Mar 03 2011
$19 a Month—For Lobbyists?
If you've seen the Humane Society of the United States’ new TV ads, you already know they’re bursting at the seams with pictures of dogs and cats. That’s the image HSUS wants to present of itself, because cute candids of Fido and Fluffy are the best way to get pet lovers to donate money.
The result, as we’ve shown time and again, is that most HSUS donors are misinformed about what the organization they support actually does. Too many Americans—donors and non-donors alike—mistakenly think HSUS is a pet-shelter umbrella group, when it’s actually an animal rights organization akin to the better-known PETA.
Here’s something else HSUS’s ads don’t tell would-be supporters: A large chunk of the $19-per-month pledge pays for lobbyists instead of pet shelters. HSUS spent, according to its own tax returns, $17.3 million lobbying governments between 2005 and 2009. Though that averages out to only around 3.5 percent of HSUS’s budget, it's far more than the group shared with hands-on pet shelters.
It’s perfectly legal for nonprofit groups to engage in some lobbying, as long as it’s faithfully self-reported and within strictly prescribed limits. (Note: Some observers believe HSUS drastically under-reports its lobbying expenditures.)
A 501(c)(3) organization like HSUS should be in the clear if it spends an average of less than 5 percent of its budget directly lobbying lawmakers, and no more than another 15 percent on “indirect” lobbying. (The classic example of “indirect” lobbying is an ad that asks voters to call their members of Congress.)
But no lobbyists at all are mentioned in HSUS’s TV ads—and hardly a whisper of its lobbyists’ objectives is heard. In addition to its direct lobbying expenditures, HSUS spent $6 million between 2005 and 2009 on political front groups designed to attack livestock farmers at the ballot box. HSUS’s ultimate goal for animal agriculture, in one former VP’s words, is to “get rid of the industry.”
This is a far cry from saving the dogs and cats in HSUS’s ads.
While $17.3 million in lobbying expenses over five years may not sound like much for a group that raises $100 million every year, it’s instructive to put HSUS’s lobbying expenditures in the context of other charities. HSUS spent a little over three percent of its 2009 budget on lobbying. That’s significantly more than the American Red Cross (0.02 percent), the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (0.01 percent), or the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (0.14 percent) spent on the same.
And remarkably, that $17.3 million doesn’t include the additional money HSUS-affiliated groups are donating to candidates for elected office. Data from the Center for Responsive Politics show that since 2006 HSUS’s “Humane Society Legislative Fund” and “Humane USA” PAC have combined to put more than $2 million directly into federal election campaigns.
Politically speaking, HSUS’s network of groups is even out-spending some gigantic companies. In 2006, The Wall Street Journal reported that HSUS and its affiliates “spent $3.4 million on congressional elections and ballot initiatives” that year, “more than Exxon Mobil Corp. They have contributed $150,000 to candidates for Congress, which is more than Halliburton Co. has contributed.”
Again, as far as we know, all of this is legal. But we have to wonder just how many people watching those ubiquitous TV ads realize what a political animal HSUS has become.
Posted on 03/03/2011 at 02:43 PM by the HumaneWatch Team
Fundraising & Money • Gov't, Lobbying, Politics • (15) CommentsComments
So exactly how much are they giving to shelters in need? Shelters are struggling EVERYWHERE!
too much politics!!! they don’t care if they spent millions of dollars because the money came from the hardworking americans that donate thinking that it is really for a good cause of the organization. Americans….WAKE UP!!!
You really think people do not know what the HSUS is and does? If they don’t they must live under a rock because it is common knowledge and they are not hiding the fact.The are for the most part lobbyist
Dear Joe,
While I applaud you for understanding the deceptive ruses of HSUS and defending agriculture, I think your comments regarding large vs. small is inaccurate and unfair. Whether you make a living raising livestock through private ownership or a steady paycheck, doesn’t make you more or less capable of feeling compassion for the animals you care for every day. I have ties with both large and small scale agriculture. Its true that many farmers make their profession a lifestyle as well as a livelyhood, but I personally know many employees who’d passionately object to your statement, “when you are just an employee at a mega farm, you care less about animals, they are just a pay check to you.”
Animal abuse doesn’t choose a production style, payment method or farm size. Its a faulty logic inherent in an individual that’s in the wrong line of work!
