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What IS The Humane Society of the United States?
By Christopher Aust
August 2004
I was rather amazed at the
number of people who wrote to me about my opinions regarding the Humane Society
of the United States (HSUS) when I did my last few articles. Then again,
maybe I shouldn't be. Before about two weeks ago, I myself was rather
ignorant as to the real goals of HSUS, and where their, (actually your) money
goes. As I always do though, I decided to edumacate myself about them.
I also conducted a poll of 100 average people. Just the average
Joe in the street. 94% of the people thought HSUS ran the local shelters
in their community. 4% knew about their other programs and the remaining
2% had no idea who they were. Of the 94% all said they would donate to
HSUS based on what they knew about them. I'm betting HSUS is banking,
literally, on these types of individuals.
I also went online and found
some rather interesting, at times quite scary, information on several web sites.
I would have interviewed a HSUS representative, but after last week's
newsletter, I got an email from one that was little more than hate mail and very
offensive!
Founders
Coleman Burke, then president of the
American Bible Society, Cleveland Amory and Helen Jones, founded HSUS in 1954.
As far as I have been able to tell, Mr. Burke served as their President
until 1970 when John Hoyt, a Presbyterian minister, took over as President and
CEO until 1996.
Until just a few months ago, the President and CEO was
Paul Irwin, a Methodist minister. The current CEO and President is Wayne
Pacelle who admittedly has had ties with some radical (and I mean radical)
animal rights groups in the past.
Now, is it important I mention the
religious background? Maybe and maybe not. What I noticed though is
the organization, at least to me, has an evangelical feel. Is this a bad
thing? No. I don't see why unless you are running the finances in a
manner similar to Jim and Tammie Faye Baker! That sure is the way it looks
to me.
Officers and Directors
HSUS is an organization with
their primary focus being animals. As I reviewed the names and titles of the
Board Officers and Directors, I found it curious they had no DVM's (vets)
on either. They have three MDs', three PhDs' and six attorneys. Am I
the only one that finds this odd? Plenty of lawyers, but no vet.
Hmmm… Maybe it's just a typo.
Comparative Financial
Operations Report
When I conducted my interview with Kathy Bauch a few
weeks ago, she refused to answer any questions regarding HSUS' finances for a
“newsletter.” She did offer to send me their 2003 financials though.
This is what they send whenever someone has questions about their
finances. As I mentioned last week, if it was similar to what they have
online, it would be vague and difficult to decipher. What I got was much
more.
What I received is their 2003 Annual Report. It is a
twenty-one page “report” that was obviously very expensive to print.
Tucked way in the back is exactly what I expected. A vague and
difficult to read one page financial report. The rest appears to me to be
a very expensive sales letter and nothing more, complete with a postage paid
envelope to send in your donation.
Now you might say, “So what?
They have to promote themselves.” I agree. However, this publication
has six pages of calendar quality photos of nothing but animals. Two and a
half pages of self-glorifying articles from HSUS staff, none of which was
necessary. How much donor money could have been saved by deleting this
junk from the thousands and thousands of these reports they printed?
According to the Comparative Financial Operations Report for 2003, the
HSUS has $116,205,882.00 in total liability and net assets. Over
$5,000,000 of that is in cash and cash equivalents, and another nearly five and
a half million in receivables. They also have nearly $93,000,000 in market
value investments. Not too bad.
In 2003, in revenue, additions and
transfers, HSUS made $76,923,670. Of that amount, sheltering programs
received $10,551,527 and it was shared with animal habitat and wildlife
programs. Now, assuming it was an even split, sheltering programs received
$3,517,175.66
Now that's a lot of money, but not when you consider a
good sized shelter can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to run,
three million is really a drop in the bucket. They spent $21,145,769.00 in
fundraising and membership development. Six times what they put into their
shelter programs, which is what most people I talked to think HSUS does with the
money donated to them.
Providing Help or Selling It
I'm not
sure what they spent the money on for their shelter programs, but I will assure
you they didn't fund any shelters. In fact, they charge shelters and
Animal Control offices for their assistance and instructional material. I
have been able to find little and or nothing HSUS doesn't charge for when it
comes to helping a shelter and their educational programs.
For instance,
lets say you or your town runs an animal shelter that is struggling for one
reason or another, which most are, HSUS is ready to come in and help. For
between $4000.00 and $20,000.00 they will send their experts to your shelter
through their Animal Services Consultation Program. The fee depends on the
size of the agency and the complexity of its programs, charged on a sliding
scale based on your agency's resources. In other words, the more you have,
the more they'll take.
Youth Programs
Now, lets go back to
our youth. You're in middle or high school and want to start a club to
promote rescue and do things to help companion animals. HSUS can help you
with that, too. Just go to humaneteen.org. There you can buy a
package full of all kinds of propaganda and learn to be a full-fledged animal
activist. They will sell your child a club starter kit for $22.00 and then
give activity suggestions like their “Fight Fur” program.
Here they
encourage kids to make flyers and hand them out in front of businesses to
protest against shoppers buying fur. HSUS will also give your child cards
to distribute at such events. They'll show your child pictures of dead
animals in traps and direct them to other sites where they can see pictures of
hunters beating seals over the head.
