Makin’ (Macon) the Rounds in Georgia

Part of HumaneWatch's mission is to educate Americans about the lack of any connection between the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the thousands of real “humane societies” in their communities. Many animal lovers don’t understand that hardly any of the money they contribute to HSUS trickles down to local pet shelters that need every dollar they can get.

Along those lines, we’re grateful to Georgia's Macon Telegraph for publishing our op-ed on Sunday. Newspaper opinion pages provide a great way to talk about the critical shortage of funding for pet shelters everywhere, and about why donating directly at the local level instead of to HSUS or other large national groups is such a good idea.

Here's a little bit of our Sunday Telegraph essay:

Most Americans — 71 percent, according to Opinion Research Corporation — believe HSUS is an umbrella group for pet shelters. (No wonder: “Humane Society” is right there in its name.) And 59 percent of us believe HSUS gives “most of its money” to the pet shelters in our cities and towns.

Most of us are dead wrong. HSUS isn’t affiliated with any pet shelters, it doesn’t run any and it barely funds any. If you pledge $19 a month, only about $2 of your $228 annual contribution will trickle down to a real humane society …

HSUS is also very much a political animal. Between 2006 and 2008, it spent more than $5.4 million on political front groups, and millions more directly lobbying lawmakers. In California, HSUS spent 10 times as much attacking egg farmers and pork producers as it did funding pet shelters.

You can read the whole piece here.