Secondly, in response to your comment “When an animal is your dinner you are not going to abuse it….” Let me remind you that WE ALL eat! Regardless of how you contribute to the livestock industry, it doesn’t earn you any special privilages as a consumer. Whether you are a private owner, contract producer, employee or just the average consumer, you still appreciate a healthy, well-cared for animal that will contribute to a safe, wholesome product on the other end of the food chain, because inevitably we all end up rubbing shoulders looking over the same meat case at our local grocer.
Lastly, if you having problems conceptualizing the American family farm, let me remind you that 98% of farms in nationwide are ‘family-owned.’ Is the operation any less family if one producer owns 30 cows and the next one down the road owns 500? Because the one with 500 employs labors is he automatically excluded from being ‘family-owned?’ If you’d like some insight on the issue, might I recommend the following are article by PORK magazine titled What Defines A Family Farm? http://www.porknetwork.com/pork/what-defines-a-family-farm-114024354.html
Metalhorse - Bravo! Brainwashing naive dupes like Joe into believing that any operation with more than N animals, (50 seems to be their favorite number, for some reason), is a “factory” operation, and therefore “by definition” abusive, is one of the AR movement’s baseline tactics.
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Here’s another thing about small farmers vs. big farms, I live in the middle of the corn belt and know big farmers and small. The days of the small farmer is over; times have changed, the old McDonald-type farmer can’t make a living. It’s more of a hobby, they all have jobs in town to make ends meet. So those people who think small farms is the way it should be, don’t know a thing about what they’re talking about. This is 2011 not 1900 it takes big ag. to feed this country and the world, Old McDonald doesn’t cut it anymore. But the stupid antis just don’t get it. So to all you antis out there, you can’t change the times.
Jan for years I was an HSUS donor who sent my monthly donations in to allegedly help fund my local shelter. That is what I was sold by HSUS, that is what I thought I was buying. No one at HSUS made ANY attempt to set me straight.
It was not until I began to wonder why I was getting a bunch of cheaply made crap for my donations that I began to question what in the world HSUS was actually doing with my money. It was clear that most of my money was not going to help animals. It was going to some factory in China to produce cheap tote bags.
That was over a decade ago, long before I became aware of HSUS’s anti-animal, radical vegan stance. I only wish there was some way I could get back all the money I sent to their executive-class pension plan.
After all I have seen and heard and read…The HSUS says help us we help the ANIMALS (wrong). Help them…You are helping them to kill the animals—dogs, cats, horses, chickens, pigs, goats. They have not kill, PUT TO SLEEP, and they still stand there and say, you ranch/farmers/chicken people, are just… they need to stop and look at what they are doing.
Support HSUS, you are SUPPORTING ANIMAL CRUELTY!
Is all of this true?
Thank you very much for enlightening me on an issue that I hold very close to my heart!! I was more than willing to donate $19 a month for the care of abused and needy animals. I will not donate anymore to someones pension fund and further the political goals of some group I don’t believe in. I am going to send my $19 to the WoundedWarriors Organization and make personal donations to my local pet shelter.
Ok,figures. Now. how do I go about stopping my donation? Call the bank or the humane society? I have been picking up and vetting and getting to rescues abandoned animals (at my apartment complex) for 5 years. I could have used the money for the animals I am trying to save. So, what do I do to stop it? I am really ticked. Thanks.
I thought that commercial with the $19 per month was made by the ASPCA?
A few years ago, I saw their commercial and figured, “I can afford $19 a month”. It was a really sad commercial and I wanted to help. I looked up my old bank statements and they were made out to the ASPCA.
Are the HSUS and ASPCA affiliated?
@Gail,
When I was doing the $19 a month with the ASPCA, there came a time when I could not afford it. My bank said to send a brief certified letter explaining that I want to stop my auto-drafts. Additionally, they said to include the bank on the CC portion of the letter.
I was told that it may take 30 days, but they (ASPCA) contacted me when they received my letter. It was very simple and immediate.
But my bank said to put it in writing in case I needed to dispute further debits.
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These folks, and the folks at PETA make me sick.
Local shelter I am involved with had a “strep zoo” outbreak and is struggling for help. A shelter down by a friend of mine near Columbus got flooded out and volunteers, shelter workers, and good Samaritans helped get the dogs out of the shelter.
Most of the “Farm Laws” being passed (last one here in Ohio is a prime example) of pushing out family farms. A small family farm is a lot more apt to treat their live stock better than a huge mega-farm. When an animal is your dinner you are not going to abuse it….. when you are just an employee at a mega farm you care less about the animals, they are just a pay check to you.