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URL: http://www.collegian.com/index.php/article/2010/02/yellow_tail_wine_company_turns_tail_on_hsus
Current Date: Wed, 16 May 2012 21:51:57 -0600
Yellow Tail wine company turns tail on HSUS
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Yellow Tail wine has redeemed itself.
Following its huge mistake in donating $100,000 to the Humane Society of the United States on Jan. 14, the business was heavily accosted from all sectors of the agriculture community in the U.S.
The firestorm that fell on Yellow Tail since its announcement of the donation has been nothing short of amazing, and the company has decided to abandon future donations.
“They have committed to in the future only supporting welfare organizations with a sole commitment to animal care,” said Kay Johnson Smith, Executive Vice President of the Animal Agriculture Alliance.
I know what some of you are thinking. What is wrong with this woman writing this column? Doesn’t she want to help the cute cats and dogs that need homes at the humane society? This answer is yes, I do. But HSUS is not the same as your local humane society.
In a blog posted March 30 by Wayne Pacelle, the leader of HSUS, he said, “We believe in the Three Rs — reducing the consumption of meat and other animal-based foods; refining the diet by eating products only from methods of production, transport and slaughter that minimize pain and distress; and replacing meat and other animal-based foods in the diet with plant-based foods.”
Does this sound like helping shelter animals? In case you didn’t know, HSUS was the group that funded Proposition 2 in California in 2008. While I agree animals used for production should be treated humanely, putting them on the same platform as humans is ridiculous. HSUS’ goal is not to help animals, but to eliminate animal agriculture completely.
It’s pathetic that companies like Yellow Tail failed to see the consequences of their actions before they took them. I hope they see the effects through decreased sales. If you really want to help animals, donate to your local humane society, not HSUS.
Pretty soon these movements will come to your home. It’s easy to think that won’t happen, but the trend is already starting. According to www.dogpolitics.com, “The efforts by PETA and HSUS to advance breed specific legislation are a betrayal of trust that so many give, and disservice to those desperately working so hard –– but worst of all, PETA & HSUS spell nothing but homelessness, fear and death for dogs that look a certain way.” Pet owners beware.
HSUS operated on a $91.5 million budget in 2007, and spent it’s money not helping animals, as the Tails for Tails program intended, but in pushing legislation, according to The Center for Consumer Freedom.
Pork Magazine’s article, Yellow Tail Wine Gets a Sour Taste said, “Analysis of their (HSUS’) 2008 tax return shows that only one-half of 1 percent of the group’s funds actually went towards caring for animals,” the Alliance told Yellow Tail officials. “While wanting to help animals is indeed a noble goal, we urge you to instead pledge your money to local shelters, which often are underfunded, but provide much-needed services to homeless pets.”
So why is this such a big deal for agricultural producers? HSUS and other animal rights groups (groups that aren’t there to help animals per se, but ones to further their own personal agendas) have made production in the U.S. increasingly difficult.
I agree there are many practices in animal agriculture that need to be re-evaluated. However, animal rights groups should not be the ones drafting legislation. The producers themselves should be.
According to Farm and Dairy, in an article titled The Three R’s of the HSUS Agenda, Susan Crowell writes, “Agriculture needs its own set of three R’s: research on best management practices that improve animal welfare and productivity; a revival of this country’s agrarian foundation; and a recommitment by farmers everywhere to practice sound livestock management, implement environmental protection measures and proudly speak out on their industry’s behalf.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Robyn Scherer is a senior animal science, agricultural business and journalism and technical communication major. Her column appears Fridays in the Collegian. Letters and feedback can be sent to letters@collegian.com.
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27 comments
Well done, Robyn.
Huge sigh. No one is trying to take away anybody’s farm, and the HSUS does not exist solely to help shelters. They also do outreach, education, training, emergency response and legislation against egregious cruelties like dogfighting, slaughtering downed cows for human consumption; and against animal cruelty, such as when somebody beats a puppy to death for piddling on the floor, like happened to Sire in Iowa, or when somebody steals a dog from the backyard of a loving home and beheads him, like happened to Rigsby in Texas, and on and on.
There’s more to helping animals than only running shelters. Of course, the author doesn’t even know the difference between “affect” and “effect, so how could she possibly understand simple concepts.
RE: Charlene
Throwing bricks in a glass house? Thought the same thing about your punctuation/quotation marks.
“It’s pathetic that companies like Yellow Tail failed to see the consequences of their actions before they took them.”
YES! It’s TOTALLY pathetic being unable to read the future! What an awful company.
Ms. Scherer is an agricultural business major. It is not the least bit surprising that she thinks it’s good to protect cats and dogs but not the animals that the agricultural industry exploits for profit. Why is it that it’s only reasonable to help shelter animals when billions of other animals suffer?
