Why I’m Blowing the Whistle on HSUS
From All-Creatures.org Animal Rights/Vegan Activist Strategies Articles Archive

FROM Donny Moss, TheirTurn.net
June 2020

Over the past several years, many employees and contractors, including caregivers, vet techs, veterinarians and construction workers, at HSUS’s two chimpanzee sanctuaries have been so alarmed by the neglect, deprivation and other forms of abuse that they were willing to risk their jobs, financial security and future employment prospects by speaking out.

Many animal advocates know that The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) takes credit for victories achieved by other groups and fundraises on the back of those successes. This happened to me and other grass roots activists in NYC after we secured a $6 million settlement on behalf of 66 abandoned chimpanzees used in research. But what many people don’t know is that HSUS has used – and is continuing to use – outside law firms to intimidate, threaten and sue some of its (now former) employees who, after attempting to effect change from within, have publicly exposed systemic abuses of animals in HSUS’s care, some of which I have observed firsthand.


After Comfort was bitten by a snake on one of the islands, HSUS darted her and moved her into one of the old concrete enclosures where she lived when she was used in experiments by the NY Blood Center. HSUS has inexplicably not built a holding area for sick and injured chimpanzees in spite of receiving over $6M for their care. And Comfort, was visibly traumatized not only because of her injury, but also by the fear that she was going to be used in experiments again.

For the past two years, I have resisted publicly addressing these abuses for fear of fomenting strife within an already fractured animal protection community, but HSUS’s decision to file a lawsuit against two of the 22 whistleblowers at its Project Chimps sanctuary has compelled me to do what many organizations cannot for fear of retaliation – hold HSUS accountable for animal abuse and demand reform so that their sanctuaries are, at the very least, more humane than the laboratories from which the animals were rescued.

I am not a disgruntled HSUS employee. In fact, I have never been employed by HSUS or any other animal protection organization. On the contrary, I am an independent grass roots advocate without bosses, budgets or boards to take into account. I therefore have the freedom – and ethical obligation – to help expose the abuses that HSUS’s Project Chimps is attempting to cover up by suing whistleblowers — individuals who have nothing to gain personally by coming forward.

Read the ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE (PDF)

Jenny Desmond and Dr. Jim Desmond of Liberia Chimpanzee Rescue & Protection

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