On Tuesday, August 15, The Outdoor Wire reported on a confrontation between Zazzle, an online marketer that sells customized postage stamps as an "official licensed vendor" for the U.S. Postal Service, and REACT Consulting Group of Olympia, Washington.
REACT boss Ed Owens wrote Postmaster General John Potter protesting Zazzle's acceptance of stamps that supported the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) while simultaneously rejecting a stamp that called sportsmen "America's first conservationists."
The reasoning behind the rejection was the reason Owens was so steamed.
The "Sportsmen" stamp was rejected due to a "Policy Violation" which "Incorporates material that is primarily partisan or political in nature."
How, Owens asked, could that message be primarily partisan when "Stopping Puppy Mills" or "Protect Michigan Mourning Doves" were not?
In his complaint, Owens not-too-gently reminded the Postmaster General that as an "official licensed vendor" Zazzle was obligated to make certain all standards were "absolutely uniformly applied to any and all submissions."
Instead, Owens observed, Zazzle didn't categorically define what constitutes an advocacy position for all ZAZZLE stamp creators, saying prohibited content would be decided at the "sole judgment and discretion" of ZAZZLE.
Owens, a member of Washingtonians for Wildlife Conservation, Hunters Heritage Council and Washington State Bowhunter's Association, soon realized he had Zazzle squarely in his crosshairs.
So too, apparently, did Zazzle.
On August 17, Zazzle.com marketing director Michael Karns issued a letter that said: "Zazzle did not anticipate that some of the HSUS designs and the Dove designs would be controversial or could be seen as advocating a specific agenda. Over the past few weeks, we have concluded that the most prudent course of action is to remove the designs from our website, and to discontinue their sale as postage."
Karns' letter also says none of the postage value (the face value) of the stamps benefits any group or individual. That's true. The benefit to the group selling the postage comes from Zazzle's customization charges, not the postage itself. In what has become a raucous protest against Zazzle's stamp sales, it had apparently been misreported by some that a portion of the actual postage was being returned to the HSUS. That is not the case.
Postal authorities tell The Outdoor Wire that there were "thousands" of complaints which poured in following the reports on Zazzle. Those complaints came, in part, from our readers and members of the United States Sportsmen's Alliance. The USSA immediately alerted their membership to the story, calling for members to make their objections known to the United States Postal Service.
Those complaints were, apparently, heard.