From KC Dog Blog: “Does Pay as You Wish Pricing Have a Place for Animal Shelters?”
NC shelter in Guilford Co can’t afford an exam table, computers or even a full staff – and they’re low on kibble.
Berks Co Humane Society in PA has set up a hotline so people who see dogs left in cars in the heat can report the location to an animal officer for investigation
UK reporter goes undercover to see how vets run their practices – report is not good. I guess we don’t need to tell FrogDogz that.
National Canine Research Council defines “resident dog” vs. “family dog”
Via HumaneWatch: Charity watchdog AIP (American Institute of Philanthropy) finds HSUS’ fundraising costs can be as much as 49%. In other words, HSUS spends 49 cents to raise every dollar they get. AIP gives HSUS a letter grade of “D”.
21 horse deaths have been reported so far in the current federal wild horse roundup in Nevada
Study finds little difference in bacteria levels between grass-fed beef and conventional beef (Bacterial loads aside, I’d rather see cows in pastures than feedlots.)
Since Friday is generally a yahoo kind of day, I usually drop by Disapproving Rabbits to soak up some bunnylolz. No matter what kind of furry pet you have, you can probably relate to this one.
I buy grass fed beef, but the selling point for us was never “it’s safer”, but rather “it’s kinder to the cows”.
Also, it’s been proven that grass fed beef is lower in fat, which you can tell as soon as you try it – steaks are leaner and ground beef almost never needs to have fat drained off of it after cooking.
Here’s what I found most interesting, though:
“However, Enterococcus species from conventional beef were more frequently resistant to daptomycin and linezolid than were the same species from grass-fed beef (P<.05), they report. They also found that both E coli and Enterococcus from conventional beef showed higher resistance to several antibiotics than the same species from grass-fed beef, in terms of the amount of drug needed to inhibit the organism. "
So, if bacteria levels were the SAME in both, it seems to be only by virtue of the feed lot beef having been pumped full of antibiotics – antibiotics which have led to development of antibiotic *RESISTANT* strains of bacteria!!!
One has to wonder what the comparison levels would be like if feed lot cows were kept antibiotic free.
No, I think I'll stick with my Mennonite raised, grass fed beef – especially since I pay just $2 per pound!
On AIP, a study by the Stanford Social Innovation Review had a lot of criticisms to level about the way AIP conducts their analysis and the transparency of what factors they consider. They apparently don’t follow the GAAP rules for financial reporting and ignore key IRS documents when making their analysis, which means their figures are skewed.
The same way it’s important to keep an eye and crunch numbers when donating to charities, it’s equally important to keep an eye and do research on “watchdog” groups. The best way to do it is to crunch your own numbers.
Not animal related, but a tweet of yours got picked up on a UK Doctor Who site
http://tardisnewsroom.blogspot.com/2010/07/dr-who-games-arrive-in-us-davies-talks.html
scroll down to twitterwatch.
There I am searching the interwebz for info on downloading the finally released to the US video games for my kids and I see YesBiscuit! :)
BTW, I had the same reaction to the StoneHenge news story yesterday.
Cool. Thanks for letting me know. Do you watch the show or do your kids just play the games?
I’ve been watching since I was about 8. Nice nowadays not to have to sit up with rabbit ears trying to get the distant PBS station feed and keep my mom from realizing I was still up at 1:00 AM!
haha – I could never get into the show as a kid. The fakey factor was probably no worse than Star Trek (TOS) – which I loved – but somehow on Doctor Who it was too much for me. But I’ve been totally into the new series although it’s been hard to change Doctors so frequently.
My older (by 12 years) brother spent a good deal of time in the UK and came home with real affection for it so as I worshipped him, it was easy to get into the spirit of things.
I never really find it hard to change Doctors I think because watching US reruns, it happened pretty frequently. And because they’ve had good choices for the new series.
My kids are now delving into the classic stuff and enjoying it too. I love TOS but my kids find the pacing slow, much to my poor trekkie husband’s chagrin.
To Jennie:
The same Stanford Social Innovation Review article criticized Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau’s methodology more harshly than AIP’s. (It was a critique of the major watchdogs groups). The American Institute of Philanthropy (charitywatch.org) has been praised by the New York Times, Sacramento Bee, Newsweek and many others as the best of the bunch. Smart Money said it was the only guide people should use.
Charity Navigator accepts whatever numbers organizations choose to assign to fundraising and program expenses, mechanically crunching the IRS 990s numbers and ignoring the fact that over 25% of charities use creative accounting methods. Charity Navigator also bases 50% of its rating on “financial health”, rewarding old, self-serving, empire building, wealth accumulating groups like HSUS. Earlier this month, Charity Navigator announced that it is (finally) improving its methodology to consider transparency and accountability. Good luck faking that, HSUS.
In 2008, the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance discovered $15 million in HSUS direct mail fundraising expenses that were miscategorized as charitable programs or not accounted for at all. HSUS had to stop cooking the books as much or flunk the BBB report. When filing their 2008 forms, HSUS reported increased mailing costs and misallocated just $10 million dollars to “public education.” Charity Navigator’s one star efficiency ratings for HSUS and HSI (the equivalent of a D) reflects those (more) accurate figures. AIP’s new D grade is based on the same 2008 filings.
If you look at the AIP rating guide’s Animal Welfare charity roster, you will see that HSUS did not provide charitywatch with the many financial and fundraising documents it requests of all organizations before conducting its review. Charities that cooperate with the audit receive an “open book” symbol next to their names and grade. The vast majority of highly rated charities and even many D and F rated ones comply. It is pretty desperate for the HSUS damage control squad to blast AIP for its analysis of tax filings while refusing to provide them with anything else. I guess the American Institute of Philanthropy is staffed by dogfighters, money hungry puppy millers, foie gras chefs and others threatened by the remarkable achievements and monumental strides against cruelty achieved by the largest, most powerful, most effective, and most charitable animal advocate in the universe.