Alliance Reaches Out to Yellow Tail
Note:
After coordinating with agricultural stakeholders, the Alliance drafted the following letter, which was hand-delivered to [yellow tail] director John Casella on February 10, 2010. The Alliance will provide updates about the status of the donation.
John Casella
Managing Director
Casella Wines
Dear Mr. Casella:
The Animal Agriculture Alliance is dismayed by your decision to donate $100,000 to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), a group that is not affiliated with local animal shelters and instead uses its considerable budget to threaten America's hardworking farmers and ranchers. Over the last week, hundreds of farmers, ranchers, hunters, and pet lovers have urged you to reconsider your choice to fund HSUS, an animal rights organization, because of its numerous campaigns against animal agriculture and other animal industries. While wanting to help animals is indeed a noble goal, we urge you to not aid a group that works to eliminate animal agriculture but instead pledge your money to a true animal protection organization. We would encourage you to instead support the American Humane Association's animal emergency services team, which has a solid record of providing aid to animals.
The Alliance is a national U.S.A. non-profit organization that speaks on behalf stakeholders in animal agriculture and the food industries in particular on the issue of farm animal care and well-being. Our Board of Directors includes the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the National Chicken Council, the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, the United Egg Producers, the National Turkey Federation, the National Pork Board, the American Sheep Industry Association, the National Milk Producers Federation, the American Veal Association, the United Soybean Board, and the American Feed Industry Association, among many other farmers, ranchers, veterinarians, animal behaviorists, agricultural businesses and organizations, and animal health companies. Collectively, we represent more than two million individuals.
We would gratefully request a phone meeting with you and/or your U.S.A. representatives at your earliest convenience to discuss this matter and answer any questions you may have. Yellow Tail is not the first company to have been sold a bill of goods by HSUS, and we would like to assist you in recovering from this situation. The uproar over the last week has shown that you will undoubtedly lose a significant segment of your American customer base if you continue with your pledge of support for HSUS.
HSUS is not the organization that it appears to be. When Wayne Pacelle took over as President and CEO of the organization in 2004, he told Animal People, a newspaper focused on animal issues, that his goal was to build a National Rifle Association of the animal rights movement. Miyun Park, the group's Vice President of Farm Animal Welfare, has bluntly stated that HSUS' objective is to get rid of the egg and broiler industries in the United States. The misleading information distributed by HSUS falsely depicts scientifically valid and ethically based agricultural practices as inhumane. While numerous HSUS campaigns have attempted to discredit modern agricultural practices, it is noticeably yet to fund or support research seeking alternative practices to enhance farm animal welfare. This is because HSUS has a vegan agenda that does not wish to truly improve animal welfare, but to eliminate meat, milk, and eggs from consumers' diets.
In December 2009, the American Institute of Philanthropy gave the organization a "C-" grade in its Charity Rating Guide, largely because HSUS dedicates a significant amount of its staggering $100 million budget on fund-raising, spending as much as $40 to generate every $100 raised. Analysis of their 2008 tax return shows that only one-half of one percent of the group's funds actually went towards caring for animals. Is that really how you want your money spent?
HSUS' animal rescue methods have also been questioned. HSUS routinely capitalizes on natural disasters and images of injured animals as a way to raise money through clever marketing campaigns. An investigation by an Atlanta, GA news station found that only 53 percent of the $34 million HSUS raised in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated much of the Gulf Coast, could be accounted for as spent on disaster-relief activities. In December 2009, HSUS raised $1.2 million using the image of "Fay," a severely disfigured pit bull that was rescued from a fighting ring- despite the fact that HSUS had not provided any of the animal's care. Only after harsh criticism did HSUS agree to pay just $5,000 for one of the dog's needed surgeries.
Even now, HSUS is shamefully using the crisis in Haiti to fund-raise. When the American Veterinary Medical Association joined with fifteen other animal welfare organizations to form the Animal Relief Coalition for Haiti (ARCH), HSUS instead began marketing itself as the sole provider of animal care to the ravaged area. It launched a massive advertising campaign to secure donations for itself, even while a call for animal aid had yet been made from caregivers in Haiti. HSUS' volunteers have admitted that pets are a rarity in the country and that they have interacted with only a few animals- even as donations continue to pour in. Where will this money go?
Clearly, improving the lives of animals is not the main goal of HSUS. Instead, the organization invests the millions of dollars that unknowing supporters donate every year into sophisticated legal and legislative campaigns that threaten the way of life of America's farmers and ranchers. HSUS has developed an extensive network of animal lawyers that donated 10,273 pro bono hours in 2008 alone, much of which was focused on animal agriculture. HSUS sponsored a 2008 ballot initiative in California that is expected to fully eradicate the state's egg industry when it goes into effect in 2015, bringing with it an expected economic loss of $615 million. This is not an isolated case; HSUS is currently working to impose unreasonable restrictions on farmers in Ohio and other states through ballot initiatives and similar legislative initiatives.
In contrast, the organization we've suggested you consider as an alternative to support is the oldest animal and child protection organization in the U.S.A. Founded in 1877, the American Humane Association (AHA) is the only animal welfare organization in the world with on-set jurisdiction from the Screen Actors Guild in Hollywood to supervise the use of animals in films. It is also the only organization with the authority to issue the renowned "No Animals Were Harmed" end-credit disclaimer you see on Hollywood films. AHA also operates an animal emergency services program called Red Star Emergency Services. This program has been around since 1940 and operates domestically and internationally (part of ARCH) to provide animal emergency response. AHA has a fleet of emergency response vehicles and a registry of trained national responders. As of a few years ago, they had memorandums of understanding with the American Red Cross, National Disaster Medical System, US Public Health Service and the Federal Office of Emergency Planning. The Alliance does not have a relationship with the AHA.
On its Web site, [yellow tail] boasts of being a family-centered company in touch with its agricultural roots. It does not make sense for any farm-related company to donate to HSUS as it is critical that all segments of agriculture support each other and work together. If you decide to alter your donation to a credible animal welfare group, the Alliance will gladly publicize and celebrate your action. However, if after reviewing this background information you continue to fund the corrupt actions of HSUS, the Alliance will be forced to use our network of contacts to actively advertise and challenge your choice to knowingly support an activist group with the stated purpose to destroy the livelihood of America's farmers and ranchers.
Thank you for your consideration of our request for a phone meeting this week, and for your reconsideration of your donation plan.
Sincerely,
Animal Agriculture Alliance