HSUS President and CEO Wayne Pacelle gave the keynote presentation on the second day of the Taking Action for Animals conference I attended in Washington , D.C. two weekends ago. He is a pretty lively speaker, infusing a fair amount of humor in his lectures. In talking about the progress being made regarding animals rights, he joked that one organization was pushing for dogs to be called “Canine Americans.” He got a big laugh from the 600 or so people in the audience. I heard this joke when he spoke at the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival last year, but it was still funny the second time.

The Animal Agriculture Alliance, who had members attend the conference reported Pacelle statement on their website. They thought that by reporting the facts of what Pacelle said, without the context, they’d get everyone riled up about those extreme animal rights activists. In response, HSUS issued their own press release--The Humane Society of the United States Says Agribusiness Trade Group Has No Sense of Humor: Industry Group Tries To Pull a Fast One on Media and Turn Joke Into Policy Statement.

Photo: Wayne Pacelle and Grace, by Hilary Schwab, from www.hsus.org