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HSUS sees “victory”, NPPC does not

The Humane Society of the United States says it’s pleased an appeals court has reversed a dismissal of its case against the USDA about use of pork checkoff funds. The animal rights group says the National Pork Board (checkoff) used the purchase of several trademarks associated with “Pork: The Other White Meat” to improperly funnel $60-million in checkoff funds to the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), the lobbying arm of the pork industry.

The suit, brought by an Iowa pork producer, the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and the HSUS, was dismissed in 2012 for lack of standing. A federal appeals court in Washington D.C. reversed that ruling last Friday.

A spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) tells Brownfield Ag News the HSUS’ so-called “victory” was merely the appellate court’s ruling on whether the case could even go forward. He says “there’s a long way to go in this lawsuit, which is against the secretary of Agriculture, not NPPC.”