Odd behavior for a politician

From the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner:

Don Young refuses Humane Society award
by TimMowry_FDNM
Outdoors with Tim Mowry

Saying he wants no part of the Humane Society of the United States’ agenda, Alaskan Congressman Don Young last week refused an award from the organization that would have honored his work for animals in 2010.
“HSUS are hypocrites, plain and simple, and I will not join them by accepting this award,” Young said in a press release issued by his office on March 30.
While praising the work done by local humane societies that shelter, spay and neuter animals, Young noted the HSUS does not own, operate or directly control a single animal shelter in the U.S., despite a budget of over $100 milllion. He chastised the HSUS for having “absolutely nothing to do with animal welfare.”
“Instead they prey on the emotions of big-hearted Americans,” Young said. “They flash images of abused animals on our television screens to raise money that will eventually go to pay their salaries and pensions, not to helping better the lives of these animals.
“They run anti-hunting and anti-trapping campaigns and are of the same cloth as PETA and other extremist organizations,” he said.
It was unclear why Young was being honored by the HSUS but the outspoken Congressman suspects it was due to his support of the Wildlife Without Borders program, which develops wildlife management and conservation efforts to maintain global species diversity.
“That program is true conservation; what this group wants is preservation,” Young said of the HSUS. “To accept this award would be supporting their manipulative ways and misguided agenda, and I want no part of that.”