Ask Bissell to Stop Supporting HSUS
After our victory recently in asking Bosch to back off partnering with HSUS—which couldn’t have been achieved without our readers taking action—we’d like to keep up the momentum. Let’s start by turning towards Bissell, the vacuum cleaner maker.
The Bissell Pet Foundation has given money to HSUS, and Bissell lists HSUS as a “Participating Shelter” of its “Partners for Pets” program. That’s odd: HSUS does not run a single pet shelter. And it’s hardly a worthy advocate of shelters, for several reasons:
- HSUS unjustly makes money based on the confusion between it and local humane societies (HSUS isn’t affiliated with local pet shelters)—meaning it vacuums up money from local communities and hoards it.
- HSUS only donates about 1% of the money it takes in to local pet shelters to help them care for animals. In contrast, it puts far more money into its pension plan and into Caribbean “investments” than it gives to shelters; in 2014 alone HSUS put over $50 million into the Caribbean.
Please email Ryan Mclean, brand VP of Bissell Homecare, at [email protected], and CEO Mark Bissell at [email protected] and ask them to remove HSUS from this program and stop funding HSUS. If you want to include a few facts about HSUS, feel free to consult our “10 Things You Should Know” page. A number of major brands, including Discover, have dropped their partnerships with HSUS once they learned more about the organization.
It’s worth noting that Bissell has a history of support for animal welfare. The Bissell Pet Foundation makes grants to local shelters across the country. It’s a good program, and something that HSUS ought to be doing. Hopefully Bissell will realize the importance of not letting its good brand be tied to HSUS.
