How to feel about the HSUS..

[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.