HSUS Howls for Attention

By Teresa Platt, Executive Director, FCUSA

THE HUMANE SOCIETY of the United States has launched its Christmas '98 fundraising with a "Fur Free 2000" theme, incorporating cybercasts on the web, multiple press releases from various animal rights organizations and a full court push for legislation and trade bans. A focal point of the campaign is video of a dog being burned with a blow torch while, it appears, the animal is alive. Oddly enough, after the animal's hide has been burned with the blow torch, HSUS insists the fur is used for garments. HSUS claims animals are skinned alive, although one wonders why anyone would attempt to skin a live, struggling, howling animal.

Each year in the US, a country of 250 million people, our shelters put down some 8 million domestic and feral dogs and cats(1) (with no support from HSUS, despite its $40 million budget). HSUS guesstimates that China, with about 2.5 billion people (or ten times the US), puts down 2 million dogs and cats annually (although other estimates put the number at about 200,000).(1) The Chinese and some other Asians use the fur and meat from any take of feral or wild dogs and cats and sell it in markets where the practice is culturally accepted. Obviously, the US is not such a place.

Meanwhile, back in the United States, HSUS found inexpensive made-in-China coats with fur trim. According to HSUS, DNA testing revealed the fur, or hair, had come from domesticated dog, although DNA testing will only prove that the fur came from a member of the canine family, "dog". What kind of dog - domestic, feral or wild - was up to speculation, since any canine would give a positive DNA reading for canine. We asked HSUS for info on their DNA testing but they declined to share.

HSUS began connecting far-flung dots, insisting that products made from domesticated dogs and cats are making their way, mislabeled, onto the US market. The attacked distributor donated $100,000 to HSUS to push legislation for more restrictive labeling. The snowball started to roll with another animal rights group calling for a boycott of all Chinese goods.

But back to the video: where exactly was this dog skinned alive, by whom and can we get full depositions from the film crew and the complete, unedited tape?

NOTE:

(1) See Are there too many dogs and cats? Analysis of US pet ownership, including how many dogs and cats euthanized each year in shelters; by Norma Bennett Woolf; outside link to the National Animal Interest Alliance.

See also:
Saving Society from Animal Snuff Films FCUSA commentary, Dec. 15, 1998.

Teresa Platt is the executive director of Fur Commission USA which represents US-based fur farming families. She serves on the board of the Portland-Oregon based National Animal Interest Alliance and as secretary of Alliance for America, groups working to restore people and common sense to the environmental equation. Fur Commission USA, 826 Orange Avenue, #506, Coronado, CA 92118 USA, (619) 575-0139, (619) 575-5578/fax, furfarmers@aol.com, www.furcommission.com.
 
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