Friday, May 15, 2009
ABC News Atlanta Segment on HSUS Donations
Text article from the news program (with HSUS response) here.
UPDATE, May 16: The text article, including the HSUS response and reader comments, has been removed from the website without explanation. Page now says "The story you are trying to view is no longer available through this Web site." Guess at will. Cache version of the page here.
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16 comments:
Good for you and Action News. I wish more of this would be brought to public attention. Must link
What a surprise. Big money HSUS manages to intimidate news media into pulling negative news piece. However did that happen.
The Center for Consumer Freedom is like the most unreliable source EVER. Now there is a group with an agenda. I cant believe this station is using them as a "credible source"
Dear "Thoughts",
I have a request: Please cite any CCF claims in the news piece regarding HSUS which are inaccurate. I looked at the HSUS documents on the HSUS cite and indeed they seem to verify CCF's claims. But whatever you know about false claims made by CCF in the piece about HSUS, please share.
Yes, big money can pull negative news pieces. It is too late though, the news is officially out. The news piece backed up everything we already knew. Say bye bye to donations HSUS. HSUS, you are now the crazier cousin of PETA. You now have no cred.
I work for the HSUS (I think our paths have crossed on the Poodle and Dog blog) and I appreciate your willingness to hear both sides, even if you are disinclined to give me the benefit of the doubt.
WSB-TV has issued a correction and removed the story from its web site. Consider that this news station has lawyers to determine when and if they’re at fault for shoddy reporting. They don’t simply pull a story at the first sign of disagreement; in fact, they’re probably thrilled when a story gets as much attention as the one about HSUS has.
On the Katrina charges, here’s the accounting from our website:
http://www.hsus.org/hsus_field/hsus_disaster_center/disasters_press_room/beyond_katrina_three_years_later_0802808.html
Regarding the accusation that we don’t fund animal shelters, the flawed assumption behind the WSB-TV story was that the only valid use of donations for animal protection work is local sheltering. This reflects a woefully naïve understanding of animal protection. The HSUS, which was founded specifically to advance animal protection measures on a national level, has never pretended to run animal shelters, although we applaud their good work and provide support in terms of an annual training conference, an award-winning trade magazine, targeted grants and other programs.
In accordance with the law, we spend only a small percentage of our resources on lobbying, an amount that was less than 5 percent in 2007. The dollar figures are in black and white on our own web site and available publicly in our IRS filings.
Given the understandable clamor for transparency, I’m surprised when people don’t have more skepticism about the source behind the news story, the Center for Consumer Freedom. This group routinely declines to name its donors, and its work against public interest groups isn’t limited to animal protection. The National Cancer Institute, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, union groups, and organizations working to prevent childhood obesity have all been targets.
A quick search on Charity Navigator reveals that HSUS has been awarded a 4-star rating. The Center for Consumer Freedom doesn’t show up anywhere; apparently it’s still awaiting an evaluation. But ask the editorial boards of the Washington Post or USA Today about the CCF’s integrity. Consider damning coverage by ABC News and CBS’s 60 Minutes. Or consider that CCF has been legally compelled to recant past false statements they’ve made about us.
I don’t expect to make an HSUS supporter out of you, but I ask for your fair-minded consideration.
Here's another try on the full URL for the Katrina accounting (it got cut off):
http://www.hsus.org/hsus_field/hsus_disaster_center
/disasters_press_room/beyond
_katrina_three_years_later_0802808.html
Unless WSB-TV or their lawyers say they are "at fault for shoddy reporting", I'm not going to condemn them as such.
I didn't interpret the piece in the same way you did. It wasn't that the only good use for donations was sheltering but rather that people THINK they are giving to their local shelters when they give to HSUS and this is not so.
How do you respond to the GA HSUS director stating in the piece that her time and money is mainly allotted for legislation? Is her group the one exception to the 5% rule?
It's a pity that HSUS won't openly and publicly admit to their ultimate goal, eradication of all companion animals.
"We have no problem with the extinction of domestic animals." Wayne Pacelle, CEO & Senior VP of Humane Society of the US
What say you, HSUS worker Hillary? Care to comment on that?
Hi Anonymous,
Wayne addressed this issue in his blog several years ago. I'm going to quote from it so you can hear it from the horse's mouth, if but you care to read the whole thing, you can find it at http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/2007/07/desperate-disto.html.
