NO TO HSUS AND MICHAEL VICK, NO TO WAYNE PACELLE

• - From Tangipahoa Parish, LA where he legitimized the unnecessary mass slaughter of shelter
  animals to Wilkes County, NC where he embraced the mass slaughter of dogs.
• - From San Francisco, CA where he fought shelter reform legislation which would have saved lives to the post-Katrina Gulf Coast, where he claimed %u201CMission Accomplished%u201D and left with tens of millions in HSUS bank accounts which belonged to the animals who continued to suffer.
• - From legitimizing a round up and kill campaign for cats in Randolph, IA to fear mongering over the bird flu by telling people not to help, feed, or touch stray cats but to call animal control when they see them, agencies with a history of mass slaughter, even as the World Health Organization was telling people cats posed no risk.
• - From New Orleans, LA after Hurricane Gustav where he fundraised off the largest evacuation of  animals in U.S. history conducted by a rescue group by falsely claiming it was an HSUS effort, to Virginia where he demanded that the Vick dogs be killed only to fundraise off of them by telling donors that they were caring for them, when they were not.

Given a history of anti-animal positions he has taken, it would seem unlikely that Pacelle
could choose to do anything that would still have the power to shock us. But I must admit that Pacelle stunned me with how truly low and vile he has sunk with his latest scandal:
helping Michael Vick%u2014the most notorious animal abuser of our time%u2014reform his image.
On hearing the news of Pacelle%u2019s embrace of Vick, Bad Rap, one of the groups who helped care
for Vick%u2019s victims, responded:

I just can%u2019t get myself away from the swimming pool in Vick%u2019s yard. I first learned about it while riding in the back seat of a federal agent%u2019s car that sweltering Tuesday back in Sept 07. The agent was assigned with escorting us to the various Virginia shelters so we could evaluate %u201Cthe evidence%u201D otherwise known as 49 pit bulls - now known as cherished family pets: Hector, Uba, Jhumpa, Georgia, Sweet Jasmine and the rest.
I%u2019m not sure if sharing insider information with us was kosher, but you know how driving down long country roads can get you talking. I imagine she just needed to get some things off her chest. She said she was having trouble sleeping since the day they exhumed the bodies on
the Moonlight Road property. She said that when she watched the investigators uncover the shallow graves, she was compelled to want to climb in and pick up the decomposing dogs and comfort and cradle them. She knew that was crazy talk, and she was grappling with trying to understand such a surprising impulse.

Her candor set the tone for this entire saga. Everyone we worked with was deeply affected by the case. The details that got to me then and stay with me today involve the swimming pool that was used to kill some of the dogs. Jumper cables were clipped onto the ears of underperforming dogs, then, just like with a car, the cables were connected to the terminals of car batteries before lifting and tossing the shamed dogs into the water. Most of Vick%u2019s dogs were small - 40lbs or so - so tossing them in would%u2019ve been fast and easy work for thick athlete arms. We don%u2019t know how many suffered this premeditated murder, but the damage to the pool walls tells a story. It seems that while they were scrambling to escape, they scratched and clawed at the pool liner and bit at the dented aluminum sides like a hungry dog on a tin can.

I wear some pretty thick skin during our work with dogs, but I can%u2019t shake my minds-eye image of a little black dog splashing frantically in bloody water %u2026 screaming in pain and terror %u2026 brown eyes saucer wide and tiny black white-toed feet clawing at anything, desperate to get a hold. This death did not come quickly. The rescuer in me keeps trying to think of a way to go back in time and somehow stop this torture and pull the little dog to safety. I think I%u2019ll be looking for ways to pull that dog out for the rest of my life.

So that%u2019s where I%u2019m at. A second chance for Vick? An HSUS sponsored spokesman for ending torture? In my mind%u2019s eye Vick is still in the shadows at the side of that pool. As many times as this scene plays out my head, he hasn%u2019t yet moved towards that dog to pull him out. Not there yet.

Even PETA, a butcher of a different sort, finally got it right:

To clarify misleading stories regarding PETA and Michael Vick, PETA withdrew its offer to do a TV spot with Michael Vick last winter when a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report on Vick%u2019s dog fighting activities revealed that he enjoyed placing family pets in the ring with fighting pit bulls and that he laughed as dogs ripped each other apart. PETA believes that this revelation, along with other factors in the report, fit the established profile for anti-social personality disorder (APD), and we called on Vick to have a brain scan to help confirm this. People diagnosed with APD are commonly referred to as %u201Cpsychopaths.%u201D They are usually male, prone to lying and manipulation, often take pleasure in cruelty, and cannot feel genuine remorse, which frequently leads to recidivism. PETA had previously been in talks with Vick%u2019s management, public relations, and legal teams about shooting a public service announcement to help combat dog fighting, upon Vick%u2019s release from prison. In December, after consulting with psychiatrists, PETA withdrew the offer for the TV spot, and in January, we called on NFL Commissioner Goodell to require that Vick undergo a brain scan and full psychological evaluation before any decisions were made about the future of his football career.

