HumaneWatch.org, a project of the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom, applaudes the Midwestern Legislative Conference of the Council of State Governments for passing a resolution calling on 11 state attorneys general to investigate the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), an organization that, despite its name, does not run a single pet shelter yet raises nearly $100 million a year off of ads full of dogs and cats.

Instead, the money funds a PETA-like political agenda to attack farmers, hunters and businesses that use animals.

A copy of the resolution can be found here (PDF, 192KB). The states covered are North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.

The Oklahoma attorney general has an active investigation into HSUS’s fundraising and has issued a “consumer alert” to the public; meanwhile, six Indiana state senators recently called on Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller to investigate HSUS. Charity Navigator, the nation’s largest charity evaluator, issued a “donor advisory” against HSUS last year, after HSUS settled a racketeering and bribery lawsuit for nearly $6 million.

Despite calling itself a humane society, HSUS only gives 1 percent of its money to pet shelters and is not affiliated with the numerous local humane societies across America.

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According to Will Coggin, director of research for the Center for Consumer Freedom, “The Humane Society of the United States deceives compassionate Americans – primarily women and the elderly – into opening their checkbooks to fund its radical agenda. PETA is honest in its radical vision to rid America of ice cream and cheese, but HSUS is not. Raising money on cats and dogs and spending it attacking farmers is a bait-and-switch that attorneys general need to investigate and hold HSUS accountable for.”

Far from an animal welfare group, HSUS is an animal “liberation” group with similar goals to PETA. HSUS’s food policy director has compared farms to Nazi concentration camps; HSUS’s chief policy officer has defended the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), an FBI-designated domestic terrorist group; and HSUS employs a former spokesperson for the terror group.

“Animal welfare has bipartisan support,” Coggin notes. “So does a growing movement to investigate and hold accountable the Humane Society of the United States for not only harming America’s hard-working farmers, but also harming animal-loving donors and local humane societies that may not see a dime of the money that’s intended for them.” PD

—From Center for Consumer Freedom news release