ATLANTA - When you hear the name Atlanta Humane Society, you may think you know where a majority of the dogs and cats that are up for adoption come from. If you guess the Atlanta area, FOX 5 I-Team reporter Randy Travis says you'd be wrong.
He investigates why the non-profit chooses to largely ignore metro shelters.
Paulding Humane Society, Inc. is a 501 c (3) non-profit corporation providing low-cost SPAY - NEUTER options to Paulding County pet owners. Paulding Humane Society, Inc. P.O. Box 674 Dallas, GA 30132 770-443-3565
All donations are tax-deductible and fund SPAY-NEUTER assistance.
In a nutshell == Instead of helping out the metro Atlanta Humane Societies, they are getting animals from other states & countries. The gist is that the local shelters wouldn't have to put so many of the animals to sleep if the Atlanta HS would come get local pets.
I really found some of the viewers comments very illuminating.
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While I think that helping to save ANY homeless animal and get them rehomed is admirable and praiseworthy, this one did give me some trouble when I first watched the story on the news last night.
If local donors believe their donation$ are going to help with the local homeless pet population, they are in for a big surprise when it comes to the AHS (allegedly). If nearby counties are euthanizing LARGE numbers of local animals while the AHS is bringing them in not only from other states but also from other countries, people who contribute donation$ to AHS have every right to ask why.
I'm glad this has come to light. I had no idea this was going on, as I'm sure many others didn't as well.
All homeless animals are in need of help, but we have PLENTY locally in need of help without busing them in from LA and Barbados.
Have witnessed firsthand Atlanta pets being turned away repeatedly, some with serious injuries, and the excuse is always 'no room available.' They tell them to go to Fulton Animal Control that euthanizes 63% according to the report. Maybe this investigation will bring some changes.
Paulding Humane Society, Inc. is a 501 c (3) non-profit corporation providing low-cost SPAY - NEUTER options to Paulding County pet owners. Paulding Humane Society, Inc. P.O. Box 674 Dallas, GA 30132 770-443-3565
All donations are tax-deductible and fund SPAY-NEUTER assistance.
This is from the Atlanta Humane Society's website. They state that: "The efforts of the Atlanta Humane Society are not limited by City, County or even State lines."
HEART Animal Rescue Program
The animal rescue program at the Atlanta Humane Society is dedicated to saving the lives of dogs and cats across the US. Because we know that an animal's need for assistance should not be limited by their location, we travel across the country, investing in the care of animals in areas lacking animal welfare services.
From hurricanes to puppy mills, the H.E.A.R.T. animal rescue vehicle has traveled throughout Georgia and the southeast to provide treatment to needy animals that would otherwise go untreated and unprotected.
The Story Behind HEART
In 2009, the AHS founded the Humane Emergency Animal Rescue Team (H.E.A.R.T.) program, which is supplemented by a fifth wheel trailer and a knowledgeable response team. Our animal rescue program ensures that animals across the state and country receive the best care possible. We have trained our team extensively, focusing on issues such as All-Hazard Response, Evidence Collection, National Incident Management System, and Fractious Animal Handling. They are also equipped to remove animals from puppy mills, dog fighting rings, hoarders, and disaster areas.
We rely on the public's support and generosity to operate the HEART animal rescue program. Please consider our sponsorship opportunities or make a donation to our abuse and disaster efforts. Your donations ensure that we can help animals across Georgia, the Southeast, and beyond.
The H.E.A.R.T.: Searching out animal abuse and responding to Disasters
The efforts of the Atlanta Humane Society are not limited by City, County or even State lines. We know ...
PLEASE go to your browser- type in HSUS complaints and read the article on ripoffreport.com . ASPCA and HSUS (Humane Society of the United States ) are running a racket. They give less than 1 PERCENT of donations to actually help animals in need. These are POWERFUL ACTIVIST organizations who use the money to advance social agendas, and the CEO's ( yes I said that ) make GREAT salaries. This is being seen by the other large animal organizations and thaey are SADLY following suit. IF YOU DONT AGREE/GET ALONG with YOUR LOCAL SHELTER- make an anonomous call to your local shelter- ask which vet does the spay/neuter program- and make an anonymous donation to the vet clinic in the Humane Society name( under their account) specifically for spay/neuter or whatever- that way you are putting money toward what it needs, without becoming involved with them. Or if you can do it, ask the shelter if they have an emergency medical needs fund at the clinic where you could donate to the vet clinic. Or buy food and have teens bring it to the shelter as community service. I can think of a million ways to help LOCAL shelters- stay away from the national ones.
In a nutshell == Instead of helping out the metro Atlanta Humane Societies, they are getting animals from other states & countries. The gist is that the local shelters wouldn't have to put so many of the animals to sleep if the Atlanta HS would come get local pets.
I really found some of the viewers comments very illuminating.
Spanks!
.
I.I.T.Y.W.I.M.W.Y.B.M.A.D.
You shall find me waiting for you in the old cemetery, under the shade of the magnolia tree.............
Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.
I would like to hear the full story,and why we can't help our own area.
Quote
In 2009, the AHS founded the Humane Emergency Animal Rescue Team (H.E.A.R.T.) program, which is supplemented by a fifth wheel trailer and a knowledgeable response team. Our animal rescue program ensures that animals across the state and country receive the best care possible. We have trained our team extensively, focusing on issues such as All-Hazard Response, Evidence Collection, National Incident Management System, and Fractious Animal Handling. They are also equipped to remove animals from puppy mills, dog fighting rings, hoarders, and disaster areas.
