Humane Society of the United States

A favorite of Red Room authors John Kelin, Clinton Fein, Dorene O'Brien, Peter Meech, Lian Frost, Maggie Bishop, Julie Anne Long, Katherine A. Briccetti, Patti Lawson, Con Lehane, Stacy Nyikos, John V. Wood, Skyla Dawn Cameron, Kelly McCullough, Laraine Herring, Kelli Stanley, Barri L. Bumgarner, Christopher W. Gortner, and Nicole Aloni.

CEO and President: Wayne Pacelle
Humane Society

Year founded: 1954

Mission: HSUS, the Humane Society of the United States,is the nation's largest and most effective animal-protection organization. It seeks a humane and sustainable world for all animals—a world that will also benefit people.

Accomplishments:

  • Enrolled ten million members in the United States
  • Rescued more than one thousand puppies from illegal puppy mills in Maine and Texas in 2007
  • During California's 2007 wildfires, rescued more than one thousand animals-dogs, cats, horses, goats, and others
  • Enlisted more than 175 colleges and universities in its cage-free campus campaign to stop using eggs from caged hens
  • Gotten the support of more than one thousand restaurants and food businesses and 300,000 individuals to boycott Canadian seafood to protest Canada's hunt of Arctic harp seals
  • Launched in 2007 a five-year, multimillion dollar contraception project to humanely control the numbers of wild horses in the West as an alternative to costly and cruel round-ups

Profile: HSUS celebrates pets, as well as wildlife and habitat protection. It is the nation's most important advocate for local humane societies, providing shelter standards and evaluations, training programs, direct support, and national conferences. It is building a Humane Wildlife Services program to provide homeowners and businesses with humane and effective solutions to conflicts with wild animals.

The organizations confronts national and global cruelties through major campaigns targeting the barbaric practices of dogfighting and cockfighting; the worst cruelties of factory farming in modern agribusiness; inhumane and unsporting hunting practices such as "canned hunts" of captive exotic animals; the slaughter of American horses for export to foreign countries where horsemeat is considered a delicacy; and the clubbing of animals for the commercial fur trade. HSUS's track record of effectiveness has led to meaningful victories for animals in Congress, state legislatures, courtrooms, and corporate boardrooms.

To make a donation, please visit the organization's website.

–Huntington W. Sharp, Editor, Homepage & Special Projects, Red Room

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