Why is Humanewatch being a Grinch to animals?

It takes a special kind of Grinch to want to hurt animals at Christmas. Humanewatch is at it again: trying to confuse animals lovers into not donating to help save animals. Recently, the so-called non-profit “watchdog” has been running radio ads in metro areas, urging people not to donate to the grinchHumane Society of the United States (HSUS). Of course, they are misrepresenting the work that HSUS does and pretending that HSUS is supposed to be an animal shelter. Which, loyal reader, you already know is a… falsehood. In fact, 80% of HSUS’s budget goes to the animals through their rescue, protection, legislative, and community outreach programs. In 2015, alone, HSUS and their partners saved and helped 290,000 animals. And how many animals did Humanewatch help in 2015? None. Not a single animal. Not one penny of Humanewatch’s money helped or saved a single animal in 2015 (or any other year) – and not because they can’t afford it, either. The ads they’re running right now to try to defund HSUS’s humane work on behalf of all animals? Those ads would run about $500,000 (yes, half a million dollars) at regular ad rates. Think about that for a moment… half a million dollars. How many animals could be helped with half a million dollars? But instead of helping animals, Humanewatch is spending that $500,000 to try to stop animal advocates helping animals. Yet another example of how Humanewatch doesn’t care about animals.

Nothing to see here, HumaneWatch

Internal Revenue Service Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner is sworn in before testifying to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee May 22, 2013 in Washington, DC.  (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Internal Revenue Service Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner is sworn in before testifying to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee May 22, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Those of you who have been with Stop Humanewatch for a while may recall HumaneWatch desperately stretching for a connection between Lois G. Lerner, director of the IRS’s tax-exempt organizations division, and The Humane Society of the United States​.

Lerner was under investigation for allegedly selectively targeting tea-party organizations for IRS review. And, she happens to also be (like a whoooole bunch of other people) a member of HSUS. And repeated attempts by Berman’s Big Ag cronies to get the IRS to investigate the Humane Society of the United States for “abuse” of their nonprofit status had failed again and again and again – for lack of evidence.

As you already know, HumaneWatch never lets pesky little things like “facts” and “lack of evidence” get in the way of launching a good smear.  So. as usual, they threw those three unrelated facts into the blender and came up with a doozy of a story.

According to HumaneWatch, those three unrelated and unconnected facts obviously meant that HSUS CEO, Wayne Pacelle obviously had a lock on one of the IRS’s highest-ranking directors. Which, in turn, obviously meant that Lerner had nefariously “stonewalled” HumaneWatch’s much-desired IRS investigation into HSUS.

All of these connections – like HumaneWatch’s assertion that HSUS routinely abuses its 501(c)(3) status – were, of course, presented without a shred of proof or a scintilla of evidence.

You have to hand it to these guys at HumaneWatch; they’re consistent.

Anyhoo, according to CNN, the Justice Department notified members of Congress on Friday, October 23, 2015, that it was closing its two-year investigation into whether the IRS improperly targeted the tea party and other conservative groups.

What’s more, according to the agency, there will be no charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner or anyone else at the agency for wrongdoing.

“We found no evidence that any IRS official acted based on political, discriminatory, corrupt, or other inappropriate motives that would support a criminal prosecution,” Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik said. “We also found no evidence that any official involved in the handling of tax-exempt applications or IRS leadership attempted to obstruct justice. Based on the evidence developed in this investigation and the recommendation of experienced career prosecutors and supervising attorneys at the department, we are closing our investigation and will not seek any criminal charges.”

Once again, Rick Berman and HumaneWatch ends up with… egg on their faces.