They will also promote
vegen/vegetarian lifestyles to your child. Just go to the message board
for kids and you can read how many of the kids are distressed, after reading the
material HSUS SOLD them, because their parents will not let them go vegen.
You will also see posts promoting PETA!
Now I want to be fair
here. They do have some decent material that is age appropriate and
educational in nature. I think it's overpriced; for instance, your child
can rent a video to show their class for $25.00, but some of it is good
material. However, there is little promoting appropriate training,
grooming or responsible ownership of companion animals. It seems to me the
whole focus is turning our children into activists, vegens and extremists.
Now if I want my child to be a vegen, or an activist, I will make that
decision and not HSUS. Our kids have enough on their plate without having
to be weighed down with this information or agenda. Additionally, kids are
kids and don't always make appropriate decisions. When dealing with
complex issues like activism and protesting, it would be easy for them to get
into trouble or hurt. Doesn't PETA target children too?
Ethical Financial Practices
Let's get back to the money:
Former President John Hoyt once instructed his members on becoming more
humane: “We begin, I suggest, by living more simply, more sparingly.”
Let's see how he did. He made around $200,000.00 in the late 1980's
running HSUS. In 1986, HSUS bought his house in Maryland for $310,000 and
allowed him and his family to live there, free of rent, until 1992. When
he retired as CEO, HSUS gave him a $1,000,000.00 bonus.
Paul Irwin,
another former President, while making $300,000.00 from HSUS, was given an
$85,000.00 interest free loan to renovate his cabin in Maine. The cabin
was held in trust by HSUS, however his family continued to use it until he died.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Makes me wonder.
Guilty by Association
Let's look at some of HSUS'
associations:
In April of 2000 HSUS sent J.P. Goodwin as its emissary on
an anti-fur mission to China. Goodwin is not just any animal rights
zealot, he was an avowed member of Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a group once
called one of the biggest domestic terrorist organizations by the FBI. He
had been convicted for vandalism of several fur retailers and their property.
Less than a year later, he was formerly identified as a HSUS legislative
staff member.
If you don't know about ALF you should check them out.
They truly scare the heck out of me. They are, in my opinion, every
bit as much a threat to people as Al Quiada. I cannot believe HSUS would
hire such a person. When asked questions about an arson fire at a
slaughter house in Petaluma, California, and a Utah feed co-op that nearly
killed a family, Goodwin stated, “We're ecstatic!”
Then, there is
the PETA connection ...
HSUS has repeatedly hired PETA employees in
their organization. Their head of investigations, several investigators, a
computer programmer, just to name a few. Sorry folks, my opinion is, once
a terrorist, always a terrorist. When HSUS hires these people, they appear
to support the crimes these individuals may have been involved in.
In
2003, HSUS VP Martin Stephens was asked to recommend three people to serve on an
EPA “pollution prevention and toxics” panel. Two of his three choices were
PETA employees.
All Talk and No Action
While HSUS will admit
they don't run or fund any shelters, you usually find it at the bottom of the
page or tucked away somewhere near the end of a statement. As I mentioned
before, they don't put their money where their mouth is. Get this …
In 1995, when the Washington DC animal shelter was going to have to
close due to a budget shortfall, HSUS (based in DC) offered to build and operate
a DC shelter at its own expense to serve as a national model. There were,
of course, conditions.
HSUS wanted the city to give it 3-5 acres of land
and tax exempt status for all of its real estate holdings in the District of
Columbia. (Remember, they buy some executives homes to live in among other
property holdings.)
The DC government offered a long-term lease but HSUS
refused to proceed unless it would “own absolutely” the land. The district
declined, and the only HSUS funded animal shelter never materialized.
HSUS, who makes and has enough money to fund a shelter in every state,
as well as subsidize spay/neuter programs, declined to help the dogs in its own
back yard. Why? Money is all I can think of. Perhaps they were
afraid they would soil their Armani suits by actually working with a dog.
The New CEO
Rather than go on a tirade about the new
President and CEO of HSUS, I have put some quotes from him below. Read
them, and you decide.
"I think they wanted the aggressive approach," he
says. "They wanted someone who was going to think things up. And they got him."
June 2004, Washington Post when asked about his selection as CEO.
“We have no problem with the extinction of domestic animals. They are
creations of human selective breeding." Quoted in Animal People, May, 1993
Overview
I could go on for days about HSUS, but I will stop
here. In my opinion, they are little more than an organization whose main
agenda is filling the coffers and pushing an extremist agenda through
misinformation and exploitation. Again, my opinion, they have done nothing
but profit from the contributions of people who don't know any better. I
have tried to see it otherwise, I simply can't.
I highly recommend you
go to activistcash.com and see what they have there about HSUS and their
connection with PETA. There are several other sites I found interesting,
as well as many stories about HSUS in the archive of the Washington Post.
Would I give anything to the Humane Society of the United States?
Yes I would. A pooper-scooper, they can use to go clean my yard.
At least then we would know they actually have done something for a dog
this year.
This article may be republished using the following
attribution box:
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Copyright ©2004 Christopher Aust, Master
Dog Trainer & Creator:
The Natural Cooperative Training System (NCTS)
for Dogs
The Instinctual Development System (IDS) for Puppies
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