Humane Bites #295: Humane Confusion Here, There, and Everywhere

Clippings culled from all over the electronic news world. (E-mail submissions for next time.)

• Local humane society: We aren’t HSUS and we aren’t involved in party politics
• Local humane society: “Every single one of them [local humane societies] is an individual corporation.”
• Local humane society: HSUS ads scare people into thinking they’ll walk into “sad situations”
• Nebraska Governor: "We don't need [HSUS’s] help."
• Featured Shelter: Humane Society of Northwest Iowa (Donate. Volunteer. Adopt.)

The Plot Thickens in Charity Fundraising Scandal

We wrote recently about the case of Disabled Veterans National Foundation after CNN reported that almost all of the money raised by this veterans charity wasn’t actually going to veterans, but to a for-profit fundraising firm named Quadriga Art and its subsidiary. Interestingly, the Humane Society of the U.S. has also been a recent Quadriga client, paying the firm nearly $20 million in 2009 and 2010. (We don’t have the 2011 tax return yet.)

Now, CNN reports that the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, led by Sen. Max Baucus of Montana and Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, will investigate DVNF and its fundraising activities. DVNF has reportedly raised $55.9 million since 2007, yet paid Quadriga more than $60 million between 2008 and 2010.

Sen. Baucus said this on Anderson Cooper:

I don’t want retired schoolteachers or any good American to be duped by fraudulent organizations giving money thinking it’s going to go to disabled vets when in fact it’s not at all, it’s going to pad the pockets of some scam artist.

One of the CNN investigators put it:

Behind these donations are Americans that really want to help veterans. That’s why it’s so disheartening. They’re opening up their wallets thinking they are doing good and putting money directly into the hands of a for-profit company that’s making a killing off this.

Replace “veterans” with “dogs and cats,” and that sounds like a perfect fit for HSUS’s lucrative little scam. HSUS’s situation doesn’t seem as egregious as DVNF’s, to be sure, but it still strikes us as extremely unethical. HSUS is enabling groups like Quadriga to stay afloat. Just as people think they’re supporting vets by giving to DVNF, people think by giving to HSUS they helping those abandoned and abused dogs and cats in HSUS’s ads. We know, because we’ve documented this sad state of affairs among HSUS’s own donors.

So while Senators are looking at standing up for veterans’ supporters, why don’t they help animal lovers, too?

The 50% Pledge: We’re Still Willing to Close Shop

HOW LONG HAVE WE WAITED?

This weekend marks the second anniversary of our HumaneWatch 50% Pledge. A few months after our launch, we promised to shut down this website for good if the Humane Society of the United States made one simple promise: to give 50 percent of its budget to pet shelters. Currently, HSUS gives only 1 percent of its budget to hands-on pet shelters.

So far, we haven’t heard a peep from HSUS about this. And judging from the fact that HSUS’s most recent tax return (2010) once again shows that 1 percent of the money it raised went to pet shelters, it doesn’t seem willing to change.

The one thing that has changed is HSUS’s PR spin. For instance, HSUS now claims that it has given $43 million in grants to other organizations since 2005. That’s pretty good—until you consider that a sizeable chunk of this appears to be other HSUS groups. HSUS gave $4 million in grants to its ballot initiative front group in California to raise farmers’ and consumers’ costs—to say nothing of the millions it spent on grants to similar groups in Missouri, Arizona, Ohio, and Colorado. HSUS has also given millions in “grants” to its affiliate Humane Society International.

An HSUS claim is (once again) exposed as having little substance. The information is all out there, for those who want to do the digging. HSUS doesn’t want you to. That’s why it’s so important that you help spread the word. Email your friends. “Share” us with your Facebook contacts. Ask your local vet or pet shelter if you can put a flyer up. Tweet about it.

HSUS’s dithering and self-promotion may seem trivial. But consider the millions of cats and dogs that will be put down this year. That should be as good a motivation as any to make sure that the millions that HSUS takes in go directly to groups that actually run pet shelters. If our recent startling poll of HSUS donors is any indication, many of them are willing to reconsider their gifts if they only know the truth.