Gun Lobby Shoots Self In Foot

Forget that Limbaugh is a politically-incorrect, meat-eating conservative, or that Mark Levin's book before Liberty and Tyranny was Rescuing Sprite. Conservatives can't be caught doing a solid for stray animals, I guess.

This is political strategery so bad it makes your head hurt. The key word here is "represents." And it isn't about disagreeing with Limbaugh. This silliness is the work of strategists blinded by their work. They start to think only in black and white and apparently don't get that the pro-gun, pro-hunting rank and file rubes are smart enough to appreciate Rush's gesture without buying into the far-Left's animal rights activism.

I bet if you polled the millions of "hunters and sportsmen" who are allegedly upset and being poorly represented in this instance they'd mostly agree this move is as dumb as it gets. The brain trust behind this bad PR move should be forced to go out and adopt a mutt straight-away, even if Obama failed to live up to his rhetoric yet once again by not doing so.

Rush Limbaugh’s new pet project — fighting animal cruelty for the Humane Society of the United States — is riling sportsmen from coast to coast, prompting fears that the talkster typically supportive of gun rights is aiding a group they say has a secret agenda to end all hunting in America.

Twenty-eight groups representing millions of hunters and sportsmen are demanding that the conservative radio commentator end his collaboration with the HSUS and stop “helping them to mainstream their image in the minds of reasonable people.”

Comments

[Paul A'Barge]

I certainly hope that the 28 groups are not correct about the HSUS, don't you?

Because if they are right and Rush is allowing his love for animals to override his judgment, that would be a bad thing.

When it comes to hunting and/or my guns, I am very, very skeptical of groups like the HSUS. And there is every reason to be skeptical.

[anon]

We're talking about The Humane Society, not PETA, they are about as middle of the road animal rights organization that you can find...I'm not aware they even have any policy positions that are against hunting non endangered species for sport with guns.

There is really no reason to be skeptical unless you are one of those "hunters" who goes to game farms to ahem, "hunt" lions or tigers or elephants or who likes to shoot down animals from helicopters. Your standard hunter who goes out in the woods to shoot some deer or pheasant has nothing to fear from The Humane Society.

[Lala]

I got an email from someone interested in guns - haven't read the bill yet but he's saying it's a gun grab

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h45/text

[anon in wy]

If you think the HSUS isn't against hunting, it isn't for a lack of their making their position public, it is a lack of your effort to learn it or remember it. The HSUS is on par with PeTA as being against hunting. The HSUS isn't "middle of the road" at all. They're against animal research, animals as food, animal hunting, you name it.

The HSUS has NOTHING to do with your local "humane society." People that think the HSUS has anything to do with your local animal shelter or welfare group are simply ignorant or easily duped.

http://www.activistcash.com/organization_overview.cfm/oid/136

[BR]

HSUS has a decades long record of contributing to anti-hunting causes. Just a few years ago here in Michigan, they financed the defeat of a dove hunting referendum. Those who cannot remember history are due to be suckered by it.

[Anon]

No, the HSUS is NOT against all hunting, they have no problem with the hunting of indiginous animals in non trophy type "parks" using reasonable hunting methods as is stated clearly on their web site, they are nothing close to PETA, who want to phase out people having pets.

I am also against unnecessary animal research, factory farming [as opposed to humane farming, there is a huge difference], circuses and zoos.

[WVUinMN]

HSUS has NEVER funded your local animal shelter, and has never contributed ONE DIME to spade and neuter your pets. Love animals? Then support your local animal shelter by cutting them a check and delivering it to them in person. As for the statement made by Anon above, HSUS is the LARGEST, WEALTHIEST anti-hunting organization in this hesmisphere, if not the world. Statements made on the HSUS website completely contradict HSUS's support for numerous state-wide voter iniatives designed to ban certain types of sport hunting (i.e. HSUS anti-dove hunting bills have been defeated in MN 2004, in OH 1998, and supported in MI as late as 2006). A dove qualifies as an "indiginous" species, and you can hunt them on state, federal or private land. Also, what qualifies yourself to judge what constitutes "unnecessary animal research"? I'm a working scientist who uses animals (transgenic mice) to decipher novel cellular pathways. My work may or may not contribute to the discovery of a therapeutic, so is it "necessary" or not? Thankfully, you have no say...as of yet.

[Anon]

I stand corrected, HSUS does say it is philosophically opposed to hunting for sport or trophy, but on a practical level they don't seem to make it a priority and seem to stick to the more egregious activities such as trophy farms, traps, etc.

My personal opinion is that almost all animal testing is wrong, but the 'wrongness' increases as the intelligence and sociability level of the animal increases, thus, testing on mice is not good, but is not comparable to testing on dogs or pigs or primates, all of whom are extremely intelligent and social animals who should not be kept in isolated cells, deprived of any meaningful animal or human interaction and basically tortured for medical purposes. In the same way the factory farming of a chicken is bad, but does not compare to the immorality of the modern hog farm because chickens are stupid and pigs are smart. It is exactly why nobody but a Tibetan monk would think twice about killing a mosquito but almost every civilized person would be disgusted by, say, burning a puppy in an oven or beating to death a horse for fun....

[BR]

The logic of the day- civil rights for everything that's cute and furry, based on it's IQ. I wondered how Obama got elected. Can equal rights for houseflies be far behind?

[anon]

This is why the GOP is now a laughing stock in this country, because of their outdated attitudes on the environment and related issues, among many other things. There is no divine right for hunmans to "use" up whatever they want on this planet including do whatever they want to any animals that they so choose. Live by the sword, die by the sword, mother nature will have her revenge ultimately.

[BR]

Eerie how that sounds just like a certain peanut farmer's platitudes .....

[BR]

HSUS right back to business as usual:
http://www.ussportsmen.org/Page.aspx?pid=1986

[anon]

It isn't a platitude, the evidence is all around you.

You feed herbivores the brains of their own dead and all kinds of other crap and presto, you got mad cow disease.

You pump animals full of steriods and antibiotics and lo and behold, you have increasing resistance to antibiotics.

When you destroy the wetlands, you get more flooding.

When you cut down the trees, the soil is depleted.

When you pump poison into the enviroment you get negative consequences.

DDT really did kill the eagles.

Swine flu, enough said.

The scientific evidence is pretty conclusively on the side of enviromentalists, it has nothing to do with platitudes or PETA, but with the reality that everything has a cause and an effect and those tipping points you read about are more than propaganda.

[BR]

Hey nameless, the sky is falling! Quick, run, RUN!