How to feel about the HSUS..

[Lizardlicks]

Nice little trick of wording they use to get you to give them money, eh? They rely on that to milk kindhearted, unwitting people of their hard earned cash. People who just want to do the right thing, and think they're helping the sweet, fuzzy critters they see on those TV commercials with Sarah McLachlan end up supporting one the the worst ANTI pet groups out there. Donate to or volunteer at your local non-kill shelter, by all means. They have nothing to do with the HSUS, are almost elusively locally funded, and most of them can use the help. Make sure you spread the word about HSUS too, so that sweet old lady with the cats isn't swindled into spending her pension on government lobbyists.

[wolfy-hound]

The HSUS(Humane Society of the United States) is NOT a shelter, nor does it operate shelters.
The *insert local name here* Humane Society is a shelter. So when you see the "Clay County Humane Society" or the "Pittsburgh Humane Society", those are shelters. They probably never see even a tiny thin dime of money from HSUS or ASPCA OR PETA.

Humane Society shelters are not the HSUS.
Local rescues and shelters are not the HSUS.

Your son is wrong, because he has confused the actual shelter with the big money lobby group. The HSUS counts on that confusion so that they get all the money from donations, and the local shelters struggle to make ends meet.

The HSUS even charges a shelter a "fee" in order for the HSUS to come in and give them advice on how to run the shelter "better", which ends up being a printed booklet given to the shelter about how to fund raise. That's sort of the opposite of "helping shelters" imo.

If you want to help the local shelters and rescues, give them what they need. You can also ask the shelter bosses about how they are affiliated with the HSUS national lobby group organization. I would bet they say they have nothing at all to do with them.

[artgecko]

check out humanewatch.org... They regularly post info about the HSUS and their false fund raising practices. I believe that HSUS is either under investigation about false fundraising or at least there are several states trying to get them investigated.

Donate locally and do research on local charities as well before donating. I know one in my area had some serious issues with higher ups cooking the books... so it pays to make sure your donation will be used the way you want it to.

I think HSUS donates maybe 1% of money raised to humane societies... Disgusting.

[ajmreptiles]

several states are calling for investigation on them. Depending on the outcome, I believe HSUS are going to get whats coming to them in the near future

[kiiarah]

Thank you so much for the clarification guys!! Really, I appreciate it tremendously because I want to cut and prevent any ties to the HSUS in the future. Fortunately I have never donated to them, but I was never in a position to have expendable income to do so until recently. I could see myself wanting to help the shelters but I cannot support HSUS. I was concerned that by turning my back on them I would be doing the same to the animals so desperately needing rehoming. I have the same conflicted thoughts about places like big chain pet stores. Of course I don't want to support what they are doing, but boy do I have a hard time walking away from the animals in their stores who have done nothing wrong and need no less help simply due to their captors being horrible. It can be a catch 22 at times, so I am thrilled to hear that at least that isn't the case with this issue. It makes me wonder, since I have never seen any fundraising efforts by HSUS, only the coin jars the shelters put out. How does HSUS raise funds anyway? I don't want to be lured into it. I will also explain all this to my son right now. I had already told him the shelter employees have no say in the HSUS policies, we were all sort of under the impression that the shelters were owned by HSUS but independently run, if that makes sense.

So another question, why on earth do the shelters put the same identifier? Why use names like "Phoenix Humane Society" if they barely receive any funding from them? Why not "Phoenix Animal Shelter", or does the HSUS somehow bribe them into using the same title so that they can maintain their appearance of being tied to something that actually helps.

Thank goodness though that people are starting to look closer at the organization. I do sincerely hope they are coming up on some very unpleasant times. These days, I think USARK and various herpetological associations are the only groups I can support in good conscience.

[Monty's_Mom]

The local and regional/county humane societies had their names before HSUS started so HSUS is at fault for false advertising. I would also guess that the coin jars inside the local shelters are for funding that local shelter only. I am sure that any shelter "lucky" enough to get money from HSUS has to show the HSUS logo on their building and try to push the HSUS BS on people.

