Oregon Humane Society Wants You To Know It Didn't Produce Poacher Porn

Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Eugene) lost her bid for the Democratic secretary of state nomination to Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian this week, but a campaign ad attacking Hoyle has illuminated a rift between the Oregon Humane Society and the Humane Society of the United States.

Illustrated by lurid images of elephant carcasses, the 30-second ad Hoyle blasted Hoyle for killing a 2015 bill written to ban the buying and selling of ivory in Oregon.

"Every day, poachers ruthlessly poison and shoot elephants and rhinos, hacking off their faces for their tusks and horns," the ad's narrator says.

The ad was paid for by the Humane Society Legislative Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying affiliate of the HSUS.

The ivory ban bill never came up for a vote in the House, Hoyle told the Oregonian last October, because it didn't have enough votes to pass, and therefore wasn't worth a battle with the NRA, which likes ivory.

In a statement Sharon Harmon, executive director of the Oregon Humane Society, distanced OHS from the ad and from the similarly named Humane Society of the United States.

"Many people who've seen these commercials believed they were from us, the Oregon Humane Society," Harmon wrote. "We had nothing to do with them."

Harmon added that partisan politics are beyond the purview of OHS: "I hope when you think of the Oregon Humane Society, you will think of us as the place to find your next best friend, of summer camps for kids, and as a shelter where everyone is treated with respect—we are not a publisher of salacious and disturbing political ads."

In a statement, Michael Markarian, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, explained the role his organization played and said it made adequate disclosure.

"The Humane Society Legislative Fund is the nation's leading political advocacy organization for animal welfare," Markarian said. "Most animal welfare organizations, including local shelters, are limited in the amount of lobbying they can do and are strictly forbidden from getting involved in candidate elections. The animal welfare movement needs to have a group that can help influence public policy and elections at the state and federal levels, just like other social movements do to advance their issues, and that's why HSLF was formed. The ads taken out by HSLF in Oregon include a clear statement, both in voiceover and written on screen, telling viewers that the group is the Humane Society Legislative Fund, not any other organization."

Willamette Week