Berman’s Smear During the Oscars Backfires
Among other successes, The HSUS has made malicious animal cruelty a felony in every state, and we’ve upgraded the federal law against animal fighting four times since 2002. Photo by Larry French/AP Images for The HSUS
Rick Berman just helped us raise an additional $1 million for The HSUS’s campaigns against factory farms, puppy mills, and seal killing.
Yes, the lobbyist and public relations operative who has specialized in taking money from animal-abuse industries and tried to smear The HSUS has done exactly the opposite of what his funders intended. They want to dry up our support – not swell it, but it’s not worked out according to their plans.
Last night, Berman ran a television advertisement about The HSUS on behalf of one of his phony front groups in a few markets for what likely cost tens of thousands of dollars, setting up a straw-man argument that The HSUS should be giving all of its money to animal shelters instead of spending it to help all animals.
Well, after hearing from quite a few supporters last night who donated as a result of the ad, this morning I took a call from one of our supporters who said she’s going to give us an additional $1 million to fight this guy and to put more resources into the domains of animal abuse where Berman draws his support.
Touché. And then some.
We’re going to get right to work and double down on several of our major campaigns against the confinement hog industry and against the puppy mill crowd – two areas where Berman devotes his time to trying to thwart our progress.
I reported last week that despite Berman’s decade-long campaign against The HSUS, we had an increase in revenues of $6 million from 2014 to 2015. Well, with this latest infusion of funds, we’re off to a good start in 2016.
The HSUS has always been about helping all animals – dogs, cats, horses, farm animals, chimpanzees, lions, seals, and every other kind of creature at risk of human exploitation. The HSUS and its affiliates are the number one provider of animal care among animal organizations (171,000 animals helped in 2015), but we are also the nation’s leading advocate for animals – fighting to prevent abuse by changing policies and finding solutions throughout the economy.
Thanks to the generosity and volunteerism of so many of our supporters and partners, we’ve amassed an incredible track record.
- We are ending the era of extreme confinement of laying hens, breeding sows, and veal calves on factory farms. We’ve passed ballot measures and bills around the nation and we’ve announced 100 major agreements with food retailers to change their procurement practices.
- We’ve made malicious animal cruelty a felony in every state. We’ve outlawed cockfighting in every state. And we’ve upgraded the federal law against animal fighting four times since 2002.
- We’ve nearly finished off Canada’s ghastly commercial seal hunt, dropping the kill numbers by 90 percent since we started our campaign a decade ago.
- We’ve ended the era of invasive experiments on chimpanzees. And we are on our way toward ending cosmetic testing on animals throughout the world.
To you and others who care about animals, each of those achievements is a triumph. To animal abusers, it’s a source of fear and frustration.
Whenever we take on enemy fire, we don’t run in the opposite direction. Instead, we run to the front lines.
That’s a message that our adversaries can take to the bank.
Maybe Berman could’ve put the money HE spent on these ads to help shelters…
Great idea!
It wasn’t his money…..it was his clients. Even worse!
I’ll bet Berman kept a large share of the money for himself.
Well done!
Okay, we need to send Rick a “thank-you” note and a dozen roses to that smart, kind lady!
This just warms my heart. I support the HSUS monthly and this story is why.
You go!
Kudos to this generous donor. And a round of applause to HSUS and their work trying to make this a more humane world. I hope it helps eliminate all the Rick Bermans of the world.
What have you done, or tried to do for the mustangs?
It is frightening to think of the blind hatefulness and greed that rot out Rick Berman’s mind. I can’t thank the good people of The HSUS and all their supporters enough for fighting for truth and compassion; think of the horror if people like Berman had no one to stand up to them. And thank you, Wayne, for keeping us strong with those wonderful, inspiring words that promise that we will never run from the fight, that we will run towards it.
And I have to say a special thank you to the generous donor who gave us all even more reason to put our words of support into action.
So sad that resources that could benefit animals are squandered on self-seeking diatribes. In my review of this HumaneWatch organization two things were loud and clear. They are a hateful group who do not like anyone advocating for the humane treatment of farm animals, and they are gun and violence oriented – lots of this kind of talk and advertising in sites linked to them. So sad.
WOO-HOO!! Way to go!!! This may be the only good news I read today, but it’s certainly worth it.
I have been a long time donor to HSUS. I truly saddens me that someone has to besmirch the work of this amazing organization.
Thank you for keeping us up to date. Wonderful news on all the progress. Its amazing how much was accomplished last year and no doubt will continue.
Cheers to HSUS and waving a finger at Humane Watch supporters.
Hahaha… go get ’em Wayne and HSUS…Dr. Evil is going down!!!!!
I live in Southern California and am a HSUS donor. Today, March 5th, I received a card in the mail from an organization called “CORE” with a Washington D.C. address. It states that “The Humane Society of the United States raised over $100 million but gave almost none of that to pet shelters in California!” On the opposite side it makes negative, hateful comments about the HSUs, including that “HSUS regularly contributes more to its own pension plan than it does to pet shelters.” I would be interested in knowing if others in different states received a similar mailing specific to their location. I figured it was from a Berman-fronted group.
I am in Idaho and just received the same mailing that Linda Matthews received. If you google CORE, it takes you to a terrible website that trashes animal and environmental activism. HSUS has got to get ahead of this and inform their members and supporters that these mailings are from an organization that is manipulating facts to injure HSUS, and other animal welfare efforts. Not everyone will see through the disgusting misuse of information, so HSUS please email your supporters and donors to tell them this is happening.