American Veterinary Medical Association Rises to HSUS Baiting

FUR COMMISSION USA COMMENTARY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2009

American Veterinary Medical Association Rises to HSUS Baiting

By Simon Ward, Communications Director, FCUSA

(Update, Jan. 6, 2010: FASS shares AVMA’s concerns regarding Pew report on industrial farm animal production. Federation of Animal Science Societies press release.)

Until now, the American Veterinary Medical Association has handled disagreements with the Humane Society of the US in a cool, calm and collected manner. That all changed when HSUS set up a rival organization, promoting it with accusations of dereliction of duty by the AVMA.

Now the gloves are off, and HSUS may rue the day it took on the giant of America’s veterinary profession.

It all began in January 2008, when HSUS and the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights joined forces, launching the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association (hsVma). Stated HSUS president Wayne Pacelle in a provocative press release, “All too often, the AVMA sides with animal-use industries, and not with animals. … The [hsVma] will be a voice for the vast majority of veterinarians not in the employ of industries that do harm to animals.”

In a simultaneous posting on his blog, Pacelle was even more insulting. He accused the AVMA of taking “positions at odds with animal welfare” and called it “an impediment to social progress for animals.”

Ouch! Would the AVMA really stand for such bad-mouthing?

Controversial report

Shortly after, in April 2008, the Pew Commission published its controversial report, Putting meat on the table: Industrial farm animal production in America.

Its authors, with HSUS cheering them on (Pew’s Joshua Reichert sits on HSUS’s board), began using the report in Washington, DC to promote their recommendations about what they saw as excessive and unnecessary use of antimicrobials and antibiotics in food production.

Most of the ag sector was aghast, and the AVMA voiced their fears in a scathing review. “Both in substance and in approach … the Pew report contains significant flaws and major dalliances from both science and reality,” it said. “These missteps lead to dangerous and under-informed recommendations about the nature of our food system – and shocking recommendations for interventions that are scarcely commensurate with risk.

“The report is, in many ways, a prolonged narrative designed to romanticize the small, independent farmer, while vilifying larger operations, based simply upon their size.”

Pacelle to the rescue

Although AVMA’s criticisms were not directed at HSUS, Pacelle took the opportunity to sling yet more insults. In an August 2009 blog entitled “AVMA off course from veterinarian’s oath”, he praised the Pew report for expressing “support for a variety of important reforms in the realm of industrial agriculture, including federal legislation to end the widespread, routine use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics on factory farms.”

But on the AVMA he wrote, “it’s startling when we have to call out groups that should stand in the forefront of animal protection but are part of the problem when it comes to the mistreatment of animals. That is, sadly, the case with the AVMA.”

And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“Tugging on people’s heartstrings to raise money is easy,” stated AVMA CEO Dr. Ron DeHaven. “Finding real solutions to animal welfare concerns, and the challenges that go with them, is not easy. HSUS certainly excels at the former, but the AVMA continues to focus our energies and our resources on the latter – on finding legitimate solutions to these complex problems.”

In an interview with Drovers News, he was even more outspoken – some might say, sinking to Pacelle’s level.

“Obviously, HSUS is frustrated that they are not controlling AVMA, so therefore they are slinging as much mud as they can, and using this opportunity to bolster their [hsVma] and other groups.”

So who, as a lay person, are you going to believe? The AVMA, established in 1863, represents some 78,000 vets, or 85% of all vets working in the US. Its upstart rival the hsVma, meanwhile, has at most a few thousand, most of whom likely joined just to keep abreast of what HSUS is doing.

HSUS has really done animal ag a favor. Time was the AVMA went quietly about its work, providing invaluable recommendations on how to run our farms better. With Pacelle’s incessant baiting, it has become a powerful voice in the war against those who would shut down animal ag entirely.

Note:

(1) Links to all sources can be found at FCUSA’s HSUS Resource Center.

See also:

Science or politics? European Commission receives controversial fur-farming report. FCUSA commentary, Mar. 18, 2002.

A domino too far; UK government tells animal rightists “Enough is enough” FCUSA commentary on fur farming ban, fox hunting, and campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences, Apr. 12, 2001.