Press Release

Full-Page Ad in Roll Call Asks if Embattled IRS Director Lois Lerner Turned a Blind Eye to an Investigation Request into the Humane Society of the U.S.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today HumaneWatch.org, a project of the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), is running a full-page ad in Roll Call pointing to Lois Lerner, director of the IRS’s tax-exempt organizations division, and her office’s possible mishandling of a request made by Missouri Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer to investigate the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) for allegedly engaging in excessive attempts to influence public policy in violation of the rules for nonprofits and for deceptive fundraising.

View the ad here: http://bit.ly/12uwqax

The ad reads: “Cat Got Your Tongue? Taking the Fifth won’t stop Lois Lerner from being dogged by controversy. While Lois Lerner’s department at the IRS was targeting conservative groups, Members of Congress were asking for an investigation into the lobbying activities of the radical Humane Society of the United States, a tax-exempt group that Lois Lerner was involved with as an ‘active member.’ Did Ms. Lerner’s bias result in her stonewalling and turning a blind eye?”

“Many Americans would be shocked to know that the Humane Society of the United States spends far more to attack farmers and lobby for a PETA-like vegan agenda than it does to help shelter dogs and cats in local communities,” said Will Coggin, Senior Research Analyst at CCF. “It doesn’t take a tax expert to see HSUS has spent substantial time and money on lobbying, which raises serious questions.”

Contrary to what a majority of Americans believe, HSUS does not spend a considerable portion of its multi-million budget financially supporting local pet shelters. In 2011 the animal liberation group shared less than one percent of its $127 million budget with pet sheltering organizations. However, in the same year HSUS bankrolled several high-profile anti-farmer campaigns on both the state and federal level, declaring $2.6 million in lobbying activities. HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle recently bragged that the group and its affiliates helped pass nearly 100 laws a year over the past eight years, and in 2011 HSUS devoted nearly 50 percent of its budget to “advocacy and public policy” according to its tax return.

“Taxpayers are being bilked twice – once by those who are suckered by HSUS’s deceptive fundraising, and again by subsidizing this group’s lobbying,” continued Coggin. “It’s time HSUS’s deceptive practices receive a thorough investigation.”

Founded in 1996, the Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization devoted to promoting personal responsibility and protecting consumer choices. For more information, visit ConsumerFreedom.com.

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