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Report: HSUS shortchanges Hawaii pet shelters

MEDIA RELEASE

HumaneWatch.org, a project of the Center for Consumer Freedom, has released its annual 50-state report, “Not Your Local Humane Society,” highlighting the failure of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to significantly share its multi-million dollar budget with local hands-on pet shelters.

The report once again finds HSUS spends millions on fundraising, lobbying, and advertising, while stiffing pet shelters in Hawaii.

To read the full report, visit: www.humanewatch.org/images/uploads/Not_Your_Local_Shelter_2012.pdf

HSUS’s advertisements promote the public misperception that it serves as the national umbrella group for local dog and cat shelters.

However, HumaneWatch.org’s new report finds HSUS did not provide grants to any Hawaii shelters and rescues in 2011 to support pet sheltering.

Nationally, HSUS shared less than 1 percent of its $127 million budget with sheltering organizations in 2011. In the same year, HSUS spent nearly $50 million on fundraising-related expenses, which is 100 times more than it did on grants to support shelter aid.

HSUS also socked away $2.4 million into its pension plan.

“Not Your Local Humane Society” includes an accounting of HSUS grants for the years 2009, 2010, and 2011. The data is drawn directly from the pet rights group’s tax returns.

“The Humane Society of the United States is a ‘humane society’ in name only,” said J. Justin Wilson, CCF Senior Research Analyst. “The vegan group actively misleads Americans into believing it provides significant monetary support to local hands-on shelters, but its financial records tell a very different story. In reality, HSUS sucks millions out of communities that could go to support local pet shelters and rescues that are struggling daily to just keep the doors open.”

An April 2012 poll of more than 1,000 self-identified HSUS supporters found that 90 percent of HSUS’s donors were unaware that HSUS gives just 1 percent of its budget to local pet shelters.

Additionally, recent public polling by ORC International determined that 71 percent of Americans mistakenly believe that HSUS is a pet shelter umbrella group, and 68 percent wrongly think that HSUS spends most of its money on pet shelters.

To combat this donor confusion, a number of shelters going as far as changing their names, distancing themselves from the HSUS.

“With $183 million in assets HSUS can clearly afford to tackle the biggest problems faced by pet shelters, but it appears the organization has other priorities, such as pushing a PETA-like vegan agenda,” Wilson said. “Diverting valuable funds from American shelters is hardly humane.”

— Find out more:
www.HumaneWatch.org

2 Responses to “Report: HSUS shortchanges Hawaii pet shelters”

  1. amyk1980 says:

    This is not “news.” This is a press release from an industry-funded front group smear campaign. The purpose of the HSUS is not and never has been to pay the operating costs of all 1500 local shelters in the country. If they tried, that would amount to a one-time payment of $15 per animal, and the problems of shelters dealing with pet overpopulation would still be with us.

    The HSUS says right on its About Us page what its purpose is – “We help animals by advocating for better laws to protect animals; conducting campaigns to reform industries; providing animal rescue and emergency response; investigating cases of animal cruelty; and caring for animals through our sanctuaries and wildlife rehabilitation centers, emergency shelters and clinics.”

    The HSUS combats cruelty against all animals at a national level. This means working for better laws for animals in factory farms, puppy mills and circuses, which the proprietors of these industries do not like. That’s why they pay HumaneWatch to make these underhanded attacks.

    Shame on this news outlet for printing this disingenuous press release word for word and labeling this news. This is no different from a misleading attack ad during a political campaign. If this paper would label a political attack ad as “news,” then its editors need to be fired.

  2. Howard Hail says:

    HSUS is well known as wanting to end all use of animals for any purpose whatsoever and that includes your steak or chicken dinner. They have caused the price of meats and eggs to rise and in Europe their tactics have caused an egg shortage causing a number of independent bakeries to go out of business. HSUS is about controlling what you eat and they want that to be a strict vegan diet. They intend to support Agenda 21 which is about ending property rights, the right to live where you want, and the right to your own animals. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is a radical animal rights group that inaccurately portrays itself as a mainstream animal care organization. The words “humane society” may appear on its letterhead, but HSUS is not affiliated with your local animal shelter. Despite the omnipresent dogs and cats in its fundraising materials and television commercials, it’s not an organization that runs spay/neuter programs or takes in stray, neglected, and abused pets. And quite unlike the common image of animal protection agencies as cash-strapped organizations dedicated to animal welfare, HSUS has become the wealthiest animal rights organization on earth. While most local animal shelters are under-funded and unsung, HSUS has accumulated $162 million in assets and built a recognizable brand by capitalizing on the confusion its very name provokes. This misdirection results in an irony of which most animal lovers are unaware: HSUS raises enough money to finance animal shelters in every single state, with money to spare, yet it doesn’t operate a single one anywhere.

    Instead, HSUS spends millions on programs that seek to economically cripple meat and dairy producers; eliminate the use of animals in biomedical research labs; phase out pet breeding, zoos, and circus animal acts; and demonize hunters as crazed lunatics. HSUS spends more than $5 million each year on travel expenses alone, just keeping its multi-national agenda going.

    HSUS’s current goals have little to do with animal shelters or abuse. They just name everything abuse even when it clearly is not. The group has taken aim at the traditional morning meal of bacon and eggs with a tasteless “Breakfast of Cruelty” campaign. Its newspaper op-eds demand that consumers “help make this a more humane world [by] reducing our consumption of meat and egg products.” Since its inception, HSUS has tried to limit the choices of American consumers, opposing dog breeding, conventional livestock and poultry farming, rodeos, circuses, horse racing, marine aquariums, and fur trapping.

    They are dangerous to humankind because they want to keep the rest of the world poor and without meat. Human beings are omnivores and we require both plant and animal protein. However, fully 1/3 of all human beings cannot digest plant protein. Your brain requires ACTIVE VB12 which is only found in meat products. Without Active VB12 your brain will become irrational and overly emotional just like without VC you die from scurvey and your teeth fall out. There is inactive VB12 found only in plants, but the reason it is called inactive is that it does nothing in the human body causing more damage as the person thinks they are getting VB12. 16 strict vegan parents have killed their children by forcing a strict vegan diet on their babies. These babies died from malnutrition and these parents were so irrational they would not follow the doctor’s orders to feed their children milk. These groups are a cult.

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