Animal welfare activists don't usually invoke the National Rifle Assn. as a role model. After all, hunting animals for sport and protecting animals from sport hunters are mutually exclusive endeavors.
But Wayne Pacelle, chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, finds something to admire about the gun rights group: its brute strength.
"Our movement needs an NRA-type organization to get the job done," Pacelle said. "There are lots of gun rights groups, but the one that you hear about and the one that is feared is the NRA."
No, he doesn't want to run an organization that is only feared.
"I'd rather be loved -- and feared."
In the four years since the 42-year-old vegan -- he neither eats nor wears animal products -- ascended to the top spot at the Humane Society, Pacelle has retooled a venerable organization seen as a mild-mannered protector of dogs and cats into an aggressive interest group flexing muscle in state legislatures and courtrooms.
His predecessors may have built the Humane Society's wealth, but he doubled its net assets to nearly $207 million. (The Humane Society is the largest and richest among hundreds of nonprofit animal advocacy membership organizations in the country.) He didn't pioneer the use of hidden-camera video to reveal animal cruelty (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals did), but he has increased the number of Humane Society undercover investigators and packaged the resulting videos with the flair of TMZ and the intensity of "60 Minutes."
The Humane Society's hidden-camera video of cows at a Chino slaughterhouse being dragged, pushed and hosed got the plant closed in February and sparked the largest meat recall in U.S. history. Recently, the Humane Society released video of abuse of dairy cows at five animal auctions.
"Before Wayne took over, you never heard of anything that HSUS was doing that was proactive," said Jane Garrison, a longtime animal welfare activist from Redondo Beach. "Since Wayne has taken over, it's an extremely proactive group."
But the large profile casts a large shadow. Pacelle and his organization have become targets for critics on all sides of animal issues: Some say he's just a radical masquerading in business suits, bent on abolishing meat-eating. (He's not.) And there are animal welfare advocates who argue he hasn't been aggressive enough.
