Thursday, June 04, 2009

HSUS Fundraising under the Spotlight

News provided by the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has recently become the subject of scrutiny after an Atlanta based news station’s investigative report raised questions over millions in donations to the HSUS.

The report, done by WSB-TV channel 2, focused on concerns that the HSUS may engage in fundraising tactics in which donors believe their contributions predominately go to help local animal shelters.

The report highlighted certain controversies surrounding the HSUS such as the public disclosure of only $7 million in expenditures for reuniting pets displaced during Hurricane Katrina with their owners, despite having raised $34 million to accomplish the task. At that time, the Louisiana Attorney General’s office launched an investigation into the matter.

A Channel 2 reporter also attended a local HSUS meeting, where the discussions were reportedly focused on activism, not animal care. It was also stated in the report that the Georgia Director for HSUS admitted that she spends most of her time working on lobbying rather than working to coordinate the care of animals.

“We have long believed that many HSUS donors think they are helping local dog and cat shelters,” said Bud Pidgeon, president and CEO of the US Sportsmen’s Alliance. “We think this confusion actually diverts funds away from that purpose and actually funds campaigns to restrict hunting rights and common farming and livestock practices.”

Those confused are not just locals. USSA and other sportsmen and agriculture organizations believe that conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh mistakenly believes that HSUS is primarily involved in caring for dogs and cats. Limbaugh recently produced two advertisements for HSUS endorsing a couple of its programs. Sportsmen fear that the conservative icon’s collaboration with the animal rights organization will help whitewash its agenda in the eyes of other conservatives.

The USSA recently had the opportunity to discuss the ongoing controversy surrounding Rush Limbaugh’s support of the HSUS with Greg and Dan on 1470 WMBD in Peoria, Illinois on May 19.

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Othmar Vohringer Outdoors
Founding Member of Outdoor Bloggers Summit

4 comments:

SimplyOutdoors said...

This irritates me so bad, and for reasons you might not have guessed. I can not believe anyone would donate their hard-earned money without doing a proper check of the organization they are about to send money too.

It also irritates me that the HSUS has used abandoned and mistreated pets as a ploy tactic in order to achieve their ultimate goal: to ban hunting and fishing.

And so many people, like lemmings, despite all the evidence out there to the contrary, donate their money to an organization that they think is helping the local animals to find homes.

Do you homework folks, before you donate any money to anyone.

And as far as the investigation goes: I'm glad they're looking into them, because something shady is definitely going on.

Othmar Vohringer said...

Couldn't have said it better myself Arthur. It just amazes me how many people fall for hype and emotional blackmail without stopping a second to check what what's behind the cuddly animal loving mask the HSUS wear
-ov-

gary said...

The big shocker in this is that Rush would stoop to this level. His credibility was struggling before this, I think it just hit bottom.

Othmar Vohringer said...

His support of the HSUS may very well be the final push off his pedestal. I never have been a big fan of Rush, but I do know that he had a large conservative following that has turned now their back on him because of his HSUS support.

-ov-

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