Wayne writes, "Several years before I joined the staff of The HSUS, in 1992 or 1993, I appeared at an agricultural forum to address the issue of animal welfare in American agriculture. In the question and answer session, an attendee asked whether there should be an attempt to preserve all breeds of exotic livestock. I was specifically queried about so-called “heirloom breeds” (older breed variations that are often not used any longer for a commercial purpose and whose continued survival as a breed may be in jeopardy) and their value to agriculture.
At the time, I did not consider the fate of such breeds an ethically significant dilemma (my views have become more nuanced on that topic through the years). At the time, I replied by saying that I did not believe we had a moral obligation to the animals to preserve such breeds; in short, I said we did not need an endangered species act for rare livestock breeds.
A representative of an extreme and now defunct organization called Putting People First, present at this forum, took this passing comment about rare breeds of livestock and morphed it into a comment about all domesticated animals—devoid of its essential and undeniably clear context."
Couple of good pieces on H$U$:
H$U$ Watch on their 990s:
http://www.furcommission.com/resource/perspect999cl.htm
and Rush is Wrong at
http://www.furcommission.com/news/newsF11j.htm
Here's another classic Pacelle quote:
"I don't want to see another dog or cat born."
(Quoted in Bloodties: Nature, Culture and the Hunt, by Ted Kerasote, 1993, p. 266, 1993)
Hillary,
Your Humane Society of the United States propaganda is not working anymore. The HSUS truth is out and spreading like wild fire. Facts are facts when it comes to HSUS. I urge you to do the math on their IRS tax returns posted on the HSUS web site. You will quickly see:
Less than 4% of donations go to shelters, rescues, and hands-on animal welfare organizations. HSUS actually spends MORE donation money on staff travel expenses than helping these animal welfare organizations.
Over 25% of donations go to staff salaries and pension plans.
Tens of millions of more dollars go to mailings asking for more donations.
Listed above ARE FACTS and you can’t deny that.
HSUS and Wayne Pacelle exist for one purpose: A vegan America. You say you work there, have you not read the 3r’s (replacing animal products with plant-based foods)? The vegan recipes posted on their web site? HSUS endless legislation to put meat producing farmers out of work? The top corporate HSUS leaders are vegans? Veganism is a personal choice and should never be dictated to anyone!
In closing, I find your comments at best uneducated and also very frightening. You have chosen to defend a corporation, not a charity, which is not what it seems. The tables have turned on HSUS and they are now being investigated on many levels. In the coming months as these investigations unfold, I hope you will step away from HSUS. I would not want HSUS experience on my resume. Thank you.
HSUS is a complete fraud. Don't believe me? Look at their IRS tax returns to see where the money is really going. It's disgusting. Now they are begging for 25,000 dollars for their campaign against IHOP? Are you kidding me? They have a yearly 100,000,000 dollar operating budget not to mention 200,000,000 dollars in cash reserves. Again, LOOK AT THEIR IRS TAX RETURNS FOR THE REAL STORY HERE. Also, Wayne Pacelle likes to suck his own balls…just a side note.
Shut up Hillary. No one is listening to your HSUS BS anymore. Facts speak the truth. HSUS only wants a vegan America, it is all over their web site as well as Wayne "Gotta have more suits" Pacelle's blogs. Your comments are misguided and unnecessary at this point. America is on to the TRUE HSUS agenda. Thanks.
HSUS is an animal rights organization. Google Peter Singer or Gary Francione and read what they have to say. This is the real animal rights agenda and HSUS subscribes to this. When Wayne Pacelle took over as CEO of HSUS things began to really change. Let's not forget that Wayne Pacelle got his start stalking in the woods making noise and disrupting hunters. If you think that HSUS is the only "conglomerate" that HSUS owns you may want to check it out, all asking for donations. They are an animal rights organizations, and seek donations and to do that they use sympathy and the media. That adds up to propaganda. Do we need an animal rights organization or do we need animal welfare organizations. There is a big difference. Animal rights believe in no animal use, not even for food! Animal welfarest believe that all animal should be kept with animal welfare and well being of the animal, but we also believe in research to save human lives and of course most believe in eating meat. HSUS is a propaganda machine designed to control the media and elicit sympathy. Believe it or not this is just the way Hitler started. Yes, they need more exposure as to their real agenda. As for Consumer Freedom, there is no difference, they are fighting for choices of food to eat, so that we will not be forced in becoming a vegan nation and they representities the entities to help assure that end. Just as it is the right of animal rightist to have freedom of speech it is the right to have people respresent for the freedom to choose and not have an agenda froced upon us.
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