The Visual HSUS, Part 5

Today we’re releasing the latest entry in our “Visual HSUS” graphical series. (Click on the links to visit previous entries: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4)

We’ve created a map showing how much of HSUS’s budget went to pet shelters in 2009, broken down by state. Ideally, HSUS would allocate 50 percent of its budget for pet-shelter grants, meaning every state should see 1 percent of HSUS’s budget, on average. (Large states like California would likely get a bigger share of the money than less populous states like Wyoming.)

This is entirely reasonable to expect from HSUS—after all, most Americans already think that HSUS sends at least half of its budget to pet shelters, according to public polling.

In reality, though, HSUS shares less than one percent of its budget with pet shelters overall. And just one-thousandth of one percent of HSUS’s budget reaches pet shelters in many states.

In other words, if you live in Virginia, a tiny fraction of one percent of your donation to HSUS made it to pet shelters in the Old Dominion—one percent of one percent, to be more precise. So for every Virginia donor who writes a $1,000 check to HSUS, Virginia pet shelters will get just 10 cents.

One dime. Two nickels. That’s embarrassing.

Click on the image above to find a printer-friendly PDF of the map. And head over to Zazzle if you’d like to acquire a poster-sized version of today’s Visual HSUS entry for yourself.