IN-Humane Society?

On February 17th, in my blog post about the Hallmark/Westland meat recall, I asked the following question.

"Why did the Humane Society wait until January 30th before releasing the results of their undercover investigation?"

Now I have my answer. Meatingplace.com reported this morning that the Humane Society has admitted having deliberately kept the results of its undercover investigation from the USDA for five weeks in order to "...build public outrage." Wayne Pacelle (the president of the Humane Society) told Janie Gabbett of Meatingplace.com in a telephone interview,

"We specifically did not give this information much in advance to the USDA... If it had been given to USDA in advance and they excused the behavior and shut them down for a half a day or a day … that would have been an unacceptable outcome."

Pacelle went on to dispute the February 29th statement issued by the San Bernardino County's District Attorney that his office encouraged the Humane Society to bring USDA into the picture. But Pacelle indicated that he might contact USDA sooner next time.

Remind me, please. Is the Humane Society's primary objective to promote animal welfare, or to promote itself?