SPCA and Veterans

[just bob]

Let me start by saying I am a life long member of the local human society and in addition to financial support I serve as a volunteer for various events throughout the year. There are few things in life I feel more impassioned about than the humane treatment of animals – especially pets.
No doubt while you have been relaxing in your recliner, watching TV you have seen those heart wrenching commercials showing the most sensationalized abuse of animals possible. They make you want to cry and angry at the same time. How could anyone with only an ounce of humanity in them abuse a poor defenseless animal to this degree? You decide you will help stop the problem and stop what you’re doing and make a donation to the agency. Do you have any idea where your donation is actually going?
You can spend five minutes on Google and get the answer to that question yourself. The SPCA pays an ad agency millions of dollars to develop and promote these ads. In 2010 the SPCA owed the ad agency over $8 million dollars. The ad agency collected more than $56 million dollars over a 3 year period, but was owed more than $60 million dollars in fees. Of the $14 million raised in 2010, SPCA International reports it spent less than 0.5% -- about $60,000 -- in small cash grants to animal shelters across the United States. CNN and congress have investigated this situation and officials of the SPCA have been prohibited from holding office for specified periods of time. There have been specific funding scams for animals that were the victims of Hurricane Katrina and Baghdad Pups, which was supposedly an effort to bring service dogs’ home from the war zone, but turned out to be a huge boondoggle. You can read about that on Google as well. The facts are clear. Read about the salaries of the SPCA officials. In some cases these officials are making inordinate amounts of money and have very little direct involvement with animals. Here are only a few links on the subject. There are many more, take a minute and look for them.


https://www.humanewatch.org/humane-soci ... llion-man/

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/14/us/animal ... index.html


The sad fact of the matter is this same practice is also used to raise money for veterans. I am a veteran myself and applaud any agency involved in a legitimate cause trying to help veterans, but before you make out a check take 5 minutes and see where your money is actually going. These same agencies create ads showing veterans with horrific war injuries and pleading for your help in assisting them In most cases pennies of every dollar collected go to help veterans and the fund raising agencies get the rest.
So what do you do if you want to help animals or even veterans for that matter? You get involved at the local level. Support your local humane society. In all communities volunteers are needed. Instead of giving money through the campaign ads I buy a bag of dog food and take it to the local shelter. It doesn’t have to be a premium brand. A hungry dog or cat will eat what is there and be grateful for it. If your community has a veteran’s outreach program inquire of them what assistance you can offer. I’m sure they can find something for you.
I have began sending emails to the networks that air these types of fund raising ads and asking them to either stop running them or run them with a disclaimer showing the exact amount of money a donor can expect to go to the animals or veterans. I have emailed local TV stations and asked them to run news segments on these types of charities. I wish a TV show like 60 Minutes would run a major story. It would open a lot of eyes. I am only one person and don’t expect major change but hope the effort will snowball.
Not all agencies are bad and not all contributions go to fat cats. There are many good organizations out there. You need to do your due diligence and find these organizations that actually try and help people and animals.
I’ll close by relating a situation that happened about 10 years ago in the small town on 25,000 people that I live in and you can see the problem isn’t only on a national level but a local level as well and you should investigate before contributing money.
A local couple filed the necessary paper work and set up a non profit agency. Their mission was to provide transportation to and from the VA hospitals for needy veterans which are about 50 miles away. Raffles were held where I worked and community fund raising events took place to raise money for a new van to transport the veterans in. When funding was almost met a local car dealership stepped in, bridged the gap and the couple was given a new van. It was painted with a red, white, and blue American flag design. The local paper had it on the front page and it was seen about town. Then only shortly after that some veterans started complaining that the van was not available to take them to their appointments. The couple would say they weren’t scheduling visits that day or already had obligations elsewhere. Then the van was seen out of town at various non veteran type activities and even at vacation destinations in southern states. The couple was approached and asked about how much time they actually spent taking veterans to and from appointments and admitted that they also used the van for their personal use including vacations. Who can say how much time the van was actually spent for its intended use? Many here say very little. Within 2 years the van had a blue million miles on it and the couple did not keep the maintenance up on it. It ended up being salvaged. So far as it is known the local couple did not file to renew their non profit entity and have not began any others. Maybe they knew the community would not support them?
Please help me help others and get the word out.

[bestgear]

Well said Bob! When I get a telemarketing call the first thing I ask is how much of every dollar goes to the charity. By law they are required to provide a verifiable percentage. If it is anything less than 95% I decline the opportunity and rarely am I ever called again by that charity. Like Bob, I do much of my volunteering with time and not cash, it's a win-win and I know exactly where my efforts are making a difference.

[Mumbleypeg]

Thanks for posting this Bob. I have been aware of the scam that is the ASPCA, and it always irritates me to see their television ads. You may as well take your money a flush it down your toilet - in fact that's probably better - at least that way the scam artists won't get any of it. Of the money sent to the ASPCA that is left after the advertisers and executives take their immense cut, much of that goes to wacko groups like PETA! Very little if any is used to help poor creatures like those shown in their advertisements.

If you truly are motivated by the message in those ads, give to your local SPCA or other local animal shelter, where you can actually see what is being done with it.

Always check the actual record of any organization claiming to be a charity, BEFORE giving them anything. People have good hearts and want to help. Scammers like those you mentioned unfortunately make everyone skeptical.

Ken

[carrmillus]

.......glad this was posted, I have always suspected this was the case!!.....it IS really hard to watch those animals and NOT donate!!!................

[fergusontd]

This is the reason I wont give anything to anybody, you just dont know if the charities are a scam. Call me what you want but I believe charity begins at home, family comes first, and the hell with the tear jerking commericals, all these have their spirits high, hearts open, and their hands out. ftd

[treefarmer]

Folks might be surprised to know how many of the so called charitable organizations have hidden and sometimes not hidden agendas that are anti 2nd Amendment and also opposed to hunting and fishing rights. Check 'em out and you'll see many are fighting to destroy what a lot of us enjoy.
just bob, thanks for bringing this up!
Treefarmer

[espn77]

About 6-7 years ago there was a facility that bottle fed baby Holstein calves and it was on CNN about how the people were hitting them in the head with pic axes. The story didn't show how it was -10 degrees and the calves feet frost bit off and they couldn't walk. The owner had hired a kid (a undercover pita) that showed up that morning, gave a list of calves that needed to be euthanized to an employee and gave him a .22 rifle and asked him to put them down. When the employee and the new kid went out to put the calves down the undercover told the employee not to use the gun but rather use the pic ax that was used for breaking ice to put the calves down. After recording the incident and putting it public. A horrible thing for agricultural and for the owner of tge facility, and he got to spend time in jall. I have no tolerance for animal abuse or for people trying to set others up for there own agenda.
Just my opinion.

[TwoFlowersLuggage]

FYI, a good site to start your research on any charity is: https://www.charitynavigator.org/

This site will show you what percentage of total expenses are spent on delivering programs and services, and the transparency of the charity to outside scrutiny.