Everything to Lose
When the Vick case occurred, the entire nation was horrified. The public%u2019s outrage was unequivocal. This was the correct response, and a symbol of just how much people love dogs. But Pacelle, the leader of the nation%u2019s largest animal protection group, is asking people to question that outrage and response. His actions threaten to paint a sympathetic portrait of Vick, despite Vick%u2019s true one-dimensional nature as a sadist who takes pleasure in torturing and killing dogs. Ultimately, the lesson this embrace of Vick imparts is that the brutal abuse, torture, and killing of dogs is forgivable. That they are only dogs. That the public%u2019s response to the Vick horror was misplaced and overblown.

In the end, Pacelle is helping Vick create a false image of himself as %u201Creformed%u201D so he can play in the National Football League again; to avoid the consequences of his actions by getting back the most important thing he cares about%u2014even as he took away from many dogs the thing that mattered most to them: their very lives.
After the depths of Vick%u2019s depravity were fully revealed, the punishment was swift and
severe, as it should have been. He was banned from the NFL. He was convicted by the federal courts. He was sent to prison. He was bankrupted. He was despised by the American public. Now, Wayne Pacelle is asking us to sacrifice this precedent. After all, if the head of HSUS is willing to forgive, why shouldn%u2019t the public and the NFL?

Are we really willing to lower the bar on how our society should react to such blatant animal
cruelty in order to help a vicious animal killer? What could we possibly stand to gain that would be worth undoing that? Are we really that gullible that we believe Vick can actually
influence people not to fight dogs? Are we really going to believe that a PSA or neighborhood talk is going to make people who enjoy watching dogs tear each other apart suddenly have a change of heart? Even if there were a small chance that this was so, without integrity, the %u201Clesson%u201D he is supposed to impart will fail. And it is no surprise that Pacelle can%u2019t anticipate this because he himself appears to lack sincerity for the cause.

So we are left with the question of whether we are really going to accept a few meaningless PSAs and public appearances for an end to the permanent, righteous consequences that Vick must endure by remaining reviled as a monster; by never being reinstated in the NFL; by remaining bankrupt so he cannot afford to rebuild the %u201CBad Newz Kennels.%u201D

Working to dissipate the righteous anger, working to remove the consequences of Vick%u2019s
actions, Pacelle is opening a new chapter to a story that already had the best of possible endings our movement could have hoped for: When Vick was caught torturing innocent animals for sadistic enjoyment, he received a permanent and lasting punishment. He lost his freedom, he lost his career, he lost his money, he lost his reputation, he lost virtually everything. That is exactly how the story should stay ended. And Pacelle%u2019s actions threaten to undo it all.

Nothing to Gain
In the process, Pacelle is helping undermine that which we achieved%u2014showing dog fighters the high cost of punishment; sending the message that dog fighting is unforgiveable and will be met with swift, complete, and permanent recrimination.

To embrace Pacelle%u2019s position, we have to believe that Vick has become a repentant animal abuser who now wants to help dogs. To justify all that we stand to lose as a movement%u2014all the dogs stand to lose%u2014we have to believe that Vick holds the key to ending the scourge of dog fighting. It would be foolish and naïve to do so.

Vick could not care less about stopping or preventing dog fighting. Vick did not have a cathartic realization he was wrong. This isn%u2019t some soul searching effort to make amends. He got caught, pure and simple. Even his guilty plea was not a sincere admission of guilt but a strategic decision (given the overwhelming evidence and a certain conviction) to avoid federal sentencing guidelines which would have locked him away for far longer if he did not plead guilty. And even while he was pleading guilty, he denied killing dogs. Had he not been caught, Vick would be torturing and killing dogs, and taking great amusement in it, to this very day.
Our work is about protecting animals, not embracing their abusers. And because our movement stands to gain nothing by this association, Pacelle is asking us to sacrifice the former for the latter. And in so doing, he is undermining our movement. Tragically, it is not the first time.

