HSUS looking for corporate buy-in

HSUS recently held its “Taking Action for Animals” Conference here in Arlington, and as always the Alliance had representatives on the scene. Despite HSUS’ efforts to appear moderate and professional, its conference has usually been a good source for quotes and insights that illustrate its true mission to promote veganism and end animal agriculture. When I reviewed the agenda for this year’s event, I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed. The sessions were all billed under very innocuous names with vague descriptions, and most of the speakers were HSUS staffers vs. more openly radical activists. My theory was that the organization was trying to lay low and avoid controversy following all of the negative headlines this year.Apparently I wasn’t the only one who didn’t find the agenda to be particularly intriguing. Our representatives overhead several attendee conversations about how much smaller the audience was than usual, and most participants seemed to be affiliated with HSUS in some way. In some conversations, HSUS’ employee controversies over the past year were mentioned as the most likely reason for the low attendance.