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:
cite? I don’t believe this is true.
They provide invaluable resources to local shelters in terms of expertise and protocols.
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.”
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.
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.
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).
Center for the Environment and Welfare is exactly the astroturf sham website I was warning you about. Check out this collection of articles about them, compiled by HSUS:
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:
So:
ASPCA sells their donor list to local shelters, and gets dinged as a charity for doing so.
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.
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.
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.
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.