Finding Our Voice
Through HSUS, Pacelle has:

• - Participated in the slaughter of some 150 dogs, including puppies, in Wilkes County;
• - Lobbied to stop No Kill legislation in San Francisco;
• - Lobbied to stop No Kill legislation in King County, WA;
• - Supported breed discriminatory legislation in Indianapolis, IN;
• - Told USA Today and Newsweek that killing in shelters is acceptable and that No Kill was warehousing;
• Misled the public about an epidemic of dog bites to convey the view that trying to save Pit Bulls was irresponsible and put children at risk;
• - Told the court to kill Vick%u2019s victims even as he was asking people to give HSUS money so he could %u201Ccare%u201D for them;
• - Left New Orleans with tens of millions given to HSUS for the victims of Hurricane Katrina even while those animals were still suffering;
• - Legitimized the slaughter of virtually every animal at Tangipahoa Parish animal control;
• - Told people not to adopt animals during the holidays, effectively accepting the deaths of 1,000,000 animals as the alternative;
• - Told the Randolph, IA community that he did not have a problem killing stray cats.

And now this. This unconscionable, abhorrent, and vile embrace of a sadist who takes pleasure in the torture and killing of dogs. This movement has been too forgiving of Pacelle. Time and time again he has acted in a way that is the antithesis of what the leader of an animal protection movement is supposed to do. Still, activists in this movement fail to condemn him, even as he now asks us to embrace the most notorious animal abuser of our time. To be equally forgiving of that monster, as we have been of him.

- Can anyone imagine the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence embracing wife killer O.J. Simpson to help him regain his image?

- Can anyone imagine the National Organization to Prevent Sexual Abuse of Children embracing pedophile John Geoghan to help him regain his image?

- Can anyone imagine the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network embracing rapist Josef Fritzl to help him regain his image?

It is unthinkable.

And yet we in the animal movement, under Pacelle%u2019s direction, are threatening to do this very thing, to having our movement embrace our version of Simpson, Geoghan, and Fritzl as a spokesman.

It is beyond obscene. It is unthinkable.

When someone tells and shows us over and over who they are and what they stand for, we should believe them. No one can doubt that Vick is a monster. But sadly, despite the heartfelt pain expressed so eloquently about the dogs drowning in Vick%u2019s backyard while he sadistically enjoyed himself, even Bad Rap, who deserves nothing less than unbridled accolades over their role in saving some of those poor dogs, refuses to see and condemn Pacelle for who and what he is. That is our movement%u2019s own myopia. Just because Pacelle claims to value animals and he works for an organization with %u201Chumane%u201D in its name doesn%u2019t mean either is true. His actions time and again belie both claims. Which is why Bad Rap%u2019s conclusion about Pacelle%u2019s decision to embrace Vick as a spokesman that they are %u201Cnot there yet%u201D is not enough. None of us should ever be there. Ever.

If the dogs Vick tortured and Pacelle lobbied to have killed by the court could speak on their own behalf, their condemnation would be unequivocal. As they cannot, it is our solemn duty to do it on their behalf. And it is a trust we must not betray in deference to the power and position of those in our movement who abuse that power and betray our cause. As with any social justice movement, progress requires us to courageously defend what is right, even when doing so places us at odds with those in positions of power. We must put our allegiances to our ideals above allegiance to personalities and institutions.

And this compels us to expose, reject, and condemn those in our midst who masquerade as leaders, such as Wayne Pacelle, but who use that power to willfully undermine our goals.
It is time for Pacelle to resign. It is time for him to leave us, and the animals, alone.
%u2666
For further reading:
- Rejecting the Consensus of Killing
- Same as it Ever Was
- Fear Mongering at HSUS
- Saving Pit Bulls from HSUS, PETA, and Michael Vick
- Will the Real Wayne Pacelle Please Stand Up?
- The Real Wayne Pacelle Legacy
- The Real Wayne Pacelle Legacy Part II
- Desperately Seeking Wayne Pacelle
- You%u2019re Doin%u2019 a Heckuva Job Wayney
- Long Day%u2019s Journey into Night
- %u201CGetting Away with Murder%u201D at Tangipahoa
- Dubious Deals at HSUS
- HSUS Says No to Holiday Adoptions
- The Death of Hope at HSUS
- HSUS Defends Wilkes County Massacre
- Wayne Pacelle Under Siege
- Its Déjà vu All Over Again
- Las Vegas, Round 3
- HSUS Supports Breed Discriminatory Legislation in Indianapolis

All of them are available by clicking here. Read them as an indictment against Pacelle. And then decide for yourself.