Enriching Women’s Lives (Not HSUS’s Bottom Line)

Kudos to everyone who spoke to Mary Kay cosmetics yesterday. In the time it took us to get from Washington, DC to San Francisco yesterday, the roster of corporate sponsors for HSUS's upcoming Dallas fundraiser got one (pink) name shorter.

You can't make this stuff up.

Stay with us, though. There's more after the jump.

And here's a message that the Mary Kay company issued yesterday afternoon on its Facebook wall (emphasis in the original):

MARY KAY: Humane Society Concerns
Yesterday at 4:31pm

Some fans of Mary Kay® products and independent beauty consultants have expressed concerns over a recent sponsorship of a Dallas-area event. Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention. We have heard you and want to clarify any confusion.

First and foremost, Mary Kay is not a sponsor of this event. Mary Kay’s owner’s wife was approached to make a personal contribution towards a local event here in Dallas sponsored by the Dallas chapter of the Humane Society. This event specifically supports efforts to stop puppy mills and the organization’s stop puppy mills campaign. Out of caring and compassion for addressing puppy mills, our owner’s wife agreed to make a personal contribution. Mary Kay has contacted the Humane Society to clarify that we are not sponsors of this event and the company logo is being removed from the website.

As a company, we sincerely apologize for any confusion or causing any offense to members of the Mary Kay community.

It's great that the company has set the record straight. Score one for the good guys.

But one thing bugs us about its statement. The company is saying that Nancy Rogers (whose mother-in-law was company founder Mary Kay Ash) intended to make a contribution to "the Dallas chapter of the Humane Society." You know what happens when you Google that phrase?

This:

We can't find any indication online that there is such a thing as an HSUS "Dallas chapter." There is, however, a no-kill pet shelter called the Humane Society of Dallas County.

If a mega-wealthy philanthropist can't sort out the various "humane societies" from one another, how is the average American supposed to figure it out?