As a veterinarian I recommend to all my family, friends, and clients that if they want to donate they do so on a local level.  The number of people who think the local humane society is part of the HSUS is astounding.  I am sure the HSUS is aware of this and capitalizes on it immensely, greedily taking the dollars of a well-meaning, uneducated public.  Most shelters welcome tours and readily answer questions from potential donors.  If they don’t, then they probably don’t deserve your dollars.  Usually veterinarians have a pretty good idea which of the local rescues are good and which are bad.

As someone who has done quite a bit of pet rescue, I’d like to add some additional tips for finding a local shelter or rescue group.

Ask your veterinarian and local animal control officer.  They should have a good feel for what groups will make the best use of donations.

If you’re interested in an organization, ask if you can attend their meetings.

Ask them for a copy of their tax returns.  As we’ve seen here, you can learn a lot about an organization by seeing how they spend their donations.

If you can, volunteer some of your time.  Animal sheltering groups can always use help.  We realize that not everyone can be a foster home, but everyone has some sort of skills that can be useful and appreciated.

I predict that this generous woman will really enjoy watching her donations at work.

Everyone should do research before they donate money to an organization.  That being said… anyone who is remotely plugged into their local animal control shelter, SPCA, or humane society would know that they are all independently run organizations - not associated with a national organization.  I don’t think that the HSUS attempts to portray itself as anyone’s local shelter.  If legal work & puppy mill raids & lobbying on behalf of animals was not what you intended to be supporting - than you should have done a little homework.  The HSUS does great things for animals even if it isn’t running animal shelters, which is already taken care of by local organizations.

Great idea and advice.  I hope more take it. 

I wonder whatever happened to the nun who taught me in the 6th grade.

Don’t forget if they need/want to give to help for a specific breed, parent clubs have websites and someone could be in the same area thru them to help with rescue.  Not all Parent Clubs have rescue groups in every city, but one never knows that one won’t be close that works with an entire state!  Parent Clubs can be found listed on the AKC website.

Parent Clubs are where we who breed and show donate to pay for health problems to be worked on for DNA tests…...to prevent health problems.

@NC_Old_Timer

The HSUS itself does a fair amount to deceive potential donors into thinking they will be donating to directly ‘rescue’ dogs or cats. As evidenced by their commercials, you can watch one here: http://bit.ly/3RsCR

I would also argue that local organizations often struggle to ‘take care of’ running animal shelters, even though you make it sound like they have everything under control. Exhibit A: http://bit.ly/buu2na.

I agree that people should do their homework on organizations before they donate money to them; however, HSUS only makes as much money as they do because the capitalize on the fact that people won’t do their own homework.

I was shocked and surprised at how much money is “wasted” by the Humane Society. There is a local shelter here called “Animal House”. Do you know anything about them ? Or, how can I find out how they manage their money ? Thanks, Josie

I think local rescues and county shelters who routinely run with almost no budget, but by law, are required to provide services are amazing places to donate money. AND you can stipulate how your money is used!

Our local Humane Society is so stuck to the proverbial BUTT of HSUS and their coffers so full that it actually upsets me. Also an organization who only takes “media worthy rescues”, makes people make an appointment to bring animals in, asks or requires you to pay to take them if they even agree to do so and lastly ONLY takes adoptable animals. (keeps their kill rate low). With a low kill rate (do to selecting accepting only the most adoptable pets) their shelter stats look amazing and make them a darling of the public. All the while the local shelters are suffering from lack of funding.

I truly believe money is best donated to county run shelters and private rescues taking those animals no one else will!

@ ktb3317

I’d suggest that you take a moment to remove your “I hate HSUS” goggles to carefully re-watch the commercial that you posted for NC_Old_Timer to view. Nearly every single animal that is in that video appears to be a hoarding or puppy mill or dog fighting rescue situation—rather than looking like your average shelter resident. Yes, they are showing way more “pet animals” vs. farm animals or wildlife/game animals and they don’t SPECIFICALLY mention all of their lobbying and other non-hands-on-care activities, but exactly how much detail are they supposed to put in a commercial? Americans have short attention spans.

