“What did I do wrong?” “Why did they hurt me?” “Why did they abandon me?” These are the questions that flash on your television screen over pictures of injured and abandoned cats and dogs. Anybody with an ounce of compassion wants to help these poor animals. Then comes the pitch: “For just $19 a month, you can join the Humane Society of the United States in our fight to eliminate animal abuse everywhere.”
But where does that $19 a month go? Does it go to protecting the cats and dogs pictured in the television ads? Nope. According their most recent tax return, less than 1 percent of the Humane Society of the United States’ annual budget actually goes to local pet shelters.
But most Americans do not know this. According to a recent Opinion Research Corp. poll, 71 percent of Americans believe that the HSUS is an umbrella organization for local Humane Society pet shelters nationwide.
It’s not. And the HSUS profits greatly from this confusion. In 2010, the organization posted $148.7 million in revenue, revenue its leaders aren’t willing to give up without a fight. Just ask Didi Culp, the human educator for Frederick County, Md., Animal Control.
Culp was director of education at HSUS for three years before leaving the organization because she wanted to offer more services to local shelters without charging them anything.
So she joined the Humane Society for Shelter Pets, a nonprofit that educates Americans on the need to directly support local pet shelters, not advocacy groups like the HSUS.
Culp also helped produce a video for HSSP, some of which used images of the Frederick County Animal Control, encouraging Americans to donate locally. She then posted the video online. HSUS did not appreciate the competition.
Not only did HSUS demand that the video be taken down (it has been) but its officials have also supported an ethics complaint against Culp with Frederick County.
The HSUS claims that Culp illegally “misused county property by exploiting her access to Frederick County Animal Control to promote HSSP.”
Contacted for comment, John Balzar HSUS Senior Vice President of Communications said, “We spent $97 million helping animals, the people behind HSSP spent zero.”
Curiously, HSUS marketers see no ethical problems when they photograph animals at shelters. Remember all those photos HSUS used in their fund-raising television spot? Many of them were shot at county animal shelters just like Frederick’s.
Culp is hardly the only one in the animal shelter community who does not appreciate HSUS’ intentional brand confusion. According to a Center for Consumer Freedom poll of 400 animal shelter professionals nationwide, 71 percent believe that HSUS misleads people into thinking it is associated with local animal shelters and 84 percent believe that HSUS fundraising makes it harder for local shelters to raise their own money.
So if the HSUS isn’t giving money to protect pets in local shelters, where is that money going? Well for starters, HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle’s total compensation package was over $275,000 in 2010. Another 28 HSUS employees made over $100,000.
Then there is the lobbying. Between 2005 and 2009, HSUS spent $17.3 million lobbying governments and sponsoring ballot initiatives attacking the livestock industry and promoting veganism.
Now veganism is a perfectly acceptable lifestyle choice. I even have some favorite vegetarian restaurants of my own. But governments shouldn’t be telling people what to eat and nonprofits shouldn’t be funding anti-meat regulatory campaigns with money that donors believe is going to protect pets.
Charity Watch, a nonprofit charity watchdog organization, gave HSUS a ‘D’ rating since it spends almost half of its budget on fundraising.
For her part, Culp has some simple advice for those who want to help animals like those in HSUS ads: “Donate locally if you can, but if not, you can donate time or adopt a pet.”
Conn Carroll is a senior editorial writer for The Washington Examiner. He can be reached at ccarroll@washingtonexaminer.com.
