Wayne Pacelle is the new head of The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). His election by the HSUS Board of Directors on Friday April 23rd came after two years of internal maneuvering by superiors and peers who feared Pacelle’s personal and professional dynamism. It marks the 50th Anniversary of the founding of HSUS and promises an animal rights organization of renewed vitality that will not rest until its “enemies” are bowed, bloodied and broken.

Pacelle’s ascendance to power is the second most important event to occur within the animal rights and environmental activist community this year. The first is the emergence of Pew Charitable Trusts as the new leader among environmental NGOs in January.

Pacelle’s late night election was not announced officially until Monday, April 26th. That same day, Farm Sanctuary issued its press release signaling the launch of its recharged “No Veal” campaign tied to Mother’s Day. Pacelle and Farm Sanctuary are longtime partners in efforts to cripple the U.S. meat industry. The two nearly simultaneous announcements were not coincidental. Rather, they are an indication of one of the major priorities of the new HSUS: a full-scale assault on the U.S. food animal industry. Under Pacelle’s leadership the U.S. farm industry can expect a revamped HSUS that more resembles the high profile campaigning of Greenpeace internationally than the organization most Americans mistakenly believe is somehow tied to local animal shelters.

A close reading of the upbeat HSUS Press Release announcing Pacelle’s appointment, in the opinion of some HSUS watchers, appears also to reflect the degree of animosity and inner conflict associated with the power struggle within HSUS. Out-going HSUS President Paul Irwin was said to have stayed on beyond his intended 2002 retirement date in order to orchestrate the coronation of a successor to block Pacelle from being named the new commanding officer of HSUS.

The release contained the usual flowery praise heaped by Pacelle on Irwin and similar words of honor showered on Pacelle by Board of Director Chairman David O. Wiebers. The only statement credited to the retiring Irwin was about Irwin’s own 28 year tenure with HSUS and his self-described accomplishments. Not a single word of tribute from Irwin was directed toward Pacelle.

Two passages in the press release sent very clear messages to Pacelle’s opponents within and outside of HSUS. In one, Pacelle promises to lead HSUS to new heights of animal activism against agriculture and the outdoors community. In the other, he pledges “other senior leadership changes” will be made over the coming weeks. Presumably, the reference is to an expected exodus of Pacelle rivals. If as expected they are the more “mainstream” old-school HSUS administrators, their removal leaves the lean and hungry activists eager to unleash zealous animal rights legions against their opponents.

Pacelle’s activist credentials outstrip those of virtually any living individual within the environmental and animal rights activist communities, Sea Shepherd’s Paul Watson and PETA’s Ingrid Newkirk included. Pacelle was the handpicked heir apparent to Cleveland Amory and served as executive director of Amory’s group, The Fund for Animals. Amory and The Fund were instrumental in the creation and funding of HSUS, Paul Watson’s Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Pacelle sees himself as Amory’s co-enabler of the latter two groups and rightful heir to the HSUS Empire.

Pacelle’s activist credentials plus his skill in manipulating the political process via conventional lobbying at the federal and state levels, coalition building, grassroots mobilization, media manipulation, and use of the state ballot initiative process caused him to be kept at arms length by HSUS’ Irwin. Those same qualities also promise Pacelle’s tenure as HSUS CEO will be a most intense and stressful time for his opponents.

With Irwin and his allies gone, Pacelle will have a free hand in turning the financial and organizational juggernaut of HSUS into a formidable battle platform against the cruelty he alleges is endemic in “institutional factory farming” and in the human dominance and exploitation of “companion animals and wildlife.”

Pacelle’s record in shutting down various aspects of agricultural animal husbandry, hunting, trapping, and other animal sports strongly suggests his desire to transform HSUS into “the National Rifle Association” of the animal rights movement is on track. Under Pacelle’s direction HSUS logged NRA-like success in organizing grassroots support for passing “more than a dozen new federal laws” and 17 of 22 ballot initiatives as well as “countless laws at the state level.”

