“Rebranding” at the Humane Society of the United States

Did you know the Humane Society of the United States has changed their name?

No, that’s not a joke; it’s true.  

HSUS is now calling itself “Humane World for Animals”.  

See >> https://www.humaneworld.org/en/about-us.

By whatever name, the organization has always been a bit of a con job. How big a con job became evident to me when I was quoted in a cover story of their magazine.  

The article was entitled “The Pure Breed Paradox,” and the quote was fine and the article excellent, but it was odd…. HSUS claimed a membership of over 11 million people, but this article vanished into the ether like cigarette smoke on a rainy night.  

Surely *someone* had read it?

I tell the story here >> https://shorturl.at/ay40N , but the short version is that HSUS did not have 11 million members.  Or 5 million members.  Or 2 million members. Or 1 million members.  

It had less than 450,000 members.

That’s not lying by 2-3 times. That’s lying by 25-fold.

As I noted, “My best guess is that no more than one in ten people read the magazine's cover story -- 45,000 people or so.  No wonder that article made less noise than a penny thrown down a well!”

So why lie?  What's that all about?

Simple:  Lying is how the Humane Society of the U.S. claims unearned political power.

And now they’ve changed their name?

Why?

They do not offer much of an explanation, but I would suggest one:  to wash away a stench, the same reason a woman might revert to her married name after she divorces a narcissistic abuser.

In the case of the Humane Society of the US, there was (and is) the $15.75 million they paid to make a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) case about their direct mail shenanigans go away.  See >> https://shorturl.at/xxgmr

When caught lying about their direct mail, HSUS lied again, telling their donors the RICO settlement would be paid "by insurance," all the time knowing that too was a lie, as the insurance companies had cancelled HSUS's policy four years earlier, and would not pay.  

Then, there was the very awkward firing of their longtime, and very public CEO, Wayne Pacelle, in 2018 for rather shocking sexual harassment charges.  

As I noted at the time, “All of the money that new donors give to HSUS goes to finance more direct mail; direct mail only turns a ‘profit’ on renewal or upon response to the third or fourth ‘special appeal.’  Donate once, and you will be dunned forever.”  

Nonetheless, I noted, “HSUS keeps about $20 million in accounts in the Cayman Islands and pays CEO Wayne Pacelle over $380,000 a year -- money that mostly comes from senior citizens on fixed incomes. Almost no HSUS money actually goes to help dogs and cats in local shelters.” See >> https://tinyurl.com/3dry58th

The same year that HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle and Vice President Paul Shapiro were fired under the weight of sexual harassment charges, the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS) lost its accreditation with the Better Business Bureau’s charity-accreditation arm, the Wise Giving Alliance.

Charity Navigator had previously downgraded the Humane Society of the U.S. to just 2 stars out of 4, including just 1 star for financial metrics, an indication that the nonprofit wasted a great deal of money on nonproductive costs (such as direct mail).

Losing accreditation from the Better Business Bureau is remarkable in that the the BBB has very weak standards for charities, and is itself funded by fees paid by the the charities it accredits -- a clear conflict of interest.

Anyway, a new CEO by the slightly amusing name of Kitty Block took over in 2018, and I have not reported on any HSUS shenanigans since then.  

Which is perhaps not too surprising, as Ms. Block had herself sued HSUS for sexual harassment and financial impropriety more than 20 years earlier. 

She was coming in as a clean boot, and now it looks like part of her remaking of the organization is a rebranding.  

Ironically, the term “rebranding” originates with pushing hot metal “brands” into the hides of stolen cattle to alter the owner’s original brand.

New donors to the “Humane World for Animals” probably do not applaud that kind of practice. Never mind.  Let’s hope the organization just stays honest. Fingers crossed.

American Hero!

I just heard some guy tried to shoot a pedophile, a white supremacist, a Nazi, a guy who stole billions from US taxpayers, a guy who pardoned convicted terrorists and murderers, and a guy who pocketed billions of dollars from foreign governments hell-bent on harming this nation. 

CAPTAIN AMERICA LIVES!

Fire, Ready, Aim!

A very good painter I follow, over on Threads, posted this picture with the words:

“Just a reminder to spread far and wide, don’t support Jimmy John’s. The owner is a terrible person who kills helpless animals in Africa. 

“I hate these trophy hunters so very much.”

My response;

1.  That’s not Africa.

2.  I don’t hunt big game or know this man, but his African hunts were all legal, bringing huge sums to wildlife conservation.

3. This is a massive American Mule Deer, legally hunted in Utah, in November 2023. Tag price: $500,000 going to state conservation. A similar tag for Arizona was $725,000 which directly funds habitat improvements and wildlife management.

Hunters are vital to American and African conservation efforts. The folks on the ground actually working to conserve wildlife know this. 

Learn more.

