Is Wayne Pacelle the Bernie Madoff of the Charity World?

We have a new video out about Humane Society of the U.S. CEO Wayne Pacelle today. You’ll want to see this.

While Pacelle is not a felon like Madoff and has not been charged with a financial crime, he does similarly run a giant scam to the tune of $100+ million a year. We’ve polled self-identified HSUS donors and found that three-quarters think their gifts are going to help shelter pets and reduce the euthanasia rate. Yet only 1 percent of the money HSUS raises with those ads full of dogs and cats trickles down to pet shelters, and HSUS doesn’t run any pet shelters of its own. Millions go to lawyers, lobbyists, and anti-meat/vegan propaganda campaigns that attack farmers. To raise money for this, Pacelle takes advantage of public confusion between HSUS and local humane societies, which are not affiliated with HSUS. Shelter professionals know the deal.

Does our message seem over-the-top? Not if you consider the rhetorical style of Wayne Pacelle and company at HSUS. Pacelle attacks critics of HSUS as “defenders of cruelty” and its lobbying affiliate has put out sleazy ads. HSUS employs as its food policy director a former PETA hack who has said that “Anybody who eats meat is guilty of holding the same mindset that allowed the Holocaust to happen,” and its P.R. department never seems to shy away from hyperbole.

So we might ruffle Pacelle’s fur a little bit with this video. But we’re sure he believes that you need to use blunt language to get your point across. And that’s exactly what we’ll keep doing.