The President of the Aiken SPCA in SC wants the public to know:
The Aiken SPCA does not receive funding from either the ASPCA or the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). It relies upon local, private donations.
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The most visible of the national organizations, particularly HSUS and PETA, collect hundreds of millions of dollars that are used primarily for lobbying, promoting legislation and for retirement plans for their administrators.
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To really help animals at the local level, give at the local level and talk to elected officials about using tax money, but do not be persuaded into believing that any of the privately run rescues is so flush with money that they don’t need your help, because they do.
Many people are under the impression that money donated to large national organizations such as ASPCA, HSUS and PETA help pets in their local shelters. That’s why I feel it’s so important to dispel that myth. While you can’t put me down in the LOVE column on any of these groups, I do recognize they each contribute some amount of good to the animal world. But the public did not come by this misconception about donating to these organizations by accident. Big corporations can afford to buy major media ads, do bulk mailings and pay fancy PR firms. They can pay people to surf the web and copy-paste pre-fab spin into every blog on the net they can find that mentions them. That’s their right. Just as it’s my right to help spread awareness via this blog whenever I can.
Donate to the Aiken SPCA here or find your local no kill shelter here.
To clarify: PETA and HSUS do not rake in hundreds of millions of dollars – combined they take in less than 120 million. PETA takes in about 30 million – same as Best Friends. PETA doesn’t spend a lot of money on legislation or retirement plans for their administrators (Newkirk has ridiculously low pay). The A takes in 123 million and HSUS 89 million (as of 2008).
I agree that if you wish to help animals in your local area, do your due diligence and find out about the area shelters, how much they pay their CEO, what part of their budget goes to programs YOU like. If you wish to help animals at a more national level, and you wish to help ALL animals, then consider donating to a national organization or a group working for ALL animals at the local or state level. All animals deserve protection and a fair chance at a comfortable, long life. Most are never given that…and very few organizations help them.
Keep spreading the word as you do so well.
Whenever I do a post on these wealthy animal rights groups I get long copy and paste comments that have little to do with their real purposes and operations. But the truth about them is getting out, no thanks to the old media.
Oh, Christ on a Cracker – where do you people get this stuff? PETA’s most recently available 990 shows they paid taxes on 30 million – that’s not the same as what they take in. Additionally, while Ms. Newkirk’s payroll check is not large, her overall compensation is hardly small.
All that money and I never, ever see any evidence of PETA doing actual thing except create ads and kill pets. Meanwhile, sources as diverse as Penn & Teller, and the State of Virginia are able to easily find – and thoroughly document – PETA misdeeds.