ND Shelters Losing Money to Confused HSUS Donors

Difference between local, national Humane Societies confuses animal donors
Consumer Freedom center criticizes national group, which says it doesn’t claim to be a source for local sheltersA group that’s been critical of the national Humane Society renewed its jabs Wednesday, detailing in a state-by-state report on how little the society donates to local animal shelters.
By: Dave Roepke, The Forum
Grand Forks Herald

A group that’s been critical of the national Humane Society renewed its jabs Wednesday, detailing in a state-by-state report on how little the society donates to local animal shelters.
The Humane Society of the United States dismisses the criticism by the Center for Consumer Freedom, saying it doesn’t claim to be a source of grant money for local animal shelters.

Regardless of the goal of the national group, directors of shelters in Grand Forks and Fargo say they often battle the notion that donations to the HSUS will go to actual shelters.

“I definitely think it’s an issue,” said Arlette Moen, executive director of Circle of Friends Humane Society in Grand Forks.

Moen and the executive director of the FM Humane Society, Nukhet Hendricks, said they regularly encounter indications that some donors draw no distinction between their outfits and the national group.

“We have people walk into the shelter and say, ‘Oh, I give to the Humane Society of the United States,’” Moen said. “That’s our opportunity to tell them, ‘No, it doesn’t work that way.’”

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It has to be incredibly frustrating for local shelters to see local money being donated to the HSUS by people who mistakenly believe they support pet shelters. I find news stories like this on a very regular basis now. Some shelters are now changing their names just so they can distance themselves from the HSUS because the confusion is affecting their ability to get donations. But the fact that HSUS is causing this hardship doesn’t seem to bother them much.