(CN) – With millions still being spent on rights to the dead advertising slogan, “Pork, the Other White Meat,” the D.C. Circuit found that a lawsuit over such funding has teeth.
The Humane Society brought the lawsuit at issue in 2012, taking issue with a $60 million deal that lobbyists with the National Pork Producers Council engineered with the National Pork Board, “a quasi-governmental entity,” five years earlier over the use of the “other white meat” slogan.
Though the pork industry stopped using “other white meat” in 2011, when it began telling consumers to “get inspired,” the Humane Society says that the pork board continues to pay the lobbyists $3 million a year for the rights to “the other white meat” slogan.
That “payment from the board constitutes a major source of NPPC's annual revenue, which furthers its lobbying and other efforts to fight HSUS' advocacy for humane care for farm animals,” the Humane Society claimed. “NPPC has reported as much as 32 percent of its annual budgeted revenue is from the sale. HSUS must expend additional resources to counter the improper actions of the board and NPPC arising from the unlawful checkoff expenditures at issue.”
Since U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack approves the pork board's annual budget, the Humane Society named him as the defendant to its lawsuit.
CLICK HERE to read the full article
Source: Courthouse News