The trouble is that most people who watch the commercials don’t listen carefully (“HSUS is the nation’s most effective animal PROTECTION organization” and join in the fight “to elminate animal abuse everywhere” and “fighting animal cruelty wherever it exists”) People let the sad eyes of the animals in this commercial tug at their heart strings. They’re listening to the sad lyrics(“I’ve been treated so wrong…as if I’m becoming untouchable..”) Then they dial up HSUS and give them money without knowing what their money will be used for.

I’m not a huge fan of HSUS. I definitely think that the wording on their commercials could be a bit clearer that the money will go not only towards rescue efforts but also towards lots and lots of lobbying (and other activities described on their website) with a specific disclaimer that they are not affiliated with any local humane society shelters.

However, much of the fault does lie with the people who don’t do any investigating to find out how much of their donation to HSUS will actually go to their local humane society vs. the humane societies in other communities vs. other non-shelter “abuse & cruetly prevention” activities.

@LLS1190 I don’t really have the “I hate HSUS goggles” to remove, I am simply someone who has done my OWN research into HSUS after seeing their many commercials. However, I have to wonder if you read my entire post? The entire last paragraph said that I agree that people need to do their homework, did it not???
Also in regards to your comment: “Yes, they are showing way more “pet animals” vs. farm animals or wildlife/game animals and they don’t SPECIFICALLY mention all of their lobbying and other non-hands-on-care activities, but exactly how much detail are they supposed to put in a commercial?”
Since their focus is NOT ‘pet animals’ and the majority of their money does go to fund-raising and lobbying, perhaps that should be what the focus of their commercial is? Perhaps they should tell people that those animals are victims of ‘hoarding or puppy mill or dog fighting rescue situation’ and explain what they are going to use the money for if they really believe it to be the worthy cause they think it is? I have a feeling it is because if they tell people directly that their true focus is, as you put it, “rescue efforts but also towards lots and lots of lobbying (and other activities described on their website),” they will not receive nearly as much money. Instead, they choose to continue to use words like the direct quote from the video at :50 that says “rescuing tens of thousands of animals every year…” Which leads me to believe [without my own research] that they are going to take these animals, RESCUE them, and guarantee that they will not be hurt again. Unfortunately, what actually happens is that they lobby to outlaw puppy-mills and hoarding (which, by the way, I am 100% in support of being abolished, they are terrible practices). Once those have been outlawed, in laws that will likely be effective either immediately or in an incredibly short term, all of the animals that were in those situations are forced into one of two places, the outdoors after they are abandoned, or the local shelters. With little to no funding in local shelters, they stand about as much of a chance of living in the shelter as they do running across the highway of a major city because the shelters simply can’t manage to care for the animals.
“If these animals could talk, they would tell you that they desperately need you to save them right now.” Again, at what cost are the future animals being saved from abuse? And how am I saving an animal if it is going to be killed as soon as HSUS gets involved either by exposing the situation or lobbying for laws? The HSUS needs to walk the talk, they need to be supporting the shelters in the areas they are outlawing puppy mills, and hoarding, so that those animals are truly SAVED, rather than killed shortly after their “animal saving” laws are enacted.  You mentioned at one point “dog fighting rescue situations,” I would hardly consider the HSUS as rescuing dogs from those situations as after Michael Vick’s dog fighting ring was exposed, the HSUS ran an aggressive fund raising campaign to ‘save Michael Vick’s dogs.’ While at the same time, Wayne Pacelle (the chief executive at HSUS) was telling everyone, “The fate of these dogs will be up to the government, but we have recommended to them, and believe, they will be eventually put down.”
Again, if you read my last post, I said, “I AGREE THAT PEOPLE SHOULD DO THEIR OWN HOMEWORK ON ORGANIZATIONS BEFORE THEY DONATE MONEY TO THEM.” But, HSUS is capitalizing on the fact that people WON’T. By using sensationalized images, and vague, cryptic language, they manipulate the situation in their favor.

“Also an organization who only takes “media worthy rescues”, makes people make an appointment to bring animals in, asks or requires you to pay to take them if they even agree to do so and lastly ONLY takes adoptable animals.”