Pacelle is considered the key animal rights figure most influential in swinging voter preferences toward both candidates for office and issues placed on the ballot for voter decisions. The Environmental/Animal Rights press continually seeks his opinion on candidates. For example, despite Democratic hopeful John Kerry’s pandering to pro-hunting voters by engaging in a canned pheasant hunt in Iowa (one of HSUS’ key taboos) and announcing that he enjoys dove hunting, Pacelle continually praised Kerry as “outstanding” in his voting record on animal rights issues and response to HSUS’ political action committee’s candidate questionnaire.

Pacelle has an important say in where hundreds of thousands dollars of animal rights and environmental political contributions are spent. He is chairman of Humane USA, the key animal rights PAC. Pacelle is already targeting those states for pro-Kerry pre-election activities where pollsters see victory measured in one percent or less of voter preference. Pacelle knows the incredible political clout earned from the perception of having help decide an Presidential election in critical too-close-to-predict states. Having President-elect John Kerry in the animal/environmental rights debt portends invaluable returns for Pacelle and his allies.

Compounding the political influence Pacelle commands is his position on the Political Advisory Committee for the League of Conservation Voters. His associates at the League’s Board of Directors, Political Advisory Committee, and Political Committee include representatives are the leading Environmental activist groups that traditionally keep a measured distance from animal rights groups.

The environmental NGOs associated with the League’s PAC include the Pew Oceans Commission, the World Wildlife Fund, the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council, the Wilderness Society, Environmental Defense, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Global Environment Policy Institute, Friends of the Earth, National Wildlife Federation, Marine Fish Conservation Network, National Audubon Society, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, National Environmental Trust, Union of Concerned Scientists, and others. LCV is the perfect mingling network for a political operative such as Pacelle.

Pacelle rightfully lays claim as a bipartisan political operative. His talent recruiting conservative Republican politicians to the animal rights political agenda is legend. Among the GOP water carriers for Pacelle are names such as former U.S. Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire, Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania as well as former conservative Republican Congressmen “B-1” Bob Dornan of California and Robert Livingston of Louisiana. Colorado’s Senator Wayne Allard was a staunch HSUS ally until the animal rights community threw it support to his opponent during his last re-election bid.

To give HSUS’ Irwin his well earned credit; under Irwin’s direction HSUS became an activist cash-generating machine. HSUS doubled its annual $50 to 60 million a year income to over $133 million in 2002. Irwin was more the pragmatist who understood not only the psychology of giving but also the self-serving virtue of perpetuating a perception of reasonable compromise to politicians and the public than he was an ardent animal rights ideologue. Still Irwin understood the dollars and cents worth of preaching to the hardcore faithful of the more extreme community of animal rights activists. He just kept that side of his professional persona less public.

Irwin’s strong suit was a mixture of superior business acumen with his ability to “preach” the gospel of animal rights to his board of directors and the HSUS believers and have his congregation of animal people fill the HSUS collection basket with record amounts of cash (a talent developed through his training as an ordained minister). Pacelle’ strength is his mastery of political organization and strategy. In terms of personality, Pacelle is far more charming than the quasi-imperial Irwin.

While Irwin was building the HSUS coffers, Pacelle spent his time honing his campaign skills and expanded his network of influential contacts on both sides of the ideological and political spectrum.

Ironically, Pacelle, an animal rights zealot to the core, can play that mainstream role far better than Irwin. It must not be forgotten that behind Pacelle’s disarming charm and boyish good looks, Pacelle is a very dedicated animal rights activist. Unlike Irwin, Pacelle will not pay token lip service to the extreme animal rights faction within the HSUS “big tent.” He will indeed take the organization and dedicate the entire funding mechanism put in place by Irwin to funding a jihad of heady and controversial animal issues.

For years, NGO monitors warned that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) CEO, Ingrid Newkirk flooded HSUS’ employee ranks with PETA-trained operatives. Under Pacelle’s direction, those PETA recruits will be loosed upon farm animal enterprises, biomedical and genetic research institutions, aquaculture, capture fisheries, hunting, recreational fishing, trapping, and wild life biologists and managers at the federal and state levels.

With HSUS’ course-directed by Pacelle, HSUS will be transformed into a very smooth, well-organized and orchestrated hardcore animal rights activist organization that ultimately will cement relations with the even more powerful environmental side of the activist community, and with Pew Charitable Trusts in particular.