A horrible part of this, is that HSUS employees often now have LEO powers as animal control officers. They are paid out of people's taxes for this so called "service."

[MarkS]

A horrible part of this, is that HSUS employees often now have LEO powers as animal control officers. They are paid out of people's taxes for this so called "service."

WHAT???? This can't be right. Where is this happening and how is it even possible???

[bcr229]

A horrible part of this, is that HSUS employees often now have LEO powers as animal control officers. They are paid out of people's taxes for this so called "service."

Ah, no. ACO's are county/local government employees and in most jurisdictions are sworn LE. They are not HSUS employees.

[wolfy-hound]

HSUS employees have zero authority. They are not government employees and do not have any right to search and seizure, nor to enforce laws, nor to arrest or punish offenders.

They do often horn in on busts by the ACTUAL authorities, saying that they need to be on hand to care for the animals seized.
So the way that works is... the local Animal Control/Sheriff decides to go investigate a cat hoarder(example). HSUS gets wind of this and comes in saying "We are prepared to care for all those cats when/if you have to remove them from the home. We're very experienced!" The local people usually believe the HSUS. So now the sheriff and the HSUS(with t-shirts emblazoned with the HSUS logos) go to the home, and the HSUS makes sure to get plenty of footage of them "removing" the animals and if possible, pictures and video of bad conditions(even if they have to manufacturer some).
Now, you'd think at this point "Yay! HSUS is taking great care of the poor itty kitties!" but NOW, HSUS will haul all those poor rescued kitties to a local shelter and hand them over for the SHELTER to care for, at the SHELTER's expense and manpower. HSUS puts out no money to help care for them and doesn't do anything but make sure to get on TV.

They raise funds with TV ads, mail spam, online spam. Most of their funding comes from people who think they are helping animals in a shelter(because all the pictures and wording makes you think they have all these shelters and animals).

In truth, mostly what they do is try to pass legislation that outlaws pets, makes it more difficult to own pets, and legislation that makes conditions WORSE for pets. They were the main push behind the hardly-heard-of bill that would have outlawed ALL animals except livestock and cats and dogs(and rabbits I think?). So all the small pets, reptiles, fish, birds, etc would have been illegal.

They are lawyers. End of story. The CEO Pacelle gets well paid to tell lies and think up new ways to suck money out of people. They raised MILLIONS from people after Hurricane Katrina, and spent none of it on the animals rescued. They got sued by LOusiana who settled out of court after the HSUS said they would build a shelter for the county. No word on i that shelter was ever built, and even if it was, it only cost a few hundred thousand, versus the millions they took in on the Katrina name.

[Jabberwocky Dragons]

The local and regional/county humane societies had their names before HSUS started so HSUS is at fault for false advertising. I would also guess that the coin jars inside the local shelters are for funding that local shelter only. I am sure that any shelter "lucky" enough to get money from HSUS has to show the HSUS logo on their building and try to push the HSUS BS on people.

A horrible part of this, is that HSUS employees often now have LEO powers as animal control officers. They are paid out of people's taxes for this so called "service."

WHAT???? This can't be right. Where is this happening and how is it even possible???

Ah, no. ACO's are county/local government employees and in most jurisdictions are sworn LE. They are not HSUS employees.

HSUS employees have zero authority. They are not government employees and do not have any right to search and seizure, nor to enforce laws, nor to arrest or punish offenders.

I understand the confusion here with HSUS and animal control. Not all local humane societies are benevolent organizations; many rank up right up there with the evil of HSUS. What I think Monty's Mom meant but mistook is that some jurisdictions turn their animal control over to the local humane society. I don't know whether this means some of the local human society employees become animal control employees or if just the local Humane Society has full authority over animal control. It doesn't really matter though as the end result is the same. Some of these local humane societies have been way more successful in banning exotics (including ALL snakes over 3') in their jurisdictions than HSUS has ever dreamed.