As a side note, it looks like Ms. Scherer could really benefit from a vegetarian diet.
“While I agree animals used for production should be treated humanely, putting them on the same platform as humans is ridiculous.”
Lord save us from human chauvinism. That human chauvinism is practiced by humans everywhere goes without saying. But that it should be so shamelessly – indeed, so unconsciously, so unthinkingly – presented as the only (“like, no-duh”) reasonable approach to the breadth of creation suggests that CSU remains a sadly provincial little corner of the world.
At the heart of every major religion, Christianity included, is an insistence that the universe is bigger than us and that all things partake in the divine.
Well, well, well……Robyn Scherer, you would do well to learn from an old saying, “A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.” What do your “really” know about the HSUS? Too bad you are living in your comfy collegiate atmosphere and are not out in the trenches while we are seizing dogs from dreaded puppy mills or neglected horses who are so starved they cannot walk, or financially supporting rescues of abused research animals. HSUS funds many of these seizures in case you do not know. If you were not so protected within the walls of CSU, a known and documented abuser of research animals, you might learn something about the “real” world. And leave off some of the steak and potatoes Robyn, even you can change.
tower of power
“As a side note, it looks like Ms. Scherer could really benefit from a vegetarian diet.”
Really Megan, did you think your little dig was necessary. I think you need to grow up a little.
Well said Robyn. It is ashamed that an organisation such as the HSUS has to stoop to such levels. The deceipt and the trail of corruption it has left for the last 15 plus years is just starting to surface. The HSUS is a humane society only in name. It’s core beliefs is that of true veganism, including the abolishment of all agriculture, the end to hunting and fishing, and the breeding practices of all pets.
As far as Megan’s childish comments, shame on you. If you have real meat proteins in your diet, your mind may have been under proper nurishment and would not have allowed you to make such a shameful statement.
Less than one-half of one percent of the $100 million HSUS raises goes to animal shelters.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/bowman/2010/02/new_watchdog_on_the_hsus.html.
Most people (including me until recently) think they’re related to local shleters, when they’re not. HSUS is PETA in a better suit and more expensive watch.
Love when the lowest common denominator (Charlene, Megan, f.venn, Big Jim) decides it’s best to attempt to assassinate character than actually provide rebuttal. The world apparently does suffer some fools.
PETA & HSUS are the same type of eco-nuts who break into a lab to release hundreds of test animals, only to find out the animals served as lambs for the slaughter of the real animals. Anyone else remember the two Exxon Valdez seals being eaten in Seattle immediately after their release? Comical.
I find people who believe animals are their peers deserve the fate of Tim Treadwell, who went from Grizzly Man to Grizzly Scat in just a few short hours.
News flash! Does anyone not see the hsus logo? It includes wolves, dolphins, bears, cows, pigs, cats and dogs… Personally I do not fly under the hsus banner… They are a welfarist organization. I don’t believe in bigger cages, but empty ones. Still, I find it repulsive that so called “enlightened people” would deny a creature THEY INTEND TO EAT the ability to lie down, turn around or stretch their limbs. And the idea of breeding yet more “designer” dogs while so many are killed in shelters is simply insane!
Greed and speciesism is the motive behind all animal agriculture. These are not “commodities” they are living beings whose lives matter to them EQUALLY as much as our lives matter to us.
www.nonviolenceunited.org/veganvideo.html
www.earthlings.com/
HSUS and PETA have very clear agendas. “Shame on those dog breeders” and “everyone should just get one from the shelter”- if there were no dog breeders, and everyone did go to shelters for pets, eventually there would be none. They want everything spayed and neutered- in case you don’t understand… this would eventually make all pets extinct. Instead they should solely focus on those that really are improperly breeding and raising. They also are against eating meat, and against farmers… Could any of you actually imagine a world without pets, or livestock… and could you even imagine what it would do to the economy and pricing for the purest of plant life to eat? You can be a grazer…But I will not! I am a proud dog fancier and a manager of a piglet nursury and am OVERJOYED to know that my baby pigs will be on the dinnerplate all over the world.
Robyn,
Great job! It’s scary that HSUS can fool so many well-meaning people into giving so many dollars! Being in the noble profession of animal agriculture myself, (and a CSU alum ’86) I see daily ignorance of the amazing capability and care shown by farmers and ranchers. It’s easy to stand back and throw mud at something without knowing anything about it. In HSUS’s case, they are not ignorant; rather deceptive and disingenuous in everything they do.
As for some of the previous derogatory comments about you; ignore them — when someone can’t argue facts, they must resort to personal attacks!
Keep up the GREAT work!
I’m sorry, but [Yellow Fail] has NOT redeemed themselves. I can appreciate that they have decided to put their monies in the right place in the future, but what they did is unforgivable in my book. I will continue to boycott their products. As the old saying goes, “ Screw me once, shame on you. Screw me twice, shame on ME”.
