It's the middle 80% that matters most

Let this be clear: There exists in this country a movement with the stated intent of putting farmers and meat producers out of business, and it is led by HSUS. As I explained to the group, HSUS is different from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and Mercy For Animals. I like to describe it this way: PETA is the Johnny Knoxville of the movement, content to hire Pam Anderson to wear lettuce bikinis to protest meat consumption or to get other beautiful women to go nude to protest fur. Mercy for Animals, on the other hand, is the suicide bomber of the group, so fanatical in its zeal for the movement that it will stop at nothing to run us out of business. HSUS is the brains and the checkbook of the animal rights industry. Rather than spend its hundreds of millions on cheap parlor tricks or potentially illegal undercover video operations, HSUS has invested in a political and lobbying machine that rivals any in the country. After mastering the art of the ballot measure with Proposition 2 in California, HSUS moved into the arena of political brinksmanship with the "Ohio Compromise," and now, it is graduating into congressional manipulation with the advent of its much ballyhooed co-opting of the United Egg Producers earlier this month. Wayne Pacelle, the chief lobbyist and spokesmodel of HSUS, has created a massive fund-raising machine with a war chest that can bully almost any agricultural organization the group decides to take on -- and, scarily, with the means to rent a congressman or two from time to time. Will HSUS's efforts to manhandle the federal government pay dividends? I suppose only time will tell. My point at the moment is that if we are to keep this group from setting federal policy that dictates how we raise food animals in this country, we cannot allow our friends and neighbors to remain ignorant about who HSUS is and what it is capable of...more