▪️For example, Botswana is way over-capacity for elephants.  It can sell shoots for $50,000 an animal to fund conservation, or it can start a dog food factory.  See >> https://theecologist.org/2019/feb/27/killing-elephants-pet-food-condemned

▪️Hunting licenses are a major funder of the CAMPFIRE program in Zimbabwe, which is considered one of the most important and successful wildlife management initiatives in Africa.  See >> https://campfirezimbabwe.org

▪️The wildlife in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe is only there because of bore hole wells and water pans made by hunters in the 1930s.  It’s a fabulous park made by hunters and vital to world conservation.

I am a conservationist, not a big game hunter, but big game hunters create a market, and provide money, for conservation.

——————————

Will my comment change her mind?  

Not a chance.

Will it change yours (in either direction)?  

Probably not.

But did you go to the links and learn at least one or two new facts, ideas, caveats, or considerations?

That’s the best I ever hope for.

The Only Consulting Sheep Detective in the World

The movie comes out May 8th, but sadly it is not about a man hired to find out why sheep are dying.  

But wouldn’t that be a fun series?  

The fox was blamed, but it was actually dystocia.  The badger is blamed, but in fact the sheep tipped onto its back in a ditch and drowned. A rustler is suspected, but it’s just bad fencing. A Big Cat scare sweeps the countryside, but it’s just Rory’s lurcher who disappeared two months earlier. A field of 20 dead sheep is a riddle, but it turns out not to be lightning, but selenium poisoning caused by a jackleg country vet mixing supplements wrong.  I could write 50 of these, all with colorful local paranoids, poofs, and popinjays mixed in with doddering grannies, caravan-living travelers, hunters in new clothes, and tattooed and pierced sabs chasing each others tails.  A countryside comedy detective show with Nigel Throckmorton Jones — the only consulting Sheep Detective in the world — at its center.

Antibiotics for Working Dogs

Facebook’s algorithm just put this ad in my feed.

The market here is not just for fish.  As I noted some years back;

“Look through ‘pet and vet’ catalogues and you will see only dog and cat stuff, with the one exception being a page devoted to fish antibiotics.  Wink, wink.   ‘Labeled for fish use.’ Wink, wink.

“Note that this same catalogue has no aquarium heaters, aquarium hoods, automatic fish feeders, or fish food. The fish meds are not being sold to people with goldfish ponds, but to experienced dog men and women who have used fish antibiotics for decades to treat a wide array of common health problems, ranging from ear and urinary tract infections to barbed-wire rips.”

 

For a longer write-up on antibiotics for working dogs, see >> http://www.terrierman.com/antibiotics.htm 

This page contains information on antibiotic dosages by weight, dosing regimes, and other important information. Please follow the directions on this page, especially the advice on dosage and length of time to keep the dog on the antibiotic.  

Note:  The prices on this page are old.

No, I will not tell you where to order; use the Google.

Preparation for the Inevitable

 Grave or fallout shelter; it works either way.

His Mother Named Him Marmaduke?

Marmaduke Wetherell (1883–1939) was a British–South African actor, screenwriter, producer, film director and big-game hunter, as well as the fraudster responsible for the hoax "surgeon's photograph" of the Loch Ness Monster.

From Wikipedia:

“In the 1930s, Marmaduke went to Loch Ness to look for the Loch Ness Monster. Wetherell claimed to have found footprints, but when casts of the footprints were sent to scientists for analysis they turned out to be from a hippopotamus; a prankster had used a hippopotamus-foot umbrella stand. (There is strong evidence that Wetherell perpetrated the hoax himself) As a result, Wetherell was publicly ridiculed by his employer, the Daily Mail. To get revenge on the Mail, Wetherell perpetrated the hoax "surgeon's photograph" of the Loch Ness Monster with his son Ian (who bought the material for the fake and took the photos), son-in-law Christian Spurling (a sculpture specialist), and Maurice Chambers (an insurance agent), taking a picture of a toy submarine made of plastic wood and passing it off as the monster. Chambers gave the photographic plates to surgeon Robert Kenneth Wilson, a friend of his who enjoyed "a good practical joke". Wilson had the plates developed and sold the first photo to the Daily Mail; the Mail would then announce that the monster had been photographed. The photo had been described as a hoax as early as 1975, but this was not common knowledge among the general public until 1994.”

The White Rose

The White Rose was a non-violent, intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany which conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign that called for active opposition to the Nazi regime

Robert Plant :: Ramble On (Unplugged)

Bald Eagle Chicks Getting Big

We Have Barred Owls in the Nest Box!

While leveling the new bee hive stands, I saw a Barred Owl fly out of the owl box I built in late 2003, and which has been occupied continuously since then (2004-2006). 

I built the owl box the first year in this house, and while my tree guys were doing some big tree felling, they put it up on a french cleat I cut for that purpose (third picture).

I can see the owl box from the back deck and hot tub, but it’s inside the forest edge so the owls feel secure.  There’s a small pond a few hundred yards to the left, and a creek a few hundred yards to the right, and a fair-sized marsh about 500 yards away, with acorn-heavy tall oaks and some beech trees on about 400 acres of forest which is connected to farm lands.