Jes, I mostly agree with your post, but there are reasons for some of these specific policies.

1.  Making an appointment.  Many small organizations are doing the best they can with limited funding.  There are far more animals who need help than they can handle.  So they make the painful choice to only take in the number that they can humanely care for.  Additionally, many rescues don’t have any sort of public shelter at all, and rely completely on foster homes.  Again, this limits the number of intake possible.  I do not knock shelters who take in all animals by saying this.  They have a valuable place in the community and do an incredibly difficult job.  What I’m saying is that not all shelters do so. 

2.  The donation.  When doing rescue, I almost never took in animals directly from owners.  I preferred to focus my resources on pets who had run out of time in local shelters.  However, there were exceptions.  And if I accepted a pet directly from the owner, heck yeah I asked for a donation.  I didn’t demand it, but on average I spent around $100 out of my own pocket for the care of each dog or cat before I adopted it out.  Donations and adoption fees helped, or that amount would be much higher.  I don’t feel that it’s unreasonable to at least ask for assistance from the person who should have been dedicated to caring for their own pet through its lifetime.

3.  Taking in only adoptable animals.  If an animal is completely unadoptable, why would I tie up my home or a shelter space indefinitely when I could be using it to save lives?  On average, I fostered about six dogs per year in my home.  One unadoptable foster dog would have meant those six dogs died in a shelter every year.  My definition of unadoptable is pretty much the same as incurable.  If there’s such an aggression issue that the dog can never be safely rehomed, it would also be a danger to my family or to shelter volunteeers.  Note that a pet being old, having behavior issues that are fixable, or having treatable medical conditions is not what I consider unadoptable.

There’s a big variety of what shelter and rescue policies are.  Some take in every animal and are forced to euthanize.  Some are no kill, but can’t take in as many animals.  Most are just doing the most good they can with the resources they can scrape up.

I noticed your logo has no dog on it, hunters who use dogs and dog breeders are under attack, why would you not have a dog on your logo?

Most of my critters are unadoptable in a lot of places because of their breed. They do pose a threat to people who don’t know how to handle them but are not vicious animals,but left in most shelters they would have been killed just as HSUS said Vick’s dogs should be destroyed. HSUS is out of control. They started working with a good idea, then came the big money and no taxes the ideas went from one of animal welfare to screw you,were big enough,we lie to get your money,spend it the way we want and tell you we know how to care for a pet better than you. That’s not animal rights, its a dictatorship in action. And I have never asked for money to take any animal and give it a home.

HSUS needs to be taken out and destroyed. I think they met their match!

About two/three years ago, i wanted to give my birthday money i saved up for 4 years to help animals. At first i thought what about the HSUS? But then my parents said, “How about you donate the money to a local shelter.” I went to a pet store and bought supplies for my local shelter. They dropped off the stuff at the shelter. I am saying that if you wanna really help animals, instead of donating to the HSUS go the route i did. It really helps and the shelter appraciates it.

Thank you Meg. Allmost daily you will find adds in your local classified from local shelters asking for donated supplies. If you dont see an add, check your local shelter and ask them what they need. If people do nothing else, at least pick up a couple of bags of suitable feed and simply drop it off when you are in the area. People should support what their community supports, be it humans or animals in need.

I,, just like “W” am donating $20 monthly to the HSUS.  Since I am disabled and not working, this is all that I can give to my pets.  I would much rather give on a local basis, to any shelter in central Arkansas.  Can anybody help me find a place that deserves my money ?

re: the HSUS ads.
The phrase “tens of thousands of animals rescued” keeps reverberating in my head. Has anyone been able to verify this claim.? The high profile operations seem to help only a few hundred animals at a time, and there are only a few such rescues in a year.
Like the supposed 11 million members, where do the numbers come from?
Oh, and by the way, Wayne has finally started to catch on. He now cuddles a cat and pets a dog in the newest “rescueanimalsnow.org” ad. And why do they need a different name if everything is on the up and up/

Oops! I think I deleted a reply from HW about the numbers of rescues. Any way to retrieve it?