# What's with PETA **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 20, 2025, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-peta/1019874 "2025-06-20T00:59:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-peta/1019874/21 "2025-06-26T10:55:33Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Okay, I stopped just remembering what I knew fifteen years ago and started googling. I’m afraid “started googling” is likely to end you up at some of those sham websites I mentioned earlier–but your total lack of cites makes it difficult to tell where you’re getting your information. For example: > [@Ulfreida](#): > > They [HSUS] have misrepresented themselves as rescue organization, but they are notable for euthanizing all the animals they ‘rescue’ cite? I don’t believe this is true. > [@Ulfreida](#): > > donating nothing to local shelters but intimating they do They provide invaluable resources to local shelters in terms of expertise and protocols. > [@Ulfreida](#): > > As everyone who knows anything about animal rescue will tell you, donations to your local shelter is the only recommended course I worked for six years at our local humane society, including as the director of education, and that’s not at all what I’ll tell you. ASPCA and HSUS, at least when I was there, were excellent organizations, and I’d wholly support donating to them if that’s where your heart is. PETA? I think of them as very effective trolls, but sincere trolls, in the Yippie mold. Saying they use “similar tactics” to terrorists is offensively absurd, but I wouldn’t recommend giving them money. I am curious what specific cites you found when you “started googling.” ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-peta/1019874/22 "2025-06-26T11:05:40Z")
What the ASPCA and Humane Society do well is broad scale outreach and education. The money you donate to them goes mostly to running the orgs and the development of ad campaigns. They don’t actually do a whole lot, money-wise, at the shelter level. > **[ASPCA spending may not be what donors expect, CBS News investigation finds](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/aspca-spending-donor-cbs-news-investigation/)** > > The ASPCA is not an umbrella organization for local organizations with SPCA in their names. If you want your dollars to help a specific set of animals, I think it’s better to donate locally to one of the specific rescues. PETA is in another insane category altogether. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-peta/1019874/23 "2025-06-26T11:28:32Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I am curious what specific cites you found when you “started googling.” CBS article that saje also found, a separate article on Fox News of all places. I also skimmed some Reddit discussions and found links to an org called Center For the Environment and Welfare, apparently a watchdog group, which detailed where HSUS and ASPCA monies are spent (almost all on self-promotion, fund-raising and salaries). ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-peta/1019874/24 "2025-06-26T12:09:46Z")
[Center for the Environment and Welfare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Organizational_Research_and_Education) is exactly the astroturf sham website I was warning you about. Check out this collection of articles about them, compiled by HSUS: > **[Who's Really Attacking The HSUS?](https://www.whoattackshsus.org/outside-the-hsus/)** > > Powerful interests attack The HSUS because we’re effective. We threaten the bottom line of industries that profit from abusing animals. Get the real story about who is behind attacks on The HSUS and how we are there for all animals, across the... And here’s the Sourcewatch article on them: [https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Berman\_%26\_Co](https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Berman_%26_Co). As for that CBS article–yes, ASPCA doesn’t run shelters. Their mission is more dedicated to advocacy. Don’t donate to that if advocacy isn’t your bag; but suggesting they’re corrupt based on that article is ridiculous. My favorite line: > [@](#): > > While it is a common enough practice for nonprofits to sell or rent donor lists, Charity Navigator deducts points for the practice. Between 2009 and 2019, the ASPCA made more than $3.2 million selling donor lists. The ASPCA’s privacy policy states that it may share some personal information, excluding financial information, with external parties. But according to Jo Sullivan at the Houston SPCA, not everyone is granted access to the list, even if they are willing to pay. > > “We were denied access to that list specifically because there is a disclaimer on our mailings that says that we do not receive any support from national nonprofits, including national SPCAs,” Sullivan said. So: 1. ASPCA sells their donor list to local shelters, and gets dinged as a charity for doing so. 2. A local shelter is denied access to the list, _specifically because they tell people that they don’t get support from national nonprofits._ They could remove that line to get access to the list. This is a ton of smoke with very little fire. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-peta/1019874/25 "2025-06-26T12:30:26Z")
Ok, fine. I will still stick with my local shelter. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-peta/1019874/26 "2025-06-26T12:36:01Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > But my wife has sent them money in the past. Bingo! Once you do that, you are put on a preferred list and pretty much harassed for the rest of your existence. If you want to donate, try to do it anonymously. PayPal is a way to do it unless they’ve found a way around that. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-peta/1019874/27 "2025-06-26T12:46:37Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Ok, fine. I will still stick with my local shelter. Totally legit! Most local shelters do great work. I’m not trying to persuade anyone to support HSUS or ASPCA–I just want people to be aware of the extremely well-funded attack strategies against them and not to be hoodwinked by Berman and Co. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-peta/1019874/28 "2025-06-26T13:15:01Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > I follow their advice & bring [cold animals](https://i.redd.it/unl6c631kxbz.jpg) in in winter time & warm them up. What’s the saying? “…you’re fed for a day, but they’re warm for a lifetime…”. something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-peta/1019874/29 "2025-06-29T00:07:07Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > There are three separate national organizations, all of them controversial… > > HSUS or Humane Society of the US, has been periodically mired in scandal. They have misrepresented themselves as rescue organization, but they are notable for euthanizing all the animals they ‘rescue’, donating nothing to local shelters but intimating they do, and paying their founder and CEO Wayne Pacelle (who stepped down due to sexual abuse scandals) the lion’s share of their take. They are the ‘respectable’ arm of PETA. I think you were right by first saying PETA, Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS) and ASPCA are separate organizations. But then you called HSUS “the ‘respectable’ arm of PETA” which suggests they’re connected. PETA has denounced HSUS as “betraying animals” and claims it supports factory farming, which makes me think they’re entirely separate groups. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-peta/1019874/30 "2025-06-29T00:36:18Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > But then you called HSUS “the ‘respectable’ arm of PETA” which suggests they’re connected. PETA has denounced HSUS as “betraying animals” and claims it supports factory farming, which makes me think they’re entirely separate groups. Well, I guess now they are, sounds like. I haven’t been keeping up, obviously. ---
**Author:** ![Zoobi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/13edae/32.png) [@Zoobi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoobi)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-peta/1019874/31 "2025-06-29T14:11:10Z")
They’ve always been separate. It’s not about keeping up, it’s about passing off false information as if one is an authority. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-peta/1019874/32 "2025-06-29T17:56:57Z")
Well, I apologize if you feel that is the case. They worked together in the past, as far as I know. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-peta/1019874.md?page=1)