Sorry, but this article is indicative of the sloppy thinking that surrounds the issue of animal rights. With all due respect, Mrs. Scherer seems to think that animal rights are just about ‘cute cats and dogs’. The fact is that the meat industry, which the HSUS opposes, is appallingly cruel, denying animals their natural instincts to roam, often putting them in cramped, filthy conditions, as well as enacting painful slaughter methods.
“While I agree animals used for production should be treated humanely, putting them on the same platform as humans is ridiculous.”
How so? They feel pain just as much as we do. In this respect, they are certainly equal to us. If more organisations were like the HSUS and dealt with the real animal welfare issues, rather than the crowd-pleasing ones dealing with cute fluffy wikkle animals, then the world would be a much better and fairer place.
As a veterinarian, animal lover and activist against the H$U$ – I say great job!!!
We need more people willing to step up to the plate and expose unethical, deceptive, “charities” that are using propaganda of puppies and kittens to collect monies to use for their own agenda.
There are real organizations out there working hard to advance agricultural practices, rescue animals, and educate the public on animals around the world.
All one needs to do to start seeing the truth of the H$U$ is to look at their financial statements and the ‘rescues’ they didn’t do in the Michael Vick, Katrina, Haiti disasters. I am thankful that HumaneWatch started their web site to place the evidence in one location.
H$U$ needs to be clear about their agenda. At least PETA puts their money where their mouth is with their animal rights extremist views.
@ Joshua Wooderson In response to your statement: ‘Mrs. Scherer seems to think that animal rights are just about ‘cute cats and dogs’.
People often think that their focus is ‘cats and dogs’ because those are the ONLY animals included/mentioned in the HSUS’ own commercials! Perhaps if they didn’t perpetuate that thought themselves, and were more honest about their mission (lobbying, and changing the meat industry) they wouldn’t face some of these accusations?
I also feel that you should probably do some research on TYPICAL livestock animal care and slaughter practices. Hint: The videos shown on PETA and HSUS websites, while deplorable, are isolated cases. Furthermore, many of the current practices are in place because they serve to PROTECT the animals from themselves.
If HSUS had a hidden agenda, it’s goals of reducing/refining/replacing meat wouldn’t be posted on their blogs and websites. Their TV ads clearly state that they fight animal cruelty “wherever it exists,” and that includes slaughterhouses, like the one shown in the ads that show a “downer” cow being abused at a California slaughterhouse – footage from an HSUS investigation.
You’re already supporting your “local shelter” if you’re a taxpayer. Taxpayers are also heavily subsidizing the wealthy meat, egg and dairy industries, so we all should have a say in how animals are treated by those industries.
Ms. Scherer’s suggestion that “animal rights groups should not be the ones drafting legislation. The producers themselves should be,” is as absurd as allowing the auto industry to be left alone to draft car safety legislation. Perhaps she is too young to remember how hard the auto industry fought mandatory airbags.
The animal slaughter industry is now so oddly preoccupied with cats and dogs in “local” animal shelters. I’m surprised they’re not eating them and wearing their fur. Surely they couldn’t object if anyone did.
Ever want your worst day videoed and sent over the world? I didn’t think so. The videos that HSUS and PETA are so proud of never show the good. It does exisit and in greater quanties than the hundreds of hours that it took to get the one negative. These groups are very proud of thier propaganda. Do your own investigation of a local farm and see the quality that comes out from it.
I sure wish she mentioned just how many animals are euthinized by HSUS. Seems to me they kill more animals then any other. I guess as long as they do it nicely they are fine with it?
For anyone who thinks animals should be on the same level as humans they should look to the West and watch people starve and go broke because a 2” silver fish is more important then the thousands of families that are fed by the irrigation water. Now jus timagine how much money is wasted when lawyers start opening cases in the name of the lil fishies….thousands of humans will be out of a home and food but at least the lil fish will have room to play….
Robyn Scherer suggests in her column that the HSUS (an organization for which I work) wants to put animals on the same platform as humans. This is not true and it’s a red herring in what is a legitimate and relevant debate about farm animal practices such as the use of battery cages and gestation crates. Advocating for housing that allows laying hens, pregnant sows and veal calves enough room to stand up, turn around and extend their limbs is not equating farm animals with humans. It’s not equating them with pets. It’s simply recognizing that these animals deserve a decent life before they are served up on our plates. Profit and productivity must be balanced with animal welfare, something I think most farmers would agree with.
Half of one per cent of donations to animal welfare, but $2.5 million of donations to their own pension fund…
Their ultimate agenda is a vegan society, no animal husbandry at all, no hunting, no fishing, and NO PET OWNERSHIP.
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Jersey Cow Girl
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