This is a copy of the Form 990-T (Exempt Organization Business Income Tax Return) that HSUS filed for fiscal year 2008. According to the IRS, "Any domestic or foreign organization exempt under section 501(a) or section 529(a) must file Form 990-T if it has gross income from a regularly carried on unrelated trade or business, of $1,000 or more."

For 2008 HSUS reported $62,440 net income from advertising. After deductions, its total unrelated business taxable income was -$100.

Download 2008 HSUS Form 990-T

This is the annual report that HSUS published to describe its program priorities in 2008. It contains a message from president Wayne Pacelle to supporters, testimonials from a selection of HSUS employees, and a summary of its program accomplishments and consolidated financial data.

Highlights included details of the HSUS-backed Proposition 2 to force Californian egg farmers to redesign their facilities or close their doors, acquiring undercover video from a cattle ranch, a state law enacted in Massachusetts to ban greyhound racing, distribution of HSUS's KIND News publication to nearly 1 million elementary schoolchildren, and $3.5 million spent on an animal-care initiative in the Gulf Coast inspired by Hurricane Katrina (despite raising $34 million for rescue activities in 2005).

The 2008 annual report listed a total of 470 employees -- nearly double the size of HSUS's staff in 2001.

On page 16, HSUS claims to have "cared for" more than 70,000 animals during 2008. But nearly 33,000 of these were dogs and cats that were spayed or neutered in conjunction with HSUS's "Spay Day," a promotion that saw HSUS supporting pet shelters in nominal amounts to do the surgeries. (Neither HSUS nor any of its affiliates ever actually "cared for" these pets.) 

We believe reproducing this material constitutes a "fair use" as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this material for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Download 2008 HSUS Annual Report

This document contains a Consolidated Financial Report for the Humane Society of the United States, dated on December 31, 2008.

It was prepared by the public accounting firm of McGladrey & Pullen. HSUS filed it with the West Virginia Secretary of State's office, as part of the process of renewing a fundraising license for the Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust. It's now a part of the public record.

Download HSUS Consolidated Financial Statements, dated December 31, 2008

This is the Form 990 tax return that the National Federation of Humane Societies filed with the IRS for fiscal year 2008. 

NFHS Executive Director Steve Putnam was a vice president at HSUS from 1997 to 2007. According to NFHS’s filings with the IRS, former HSUS door-kicker Scotlund Haisley was also an NFHS board member in the past. And on its tax returns, all the board members have the same address: 2100 L Street, the downtown Washington HSUS building. Wayne Pacelle's official bio states that he co-founded NFHS in 2006.

Download 2008 NFHS Form 990

This "federal tax lien" tax document (apparently from the Fairfax County, VA Circuit Court) shows that Humane Society of the United States new chief fundraiser Deborah Peeples owes the U.S. Internal Revenue Service more than $87,000 in back personal income taxes.

HSUS has yet to acknowledge or explain its hiring of a serial tax cheat for the position of "Vice President of Philanthropy."

According to the Court, Peeples and her husband remain delinquent on their personal income taxes to the tune of $87,164.60 between 2000 and 2004.

(original source)

Download Federal Tax Lien, Deborah Peeples (HSUS’s chief fundraiser)

The New Mexico Livestock Board (NMLB) reviewed allegations leveled by HSUS against the Portales Livestock Auction in a video made by undercover HSUS investigators and released to the media on June 25, 2008. The review is signed by NMLB Executive Director Myles Culbertson and dated August 8, 2008. In part, it concludes:

The video presented to this agency is a record of harsh circumstances that can conveniently fit in the context of a speech about malicious animal cruelty. In this particular case the viewers were told in advance by "the nation's largest and most effective animal protection organization" what they would see; and afterward, told what they had just seen, embellished by suggestions of children subjected to unsafe food. When that same video is broken into its component parts and dispassionately analyzed, it yields findings of a very different nature; nevertheless, they are findings that require the attention of the livestock industry.

