What is the Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust “Conserving?”

At the U.S. Senate hearing this week, Humane Society of the United States CEO Wayne Pacelle testified against the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act, legislation designed to protect hunters and anglers from attempts to curtail their activities. One provision of the bill seeks to stop a key bit of activism that Pacelle’s group is pushing: A ban on lead ammo in hunting. Lead ammunition is the most common and affordable ammunition; a national ban on lead ammo in hunting (or at shooting ranges) would certainly reduce the number of people hunting. Ironically, that would actually be bad for conservation.

Every time someone buys a gun or ammunition, they pay a tax under the*Pittman-Roberston Act. That money is given to states to help them conserve land. The money generated through the Act, as well as the sale of state hunting licenses, adds up to billions of dollars.

If HSUS wants to reduce the number of hunters—and thus the amount of money going into conservation—we should check HSUS’s own record on conservation. HSUS runs the Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust (HSWLT), which*claims its goals are to create “permanent sanctuaries, preserving and enhancing natural habitat” and to “oversee the lands under its protection.”

But despite collecting more than $20 million in revenue over the past 5 years, HSWLT only controls around 18,500 acres.

To understand just how*minuscule*HSWLT land holdings are, it is worth noting that the website*Landwatch.com is*currently selling 44,062 acres*in Texas for $550,000 – for that price, you could own more than twice as much land as HSWLT*oversees. A quick search of the website will turn up many other similarly*sized plots for a comparable cost.*In comparison, another sanctuary*group The Nature Conservancy*protects nearly 120 million acres*worldwide and the group Ducks Unlimited has conserved more than 13 million acres*in North America.





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What is the Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust “Conserving?”