No Room for Monkey Business on HSUS

As reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) recently came under fire for its association with web survey company SurveyMonkey, a known corporate donor to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). And sportsmen are rightly taking a stand.

AGFC, in an attempt to give voice to its constituents, posted proposed 2016 regulation changes to SurveyMonkey, allowing Arkansas sportsmen to post their comments, concerns, and suggestions. By using SurveyMonkey as its platform of choice, the AGFC has associated itself with a company that supports one of the foremost anti-hunting organizations in the United States, namely, HSUS.

It is easy to see why SurveyMonkey’s services would prove appealing, as much of its allure stems from how it entices individuals to respond to its questionnaires. After being hired by a client for their services, SurveyMonkey offers survey respondents a 50-cent donation to their nonprofit of choice. While this in and of itself is not a problem, the conundrum lies in the fact that HSUS is one of SurveyMonkey’s largest charitable partners.

We have written about this problematic partnership in the past, and we are dismayed to find SurveyMonkey continuing to align itself with HSUS’s shady practices and morally bankrupt agenda. As a matter of fact, of the $5 million-plus dollars raised by SurveyMonkey for charities, more than $1,500,000 of it has gone to HSUS. That could have gone to pay for HSUS’s $6 million racketeering settlement last year, among other things.

AFGC seems to have gotten the message, with one sportsman who had spoken out to the commission saying that “the AGFC’s administration assured him privately that the matter was no longer an issue.” (Reporter’s paraphrase.) However, SurveyMonkey still hasn’t gotten the memo.

Given our recently successful campaign to have Discover dump HSUS as a partner, it is our sincere hope that this time around, SurveyMonkey will be prepared to do the same. In the meantime, for any HumaneWatchers looking to use survey services that don’t support HSUS, there are a number of other alternatives we’d like to suggest, such as Survey Expression, Survey Gizmo, or FluidSurvey.