Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Yellow Tail Says No To Future HSUS Donations

Yellow Tail shows support for farmers and ranchers
By Drovers news source Friday, February 19, 2010

The Animal Agriculture Alliance commends Casella Wines, the Australian producers of [yellow tail] on their commitment to support farmers and ranchers around the world.

"The people at [yellow tail] have worked with us over the past few days in what we believe is a genuine effort to repair ill feeling caused by the sponsorship of the Humane Society of the United States. We are satisfied the controversy and anxiety it caused was unintentional," said Kay Johnson Smith, Executive Vice President. "They have committed to in the future only supporting welfare organizations with a sole commitment to animal care. As farmers themselves, theyre committed to supporting agriculture, as evidenced by their annual upcoming barbeque promotion. "

The Alliance received the following letter from [yellow tail] on February 19:


Dear Kay Johnson Smith, Animal Agriculture Alliance:

I am writing to thank you for your feedback regarding our [tails] for tails program.The spirit and intention of our donation to the Humane Society of the United States was for the celebration of animals. Being farmers ourselves we support those who care for their land and their environment, just as we do. We are proud of our rural heritage and value a solid relationship with agricultural communities around the world.

[yellow tail] is committed to the plight of animals in need, and we know that animal welfare groups work in different ways to advance their cause. We are interested in the welfare of animals, and in financially supporting animal welfare causes that provide direct care services to help animals, not on taking positions on any animal lobbying issues. We pledge to you that any future support for animal welfare will go to organizations specifically devoted to hands-on care, such as rescue, sterilization, feeding, or disaster assistance.

Like the wines we produce, we are friendly Australians who enjoy bringing people together, and look forward to doing so through our annual spring and summer promotional campaign "[tails] around the barbecue" and our "holiday enter[tail]ing" campaign. We very much value your opinion and wish to thank-you for your honesty.

Sincerely,

[yellow tail] customer Service Team

"We have invited the people at [yellow tail] to work closely with the Alliance, an offer that is open to wine makers around the world. As we all know, meat, cheeses and wine are natural partners." Johnson Smith said. "We are happy to put this unfortunate incident behind us."

The Alliance is impressed with the agriculture community's use of social media and encourages farmers and ranchers to use the momentum to continue to educate the public about the importance of American agriculture on Facebook and Twitter. Producers who are interested in learning more about using social media tools to advocate for agriculture should contact the Alliance's Communications Coordinator, Sarah Hubbart, at shubbart@animalagalliance.org.

Article Link

After being bombarded with negative comments from thousands of people for their donation to the HSUS, the Casella family and owners of the Yellow Tail brand, have said they will not support HSUS in the future. Not only that, but they will not be supporting any other animal rights organization that doesn’t do hands-on work with animals. This is certainly good news for our local shelters that suffer from the work of the HSUS. Even more important in this issue though is that every other company in the world has been put on notice that a donation to the world’s wealthiest vegan animal rights organization will come with consequences. I want to thank Yellow Tail for making this statement. I look forward to seeing their future donations actually going to helping animals. Who knows, maybe I will even celebrate their upcoming donations with a glass of Yellow Tail wine.

1 comment:

~The South Dakota Cowgirl~ said...

The issue is that the HSUS isn't an animal welfare organization. It's an animal right's organization. Apples and oranges.