The report ultimately declares:

[P]erceptions created by the HSUS media releases and press conferences of malice, extreme cruelty, or illegal marketing of downer cows are not found to match the reality of the subject video.

Download New Mexico Livestock Board Investigative Review, 2008

This is the "Pennies For Charity Report from the Charities Bureau of the New York state Attorney General's office. It consists of statistics covering telemarketing campaigns conducted on behalf of charitable organizations in New York during 2007.

According to this report, a professional telemarketing company called The Share Group raised $1,679,763 during 2007 on behalf of the Humane Society of the United States. Not only did HSUS itself not see a single cent of this money, but the organization paid Share Group $5,358 for the fundraising work (a "net" yield of negative 0.32 percent).

Download 2008 “Pennies For Charity” Report, New York Attorney General

This is a scan of the back of a blue envelope sent out with an HSUS direct-mail fundraising letter in 2008. (The envelope was meant to contain the recipient's pledge form and financial donation.)

Two of the "5 ways to help farm animals" endorsed by HSUS include "reducing our consumption of animal products" and "replacing animal products with readily available vegetarian alternatives."

We believe reproducing this material constitutes a "fair use" as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this material for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Download “5 Ways to Help Farm Animals,” Back of HSUS Fundraising Envelope

 This is the Form 990 tax return that the Species Survival Network filed with the IRS for fiscal year 2008.  

Total revenue: $277,611

Total expenses: $189,742

Net assets at year's end: $87,869

Download 2008 SSN Form 990

This is the Form 990 tax return that the Fund for Animals filed with the IRS for fiscal year 2008.

Total revenue: $12,140,695

Total expenses: $4,677,962

Net assets and end of year: $14,286,495

Download 2008 FFA Form 990

 This is the Form 990 tax return that the Doris Day Animal League filed with the IRS for fiscal year 2008.   

Total revenue: $2,813,363

Total expenses: $2,848,262

Net assets at end of year: $1,452,710

Download 2008 DDAL Form 990

This document shows the schedule of outgoing grants filed by HSUS along with its 2008 federal income tax return. Entries marked with a highlighter indicate grants to organizations whose function includes the hands-on care of dogs and/or cats.

Such payments added up to $452,371—less than one-half of one percent (just 0.45%) of HSUS's 2008 operating budget.

Download 2008 HSUS Outgoing Grants Schedule

U.S. Department of Homeland Security  
07 May 2008
UNIVERSAL ADVERSARY DYNAMIC THREAT ASSESSMENT 

Ecoterrorism: Environmental and Animal-Rights Militants in the United States 

In this report, marked "UNCLASSIFIED // FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY," the U.S. Department of Homeland Security writes (page 9):

PETA, the Fund for Animals, In Defense of Animals, the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance, and certain individuals within the HSUS are known or suspected of having financial ties to individuals and groups associated with ecoterrorism. In addition to financial ties to ecomilitancy, both HSUS and PETA, or at least individuals within those organizations, have an established record of supporting individuals and/or groups commonly associated with ecoterrorism.

UPDATE (18-Feb-2010): HSUS's attorneys inform me that this report has been withdrawn and re-written by DHS, and no longer includes references to either HSUS or the Fund for Animals. Click here to read a letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to HSUS about this.

Download DHS Ecoterrorism Threat Assessment, 7 May 2008

 This is the Form 990 tax return that the Humane Society International filed with the IRS for fiscal year 2008.  

Total revenue: $2,640,948

Total expenses: $3,316,553

Net assets at year's end: ($11,715,901)

Download 2008 HSI Form 990

This is the Form 990 tax return that the Humane Society Legislative Fund filed with the IRS for fiscal year 2008.

Total revenue: $3,133,743

Total expenses: $2,803,377

Net assets at end of year: $782,359

Download 2008 HSLF Form 990

This is HSUS's 2008 Form 990 filed with the IRS.

Total revenue: $85,837,220

Total expenses: $99,664,400

Net assets at end of year: $162,217,144

Download 2008 HSUS Form 990