What You May Not Know about PETA, the ASPCA and the HSUS

I know many of you may have already sent in donations to some of the major “pet charities” this year for the holidays, hoping it would help save animals. There are three main groups, as I think they should be referred to rather than charities: American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

What I want to say is simple: PLEASE DO NOT DONATE TO THESE “CHARITIES”. Instead, I ask you donate to local animal shelters (kill or even no-kill local because those animals need help, too) where you can witness what is occurring, where you can actually take food or bedding and see animals. If you cannot adopt from a no-kill or a kill shelter, then please donate items to animal shelters and rescues or even gift cards. Many cities have local Humane Societies and local SPCAs. These are not the same thing as the large groups that you see advertised on television.

HSUS:
The following is from HSUS Shelter Spending in Your State (please click on the hyperlinks to see the websites shared throughout this article):

As we have previously reported, only about 1% of the budget of the deceptively named Humane Society of the United States goes to local pet shelters, and the organization doesn't operate any shelters of its own. Not that you would learn these facts from HSUS’s ads, which are full of dogs and cats. An examination of HSUS’s 2013 tax return (the most recent available) reveals that although the extreme animal-liberation group took in more than $130 million in revenues, very little went to local pet shelters. How much went to help pet shelters in your state? Take a look at the map below (PDF). The answer may shock you. Of its $130 million in revenues, HSUS gave less than $10,000 to help local pet shelters care for pets in 29 states. Shelters in 11 states – Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Nevada, Rhode Island, Utah, and Wyoming – didn’t receive a single dime from HSUS to help them care for pets. If only 1% of HSUS’s budget goes to local pet shelters, where does the other 99% go? A few examples of wasteful HSUS spending:  In the past two years, HSUS has put $50 million into Caribbean tax shelters instead of pet shelters.  HSUS paid more than $6 million to settle a federal racketeering and bribery lawsuit brought against it and two of its in-house lawyers.  HSUS CEO and President Wayne “I don’t love animals” Pacelle, received more than $400,000 in total compensation while the rest of staff pulled in nearly $44 million more. Instead of funding the lavish lifestyles of HSUS execs who are socking away your donations in off-shore hedge funds, consider donating to pet shelters in your area.

ASPCA:
From Nathan Winograd we learn about Oreo, a dog that was treated for injuries sustained from being thrown out a window, only to be killed for supposedly becoming aggressive, while the money was pocketed from her rescue attempts that were basically blocked. We also learn that the ASPCA has been fundamental in blocking laws that could save up to 25,000 pets a year. The ASPCA is not a “no-kill” organization, either. None of the big three I will be discussing in this article are no-kill, but rather heavy-kill. Sadly, the ASPCA was founded by a wonderful man named Henry Bergh. But greed and power-hunger has taken over in the decades since his founding of the organization. It needs to revert back to what it was meant to be.

When I tried to search for how much money from the ASPCA goes to animals I got this error page. Not sure what the page is supposed to say, perhaps it is supposed to say how much money the ASPCA gets from people conned like myself, but it is private, so who knows. At least tax statements do not typically lie and those are public.

ASPCA and HSUS:
This informative article by Katherine Ainsworth pretty much says it all. Please take the time to read it carefully. I will highlight some key points below.

ASPCA:
The President and CEO of the ASPCA is Matthew Bershadker and he is making more than $566,000 a year. The ASPCA gave just 0.045% of its multi-million dollar donations to local shelters. “In 2009, the ASPCA spent more than 19 million dollars on advertising, a number which has only increased in recent years.” “The ASPCA themselves claims they saved 4,000 dogs last year. Their IRS statement for 2012 shows $226 million dollars in gross receipts. Let’s be generous and say the ASPCA gives half its donations to the animals. That would mean each dog was given $28,250 of care and supplies.” “The ASPCA has been part of a RICO case for quite some time. RICO stands for “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations”.

HSUS:
Per Wayne Pacell, President of HSUS, “I don’t love animals or think they’re cute.” He does claim to “respect” them but not enough to respect their right to live. The HSUS stance on the Michael Vick animal abuse: “The print ad read: ‘…make a special gift to help the Humane Society of the United States care for the dogs seized in the Michael Vick case… your gift will be put to use right away to care for these dogs.’ And since the dogs were in the public spotlight and clearly needed help, the donations immediately began to pour in, as usual. However, this one rare time, HSUS was called on its crap. The New York Times reported accurately that not only was HSUS not providing any care whatsoever to the Vick dogs but that Wayne Pacelle went on the record saying the dogs should be immediately euthanized. After being caught with their hand in the doggy cookie jar, HSUS was forced to halt all Michael Vicks-related donation requests.”

The HSUS raised over 34 million dollars for the pets of New Orleans. However, only $7 million of that $34 million was spent on New Orleans. The remaining $27 million remains unaccounted for a decade later.

The HSUS operates no shelters.

PETA
PETA has to be the most hypocritical group in existence. I am not a huge fan of the Daily Mail in the UK but these numbers are fairly accurate given they have been duplicated in other articles that are reliable and from government documents correctly sourced. This article by the Daily Mail states that PETA had killed 2,000 pets in 2013, achieving a staggering 82% kill rate for its shelter (or rather slaughterhouse). They have killed 31,000 animals since 1998 (this was in 2014). 'This delusional animal rights group is talking out of both sides of its mouth – on one side preaching animal rights, while on the other signing the death warrant of 82 percent of cats and dogs in its care. Labeling PETA as hypocritical would be the understatement of the year-- Will Coggin from the Center for Consumer Freedom.

'We could become a no-kill shelter immediately. It means we wouldn't do as much work”—Ingrid Newkirk, who also brags about killing hundreds of animals herself, even going into work early to engage in such activities.

“According to VDAS, in 2010 discovered that 84 percent of the animals PETA took in were killed within 24 hours.”

Why PETA Kills and PETA Kills Animals are very informative sites. Nathan Winograd’s website provides a lot of information about PETA. The first link provided (Why PETA Kills) is actually his website as well. One of my browsers tried to say the site may not be safe but I can assure you information from Winograd is safe (I hope PETA is not behind his site saying it may not be safe to view, interesting!).

Someone may be asking why PETA, who is known for boycotting Burger King over meat, would be killing household pets. Simply put, PETA’s founder Ingrid Newkirk believes that animals being pets is basically torture and that they are better off dead than living (sound familiar from above, right?). Animals have a purpose, especially domesticated animals which are first and foremost companion animals. They are meant to be part of our lives. They are meant to be loved. Some are meant to be companions for those with disabilities—diabetes, PTSD, epilepsy, physical challenges, etc. Please educate yourself and do NOT support these groups. PLEASE donate to local organizations you know you can trust and that do truly put the animals first. Please share this article with every animal lover you know. Together we can educate the public and stop these groups from getting millions from those who need it most—the animals. They either need to be eradicated or have new leadership put in place. Hopefully this will also lead to the US becoming a no-kill nation.