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"Hi, I'm Dr. Ron DeHaven, chief executive officer at the American Veterinary Medical Association. I'd like to take a few minutes to respond to recent statements from Wayne Pacelle, who is the president and chief executive officer of the Humane Society of the United States. Mr. Pacelle was highly critical of the AVMA in his recent statements.

When you don't have all of the expertise at your fingertips, the results can be inaccurate statements. It is certainly easier to mislead with a sound bite than it is to inform with the facts. Unfortunately, it appears to us that Mr. Pacelle has fallen into both traps in his most recent comments about the AVMA and our approach to animal welfare concerns.

Mr. Pacelle's statements regarding the AVMA positions and our approach to downed livestock, as well as our position with regard to induced molting in poultry, are simply not based in fact, and we won't belabor those points. His horse slaughter example, however, serves to illustrate some important differences between our two organizations. In contrast to what Mr. Pacelle has suggested, the AVMA is not 'pro' horse slaughter. Rather, our membership includes equine veterinarians who, day-in and day-out, are forced to personally confront the realities of large populations of unwanted horses around this country. These veterinarians understand when an option for humane killing of horses is taken away, and replaced with simply abandoning these horses and allowing them to starve to death. Such are the realities that we knew would come about and had been made even worse by the current economic situation. Open the paper today in any area where horses are kept and you will quickly understand why knee-jerk responses to animal welfare concerns, such as the position taken by HSUS on horse slaughter, are not in the best interest of animals.

Tugging on people's heartstrings to raise money is easy. 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.

Mr. Pacelle is ignoring the legitimate concerns and perspectives and expertise of legitimate animal welfare scientists and veterinary experts, and he is misleading the public to further his own organization's agenda. If Mr. Pacelle truly cared about the welfare of animals, he would not be so quick to criticize and minimize the expertise of veterinarians.

Veterinarians choose their career because they care about animals. At the same time, we understand that, when it comes to animal welfare and the complex issues associated with them, a knee-jerk response based solely on emotion, and ignoring all of the relevant science, might not be in the best interest of the animals.

Thank you for joining me."

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