Good responses.

Jeff - I fully support your decision to let Fishpond know where you stand. I don't own any Fishpond products. Too pricey for my tastes.

Rizeye - I have zero affliation with HSUS, ALF, PETA, Greenpeace, the ASPCA, Sierra Club etc. I support our local animal shelter. Our last dog (who passed this summer) was a shelter dog. I hunt and fish, but not as much as I would like. I have no problem with people who hunt or fish for meat and stay within the bag limits. I don't get trophy hunting. I practice catch and release most of the time, occassionally I'll keep some fish. I read about environmental issues a lot. Years ago, in grad school, I wrote a several papers about the various environmental and animal movements.

I continue to respectfully disagree with those who characterize HSUS as a bunch of animal rights wackos. Although I loathe the website, I'll refer everyone to the HSUS entry on wikipedia. It is a fairly accurate summary of the history of the Humane Society in the United States. HSUS's original purpose was to promote animal welfare, not animal rights. I disagree that they have recently tempered their rhetoric to make it more palatable to the masses. If anything, the exact opposite has occurred. As individuals like Wayne Capelle and Heidi Prescott have become influential within the organization, HSUS has become more, for lack of a better word, radical. If you choose to disassociate yourself from HSUS because its president made contentious comments years before he was affiliated wtih the organization, so be it.

Again, I will retract my comments and admit I am wrong if anyone can point to an HSUS program that ultimately seeks to end sport fishing. I don't see it. The evidence presented so far against HSUS is not persuasive. HSUS opposes factory farming practices. Were HSUS to have any success in with their factory farm agenda, it would impact the cost of food and impact the restaurant industry, among others. The CCF (the lobby organization for the restaurant industry), as part of their agenda, seeks to undermine HSUS's credibility. The CCF does that by associating HSUS with organizations that the mainstream public finds too radical.

Flygut - wow. I won't head down the Soros path. It is entirely possible, but hardly plausible, that Capelle and Prescott have orchestrated a conspiracy to transform the HSUS into the NRA of the animal rights world. Yes, those are Capelle's words from years ago.

I certainly understand everyone's concern about the more radical groups. I probably won't be able to convince anyone who posted that the HSUS, at least historically, is not one of those groups. I appreciate your responses and hope that those who read them at least consider what I've written. I've really got no dog in this fight. I am not a member of HSUS. I merely disagree that they are an organization unworthy of support.