Tell Honda to Give Shelter Pets a “Day Off”

It’s Super Bowl weekend, and we’re looking forward to sitting back with some wings and nachos and enjoying a good game. Like many folks, we’re also psyched for the commercials—especially one from Honda that’s getting a bit of buzz due to its “Ferris Bueller” theme.

Unfortunately, Honda is also sponsoring HSUS’s Genesis Awards in March. HSUS is a group with a radical PETA agenda that deceptively raises money as if it’s a pet shelter group, yet doesn’t run a single pet shelter and gives only 1 percent of the money it raises to pet shelters.

Shelter pets are under pressure every day, and the more support that goes to HSUS (which already has $200 million tucked) is support that pet shelters need. Millions of pets are euthanized every year because shelters don’t have the resources, especially in this economy. Meanwhile, HSUS tucks away millions into its pension plan.

So please go to Honda’s Facebook wall and ask the company to give shelter pets something to say “Oh Yeah” about by giving its support to a local humane society instead. We doubt Honda would fund a PETA event,  and we’re confident they’d be open to join Yellow Tail, Pilot Travel Centers, Mary Kay cosmetics, Precious Cat kitty litter, and Hill's Science Diet dog food in realizing that there are better ways to help animals than giving money to HSUS.

HSUS Ads Still Lack Disclaimer, Still Deceptive

A few weeks back we released a detailed report regarding the Humane Society of the United States’ deceptive television advertisements. By analyzing data compiled by the Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG) from 2009 through September 2011, we learned that more than 85 percent of animals shown in HSUS TV ads—which aired more than 20,000 times—asking for donations are either dogs or cats. 

HSUS’s deception is clear, especially considering that it only gives 1 percent of its $126 million budget to help local pet shelters and that it doesn’t run any pet shelters of its own. It’s easy to see why 71 percent of Americans mistakenly believe that HSUS is a pet-shelter umbrella group, according to a recent national poll. Similarly, 71 percent of animal shelters agree that “HSUS misleads people into thinking it is associated with local animal shelters.”

HSUS responded that its ads include a disclaimer stating that HSUS is separate from local pet shelters. However, our analysis of CMAG’s data determined that far less than 1 percent of HSUS’s television appeals include a disclaimer. The CMAG report also estimated that HSUS spent over $11.2 million running more than 20,000 TV spots without a disclaimer.

You’d think that HSUS’s ad guys would knock off this nonsense. In fact, HSUS’s Emerging Media Manager claimed last week that “there is a disclaimer on the most recent commercial, which says the HSUS is not affiliated with local shelters.”

Oh, really?

We asked CMAG to compile a report of the ads aired by HSUS from January 1-8, 2012. And again we found that less than 1 percent of HSUS’s TV appeals include any such disclaimer.

The Humane Society of the United States continues to air deceptive ads without disclaimers that mislead and exploit pet-loving Americans, yet HSUS tries to falsely assure people that it isn’t doing what it, in fact, is doing. You’ve got to admire HSUS’s gall. The only problem is that it continues to come at the expense of the nation’s pet shelters and, of course, needy dogs and cats.

Here’s how you can help: Contact the Federal Trade Commission and file a complaint about HSUS's misleading fundraising. You can do this in just a few, quick steps:

1. Go to the FTC’s Complaint Assistant and fill out your personal information.

2. Under Step 1, when it asks you “What kind of company are you complaining about?,” check “Other” and write in “Deceptive 501(c)(3).”

3. When you offer details about your complaint, if you’ve given money to HSUS and believe that you were deceived by its ads, be sure to say so.

4. Let us know when you’ve filed a complaint (email info@HumaneWatch.org).

Has HSUS Reached a New Low?

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), not to be confused with your local humane society, regularly runs deceptive ads on TV that help mislead Americans into believing that HSUS is primarily a pet-sheltering organization. (It isn’t.) But a new fundraising ploy targeting children is perhaps the most outrageous scheme yet that we’ve seen HSUS involved in.

The social-game company MindJolt SGN released an HSUS-backed iPhone/iPad game on January 2 called “Fluff Friends Rescue,” in which players can build an animal shelter, rescue animals, adopt animals out, and—last but not least—buy HSUS-branded in-game items, 100 percent of the proceeds of which go to HSUS. One report characterized the game as trying “to raise awareness of what the Humane Society does.”

There’s only one problem: That’s not what HSUS does.

HSUS does not run a pet shelter anywhere. And it gives only 1 percent of its budget to pet shelters. Yet, there’s a whole new game on just that—building and operating a shelter that adopts out cats and dogs. Even HSUS’s CEO admits that only 20 percent of HSUS’s efforts concern pets.

It’s a sick irony that HSUS doesn’t run any shelters and yet there’s a game with HSUS’s logo in it that makes it seem like HSUS does. (In the game, you can build a special HSUS play pen or vet clinics for your rescued animals. You can buy in-game money with real money.) It gets even more nauseating when you consider a target market of this game: Kids.

Even if you know the truth about HSUS, this HSUS-backed game might be planting false seeds in your children’s minds. (Targeting kids, by the way, is straight out of the PETA playbook.)

While this game may instill habits by getting youngsters to buy HSUS stuff early on—presumably, HSUS hopes they’ll keep this up into adulthood—it also has a more nefarious effect: To perpetuate the misperception that HSUS is a pet-shelter group and not the fringe anti-meat group that it is.

According to nationally representative polling, 71 percent of Americans wrongly believe that HSUS is a pet-shelter “umbrella group” while 68 percent mistakenly think that HSUS gives most of its money to pet shelters. (We’ve even heard from HSUS donors who were shocked to find out how little of their donation went to pet shelters.)

Of course, this polling only measures what adults believe. The next generation of adults is playing “Fluff Friends Rescue.”

The game’s creator thinks it “has the potential to hit the top 10 or top 20 games and stay there for a long time.” That’s quite the potential cash stream for HSUS, which is no doubt licking its chops.

Meanwhile, HSUS says that the game is a way to “inform [players] about the hard work of animal rescue groups”—yet the money raised all goes to HSUS, not to true rescue groups. Yes, HSUS does run an animal rescue team, but it’s a small portion of HSUS’s budget. If HSUS wants to become a true rescue group—instead of just raising money like it is one—then by all means, it should. But we suspect HSUS will just keep raising money and banking on public misperception.

It’s hard to believe a “charity” like HSUS can be so unscrupulous. It’s not just a new low for HSUS—it’s a new high in deception.