Pews and Pencils

Yes, I hug trees.  I will hug anything that manufactures oxygen for free, and which provides shade and the fixings for pencils and pews as well.

Pity the Nation by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Pity the nation whose people are sheep, and whose shepherds mislead them.

Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,

and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.

Pity the nation that raises not its voice, except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.

Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own and no other culture but its own.

Pity the nation whose breath is money and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.

Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode and their freedoms to be washed away.

My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.

An American Cardinal

Tougher Than a Honey Badger

ON THIS DAY IN 1775, Samuel Whittemore was in his fields when he spotted an approaching British relief brigade under Earl Percy. Whittemore loaded his musket and ambushed the British Grenadiers of the 47th Regiment of Foot from behind a nearby stone wall, killing one soldier. He then drew his dueling pistols, killed a second grenadier and mortally wounded a third. By the time Whittemore had fired his third shot, a British detachment had reached his position; Whittemore drew his sword and attacked.

He was subsequently shot in the face, bayoneted numerous times, and left for dead in a pool of blood. He was found by colonial forces, trying to load his musket to resume the fight. He was taken to Dr. Cotton Tufts of Medford, who perceived no hope for his survival. 

However, Whittemore recovered and lived another 18 years.

More here >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Whittemore?

America Is Now a Terrorist State

Check this out:  SS Schutzstaffel meets Nazi Gestapo: 

▪️Web site >> https://hstf.gov

▪️Mother Jones article >> https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/04/homeland-security-task-force-new-website-sanitizes-trump-deportations-ai-big-balls/

This is what happens just before a country starts rounding up and disappearing its own citizens. 

Yes, that’s right; Stephen Miller has created his own government-funded paramilitary force. 

The massive detention facilities now being built, and the huge Homeland Security budget that accompanies it, are far too big for “criminal illegal aliens” alone.

Once built and staffed, those detention facilities will have to be filled to justify their continuing cost. 

Guess who they are going be filled with?  

Anyone with a conscience.

America is now a terrorist state ruled by a madman made possible by a cowardly and complicit Congress.

In the end, America was simply bought for cash and compromised with the most base and common kind of Kompromat. 

Pedophile rapist and money launderer Jeffery Epstein was (and is) a massive and long-running Israeli honey-pot operation using young girls (and some boys) to lure powerful economic and political players into compromising situations.  

The scheme destroyed Bill Gates’ marriage and Prince Andrew’s life. 

People all over the world have lost their jobs, their marriages, and are under investigation for criminal acts, but in the US, NOT ONE CHILD RAPIST has gone to jail.

Illegal sexual perversion compromises, but money paid to politicians has aways been a tried and true way to steer the ship of state.

Israel and Saudi Arabia paid cash and bought American lives with it, while reaping hundreds of billions of dollars in American military might and weapons sales for their investments.  

Was it a 100 to 1 return?  No, it’s been much higher than that.

The Gaza genocide is part of it, as so too is the Lebanon genocide and land theft.

And, of course, the Big Play was Iran, where American bombs are killing thousands of non-combatants, not only in Iran, but around the world as rising fertilizer, gasoline, and natural gas costs lead to rising prices, declining farm yields, anf lost lives.

And who benefits, other than the already named players?  

Why Russian and the big oil companies, of course. Both have pocketed many billions in new profits.  

And then there are the folks in Trump’s immediate orbit, who have made billions in pump-and-dump bets on oil and gas futures.  Trades have often been made minutes before Trump flips or flops on one issue or another.

America is now a terrorist state, and there is no reason for any country to ever trust us again.

I am not sure we were ever good, but the scale of the evil now in motion is truly unprecedented, as is the political cowardice.  

The press is not protecting us; they sweep most of it under the rug or work to normalize it.  

What does get through is mostly headlines — headlines that leave us numb and feeling helpless at the speed and scale of the corruption and cruelty sweeping the nation.

One third of the American people has always been brain-dead and absent from the voting booth, while another third appears to be nakedly racist, cruel, and cheerleaders for fascism and kleptocracy.  

I would not have thought the percentage was that high in the second group, but polls confirm it is.

Quo Vadis?  Where are we going?  

I do not know.

In the 19th-century, it was said four boxes defended American liberty; the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.

That last box —bullets — is looking more important every day.

Perhaps it’s time we turned around that threat on the “Homeland Security Task Force” web site.

?? We don’t negotiate. We dismantle.” ?? 

Right.

That’s a strap line the American people and the world need to embrace as regards the Trump Administration.  

And we need to do it, in the immortal words of Jean-Paul Sartre, Frantz Fanon, and Malcolm X, “By any means necessary.”

Signs of Covid Times

Back in 2020, I walked the local streets of downtown Frederick, Maryland to document the signs of that time.

In Maryland in 2020, we followed our sane Republican Governor, not the insane and morally bankrupt Trump who won through fraud and was cheering death while intentionally killing with abandon.