The Humane Society of the US: Still reckoning with #metoo
For more than a year, the Humane Society of the United States, the US’s most powerful animal-welfare group, has been trying to recover from charges of sexual harassment levied against Wayne Pacelle, its former chief executive.
The Humane Society’s board has apologized to women who lodged complaints against Pacelle, adopted new policies and practices, brought on new members, commissioned a pay-equity study and — after women at HSUS hired a lawyer to represent their interests — launched what it calls a reconciliation process to try to understand what went wrong and how best to prevent future problems.
On January 25, HSUS’s board appointed Kitty Block, a lawyer who has devoted more than a quarter of a century to animal welfare — and who is herself a survivor of sexual harassment at HSUS — as its new president and CEO. It also selected two new directors, Susan Atherton and Tom Sabatino, to co-chair the board.
Mission accomplished? Not yet.
In their first interviews since taking on their new roles, Block, Atherton and Sabatino all said they hope to put HSUS’s troubles behind them and build a stronger…
