Seventy-one percent of Americans believe the so-called “Humane Society” of the United States (HSUS) is an umbrella group that represents thousands of pet shelters. But as you know if you read this page often, HSUS is an animal rights group that spends less than one percent of its members’ donations on grants to hands-on pet shelters (while spending boatloads on a radical agenda).
Thankfully, the truth is spreading. David Mastio, deputy editorial page editor at The Washington Times, took to the pages of the Sunday Des Moines Register to clarify for Iowans just what HSUS really is, just days after HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle brought his anti-egg roadshow to the Hawkeye State. We couldn’t have put it better ourselves. It’s heartening to see that more and more people are truly understanding one of America’s most deceptive charities and telling it like it is:
The Humane Society runs television ads on national networks focused on abused, neglected and abandoned dogs and cats – the sympathetic pets most likely to open people's wallets – but then turns around and spends the bulk of its money on other things. The shelters it directly runs are not for pets, but rather primarily for wildlife and farm animals….
Even the money that gets sent to local animal shelters is dubious. For instance, the largest grant from the Humane Society of the United States in Iowa, disclosed in the latest IRS forms, is $9,044 to a shelter in Fairfield. According to the shelter's Web site, the money was used to give Humane Society-produced propaganda to grade school teachers for use in classrooms. Among other things it asks children to pressure their schools to use only cage-free eggs and write to their congressional representatives.
Turning kids into little lobbyists isn't direct animal care. Paying a local animal shelter to distribute literature encouraging political activism isn't supporting the shelter. And that's the Humane Society of the United States – politics hiding behind precious little actual charity.
Read the whole piece here.