HSUS LOSES LAWSUIT AGAINST PORK PRODUCERS

 

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has lost another fight in court, this time against U.S. pork producers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), according to Brownfield Ag News for America, a national farm news organization.

 

In a September 26 article, Brownfield writer Ken Anderson reported that HSUS had filed suit against the USDA, which oversees the use of funds collected from U.S. pork producers under the industry’s “check-off” program. The 1985 U.S. Farm Bill created the pork check-off program, along with an organization—the National Pork Board (NPB)—to administer the funds, which pay for consumer information and pork marketing campaigns.

 

When the NPB purchased the advertising slogan, “Pork, the Other White Meat” from the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) for $60 million, HSUS filed suit against the USDA, claiming that the sale was an illegal diversion of check-off funds from the NPB to the NPPC. In September, the lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge.

 

According to the article, NPPC President Randy Spronk called the lawsuit a “vendetta against the U.S. pork industry by the leadership of HSUS, which has made their mission to permanently end animal agriculture very clear.”

 

Spronk said, “If I were a donor to HSUS, I would be very disturbed that my money was wasted on yet another expensive lawsuit that had nothing to do with improving the welfare of farm animals. It was frivolous and a waste of the taxpayers’ money and the court’s time. HSUS donors deserve better than that.”

 

Well said, Mr. Spronk. We couldn’t agree more.