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.

“Direct Care” By Whom?

HSUS recently bragged that it is “consistently at the top among hands-on services provided by any humane organization.” That was right before we discovered that HSUS’s self-calculated “direct care” for animals plummeted last year compared to 2010. As we’ve dug a little deeper, we’ve had more questions about HSUS’s claim.

For example, most of the “direct care” HSUS counts is spay/neuter procedures. And that “direct” care may actually be provided by others—HSUS just puts on the PR to promote it.

HSUS also brags that it operates several wildlife and horse sanctuaries. Here’s a little background on them:

Black Beauty Ranch—a 1,300-acre Texas ranch originally operated solely by the Fund for Animals. The Fund merged with HSUS in 2005, and HSUS is now listed as a “partner.”

South Florida Wildlife Center—this was actually founded in 1969. From what we can see, this group (known as the “Wildlife Care Center SPCA of Broward County”) is still a separate organization from HSUS.

The Fund for Animals Wildlife Center—founded in 1984 in Southern California. Helps rehabilitate feral cats, cougars, birds, etc.

The Cape Wildlife Center—founded in 2000 and located in Massachusetts, currently run by the Fund for Animals “in partnership” with HSUS.

Rabbit Sanctuary, Inc.—located in South Carolina, it’s a legally separate group “supported by” the Fund for Animals.

Duchess Sanctuary – this Oregon horse sanctuary was apparently only “made possible” (HSUS’s words) because of $3.5 million in grant money to buy and manage the property from The Roberts Foundation, the Ark Watch Foundation, and the Ark’s founder. (Given that HSUS has $200 million in assets, couldn’t it spare a few million?)

The Doris Day Horse Rescue and Adoption Center—started in 2011, it’s a center on the Black Beauty Ranch that received a quarter of a million dollars in support from the Doris Day Animal Foundation, an independent group affiliated with HSUS, and operated by HSUS and the Fund for Animals.

We’re not sure how many HSUS resources go towards these groups. The Fund for Animals still files a separate tax return, which indicates to us that it’s still a separate group. The Fund’s latest return indicates that it spent almost $1.5 million on the two wildlife centers. The Rabbit Sanctuary is a separate group from FFA and HSUS, as well.

Records indicate that the Fund sent about $55,000 to the South Florida Wildlife Center and Rabbit Sanctuary in 2010. However, we don’t see HSUS giving money to either group that year. Yet Wayne Pacelle is off telling a TEDx crowd that “we run a rabbit sanctuary.” Um, not really—we’d have to say someone named Caroline Gilbert does.

Here’s what it seems like: Almost all of these “direct care” projects were started by groups other than HSUS and simply brought under HSUS’s umbrella through mergers/acquisitions. As far as we can tell, these sanctuaries are largely funded by HSUS affiliates.

Consider this disclaimer on the Fund for Animals’ website:

While The Fund and The HSUS are partners in these efforts, donations to The Fund for Animals are used specifically to support Fund programs, such as the direct animal care centers…

So it seems like these are “Fund programs”—not HSUS programs. (The Fund is a legally separate group, so it makes sense.) HSUS “direct care” programs only make up about 8 percent of its budget—and a lot of this seems to be directed toward non-sanctuary uses.

Is it really intellectually honest for HSUS to take credit in the manner it does? In its most recent tax return, HSUS says to reference the separate tax returns of the Fund for Animals and the SPCA Wildlife Center when it discusses the sanctuaries, writing that the Fund is “responsible for most HSUS animal care facilities.”

Think we’re splitting hairs? The Fund raises money on its own letterhead.  There seems to be potential for double- or triple-counting. In fact, in one blog post, Wayne Pacelle claims that 60,000 animals were “cared for by The HSUS”—but in that tally he includes 27,000 animals that received care from Humane Society International, a separate group. See what we mean?

We’re not going to knock whatever help HSUS provides for these projects. But there’s a lot of talk going on. Can’t HSUS do more?

Animal Neglect: An HSUS Double Standard?

We’ve remarked that it’s strange for the Humane Society of the United States to try to dictate to farmers how to farm considering that no one in HSUS’s leadership has a degree in animal husbandry. When it comes to animal sheltering, though, HSUS has a bit more credibility. We found one person on HSUS’s board who does have experience with an animal shelter. Unfortunately, her record isn’t exactly stellar.

Meet Jane Greenspun Gale, who was chairman of Lied (pronounced “leed”) Animal Foundation, the main shelter in the Las Vegas area. We say was, because she resigned her chairmanship (but remained on the board) in early 2007 after news emerged of the deplorable conditions for animals at the shelter, resulting in 1,000 pets being put down—more than half the animals in the shelter at the time. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, an inspection team “found sick animals at Lied were ignored and left to die in their cages, dogs starved in overcrowded runs, and incoming animals were not vaccinated.”

The New York Times reported that the situation included a veritable cocktail of diseases:

Managers of the Lied Animal Shelter, where the outbreak occurred, said the severity of the crisis came as a surprise. They had invited a team of inspectors from the Humane Society of the United States to tour the center this month because they thought they would be praised for their practice of euthanizing animals sparingly, in comparison with shelters of similar size.

Instead, the six-member Humane Society inspection group found a severely overcrowded shelter where many animals appeared very ill. Tests revealed that hundreds were suffering from one or more of three viruses and an aggressive bacterial infection. […]

Disease outbreaks in shelters are not unusual, but this one was especially gruesome because there were so many different illnesses at once, said Dr. Kate Hurley, head of the Shelter Medicine Program at the University of California, Davis, and one of two veterinarians on the Humane Society inspection team. The viruses were Parvovirus, canine distemper and feline panleukopenia; the bacterial infection was a fatal hemorrhagic, or bloody, pneumonia.

''I'm not aware of outbreaks of this magnitude,'' said Dr. Hurley.

That’s after a 2001 audit discovered inadequate management controls and found that “lax accounting and improper practices led to animals being lost, stolen or unnecessarily euthanized.” If any old pet owner had dogs and cats in the conditions at Lied Animal Shelter, HSUS would have raided him, seized his animals, filmed a fundraising video, and put out a press release alleging animal cruelty. (And rightfully so, probably.) HSUS would also likely push for criminal charges.

But in this case, HSUS seemed awfully quiet. In fact, as noted above, Lied had hired HSUS to inspect the shelter, and the team’s report was hard-hitting and exposed the major problems. But HSUS was content to see improvements in the shelter—a redemptive attitude it doesn’t seem to spare for many.

Obviously, animals in shelters are euthanized every day and sheltering is a tough job. But we haven’t heard of anything like this before. Gale was a major funder, putting $12 million into the group, so surely she had an idea of the shelter’s poor situation. There were even allegations that appeared to substantiate criminal conduct, but HSUS wouldn’t turn over some details to municipal investigators, citing confidentiality, so the city’s probe couldn’t prove anything.

Meanwhile, Gale not only stayed on the board of the group, but then joined HSUS’s board just a few months after the fiasco. “[HSUS CEO] Wayne Pacelle, who I have known over 20 years ... he asked me to do this,” Gale told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

We really have to wonder what Pacelle saw in her. But then we remember that Greenspun Gale comes from a wealthy family line that owns the Las Vegas Sun. If we were cynical, we’d say it all makes sense—kind of like how the former dogfighting kingpin with the $100 million NFL contract is now an HSUS ambassador.

Photo: Flickr