was also stated in the report — which was further publicized by the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance — that the Georgia Director for HSUS admitted she spends most of her time working on lobbying rather than coordinating the care of animals.
"We have long believed that many HSUS donors think they are helping local dog and cat shelters," said Bud Pidgeon, president and CEO of the USSA. "We think this confusion diverts funds away from that purpose, and actually funds campaigns to restrict hunting rights and common farming and livestock practices."
It's a pretty good guess that some of that $27 million that was donated to help reunite pets with owners, but wasn't used for that purpose, ended up funding the HSUS's anti-hunting campaigns.
Radio host Rush Limbaugh has also been duped by the HSUS. Sportsmen and agriculture organizations are upset with Limbaugh because they say he mistakenly believes the HSUS is primarily involved in caring for dogs and cats. Limbaugh recently produced two advertisements for HSUS endorsing a couple of its programs, leading to a barrage of protests from sportsmen and conservatives. Sportsmen fear that the conservative icon's association with the animal-rights organization will help whitewash its agenda in the eyes of other conservatives.
The USSA and its Sporting Dog Defense Coalition are fully engaged in fighting the largest animal-rights campaign ever waged. Rob Sexton, the USSA vice president of government affairs, makes clear that the HSUS promised to make "puppy mills" a priority issue this year — the animal rights groups are pushing 41 bills in 26 states restricting the rights of sporting dog owners.
Though the details of each bill differs, each goes beyond the targeting of abusive breeders. They represent a one-size-fits-all approach that treat private kennels that sell or transfer a few dogs in the same way as a commercial operation that sells 500 dogs a year. The USSA has been working with grassroots partners across the nation to block puppy-mill legislation or modify the bills into a form that will not devastate sporting dog breeders and owners.
A similar dog bill was introduced into the Mass. legislature last year that would have imposed mandatory spaying/neutering of all dogs more than 12 months of age. Anyone owning a dog that was not spayed or neutered would have to qualify for and purchase a permit to keep that dog at a cost of up to $500 per animal. And the permit would have to renewed annually.
It also would have limited female breeding to one litter per year, the sales of all puppies would have had to be reported to local jurisdictions, and would have eliminated the practice of humane tethering — keeping outside dogs on a chain, tether, etc.
What's that got to do with a puppy mill?
As always, the animal rights brigade uses sensationalism to sneak vulgar language into these bills that they get their legislative pals to introduce, furthering their agenda and putting animals on the same level as humans. And two of the HSUS's cronies are senators John Kerry and Edward Kennedy. Big surprise: Remember when Kerry ran for president and masqueraded as a hunter to get the sportsmen's vote? And those who knew better warned that he was just a poser and nothing of the sort?
The nation's largest anti-hunting group recently awarded Kerry the "Humane Champion" award because he scored a perfect 100 percent on sponsoring pro-animal legislation. And Kennedy received the HSUS's "Legislative Leader" award. 'Nuff said.
The HSUS also gave Ellen DeGeneres and partner Portia de Rossi the Genesis award. Oprah Winfrey received honors for Outstanding Talk Show.
A reader asked what a baby wild turkey is called. Baby wild turkeys are called "poults." Hens (females) are nesting now and poults should be hatching soon. After they are about three months old, a male poult is called a jake and a female is called a jenny. The term jenny however, is seldom used as all females regardless of age, are commonly called hens.
While jakes reach sexual maturity at one year old, they aren't considered mature toms until they reach two years of age. Jakes lack the long beard and long leg spurs of a mature tom. A jake's stubby little beard usually is about 2 ½ inches long compared to the 8- to 10-inch beard of a tom. And they usually have a couple of nubs on the back of their legs compared to the sharp spurs of a tom that range from ¾-inch to as long as two inches.
The tail on a mature tom is a full fan with all the feathers being the same length while the center tail feathers on a jake's tail are markedly longer than the ones on the either side that aren't fully grown yet. Also, a jake's gobble is sort of a hoarse, choppy attempt at a gobble, compared to the rolling thunderous gobble of a mature tom.
Jakes attempt to mate with hens when they are a year old during their first spring mating season, but rarely succeed in winning breeding rights against mature toms.
The reader also noted that a lone wild turkey tom was hanging around her backyard but was being harassed by other turkeys and it had been driven from the flock. Any time it went near other birds they would chase it and peck at it.
This behavior most likely means that the lone tom is a "cast off" which implies that it could be weak or there could be something wrong with it and the other birds sense it. Some mammals, such as dogs and cats, sense when one of their babies is sickly or weak and they often kill it or eat it. Birds however, drive it from the flock and won't associate with it.
The reader also said a lone hen eventually took up with the cast-off tom and began to keep him company, which goes to show you that even in the animal world — there's someone for everyone.