We rely on the public's support and generosity to operate the HEART animal rescue program. Please consider our sponsorship opportunities or make a donation to our abuse and disaster efforts. Your donations ensure that we can help animals across Georgia, the Southeast, and beyond.
Their webstie refers to changes made in 2009. I don't know why they decided to start rescuing animals outside the Atlanta area---when there are so many unmet needs in the area.
PLEASE go to your browser- type in HSUS complaints and read the article on ripoffreport.com . ASPCA and HSUS (Humane Society of the United States ) are running a racket. They give less than 1 PERCENT of donations to actually help animals in need. These are POWERFUL ACTIVIST organizations who use the money to advance social agendas, and the CEO's ( yes I said that ) make GREAT salaries. This is being seen by the other large animal organizations and thaey are SADLY following suit. IF YOU DONT AGREE/GET ALONG with YOUR LOCAL SHELTER- make an anonomous call to your local shelter- ask which vet does the spay/neuter program- and make an anonymous donation to the vet clinic in the Humane Society name( under their account) specifically for spay/neuter or whatever- that way you are putting money toward what it needs, without becoming involved with them. Or if you can do it, ask the shelter if they have an emergency medical needs fund at the clinic where you could donate to the vet clinic. Or buy food and have teens bring it to the shelter as community service. I can think of a million ways to help LOCAL shelters- stay away from the national ones.
I'd like to hear more about the "less than 1 PERCENT" figure you quote. Where does it come from?
Here's the Charity Navigator website that rates charities of all types:
PLEASE go to your browser- type in HSUS complaints and read the article on ripoffreport.com . ASPCA and HSUS (Humane Society of the United States ) are running a racket. They give less than 1 PERCENT of donations to actually help animals in need. These are POWERFUL ACTIVIST organizations who use the money to advance social agendas, and the CEO's ( yes I said that ) make GREAT salaries. This is being seen by the other large animal organizations and thaey are SADLY following suit. IF YOU DONT AGREE/GET ALONG with YOUR LOCAL SHELTER- make an anonomous call to your local shelter- ask which vet does the spay/neuter program- and make an anonymous donation to the vet clinic in the Humane Society name( under their account) specifically for spay/neuter or whatever- that way you are putting money toward what it needs, without becoming involved with them. Or if you can do it, ask the shelter if they have an emergency medical needs fund at the clinic where you could donate to the vet clinic. Or buy food and have teens bring it to the shelter as community service. I can think of a million ways to help LOCAL shelters- stay away from the national ones.
Wow. These are some serious allegations. I do hope that you've combed through the annual reports of the HS to back up your 1% claim. You're basically stating that 99 percent of all donated monies goes to administrative costs? I which case it's in violation of 501c3 laws and you should step up and take that information to the IRS.
Let me know if I can help in your whistle blowing efforts.
While I understand that this is wrong and know that everyone has the right to be upset......
COMPARE it to this.......
Our Country is in a world of trouble right now BUT our President went to a Terrorist Nation yesterday and offered them Financial help for the next several years.
Same situation in my book. And nobody is in an uproar over that.
It's commonly thought that the Humane Society of the United States supports or funds local non-profit humane society organizations. There is NO SUPPORT provided, unless you count the informational flyers on animal issues that humane societies can PURCHASE from them or costly seminars.
They are involved in large cruelty cases in the country, disasters or puppy mills that bring in more publicity and monies to their organization. Same thing with Atlanta Humane Society.
Support your local humane society (non-profit) or animal control (government.)
Paulding Humane Society, Inc. is a 501 c (3) non-profit corporation providing low-cost SPAY - NEUTER options to Paulding County pet owners. Paulding Humane Society, Inc. P.O. Box 674 Dallas, GA 30132 770-443-3565
All donations are tax-deductible and fund SPAY-NEUTER assistance.
Paulding Humane Society, on 02 May 2012 - 10:18 AM, said:
It's commonly thought that the Humane Society of the United States supports or funds local non-profit humane society organizations. There is NO SUPPORT provided, unless you count the informational flyers on animal issues that humane societies can PURCHASE from them or costly seminars.
They are involved in large cruelty cases in the country, disasters or puppy mills that bring in more publicity and monies to their organization. Same thing with Atlanta Humane Society.
Support your local humane society (non-profit) or animal control (government.)
These are listed under services at the Atlanta Humane Society's website. It seems they are interested in benefiting the community. Different people sometimes see different things as more important than others. I don't know enough about them to say.
BL - Not saying they don't provide many good services for the community, but when you witness it from the inside, there are priorities that are certainly misdirected and need changing IMHO. When Atlanta animals are regularly being turned away at the front door while truckloads of puppy mill dogs are brought in the back, or a stray is brought in with its' leg hanging off and turned away, there is a problem.
Paulding Humane Society, Inc. is a 501 c (3) non-profit corporation providing low-cost SPAY - NEUTER options to Paulding County pet owners. Paulding Humane Society, Inc. P.O. Box 674 Dallas, GA 30132 770-443-3565
All donations are tax-deductible and fund SPAY-NEUTER assistance.
It is obvious to me the racket here is executive travel.
The AHS goes to New Orleans to rescue animals because the VP likes to visit the Casinos and French Quarter. Ditto southern Florida... and south Georgia is not but a skip, hop and jump from the gulf shore.
They leave in the morning, drive to the location, book a room, go to the target shelter the next day to pick out the animals, take the rest of the day off because it is too late to leave that day, spend the night and then the next day, pickup the animals for the return trip... all on the expense account.
Whether or not the expense account is padded, the exec. got the time there. If he/she is deft enough, the trip could involve a weekend in which the inspection of the animals to be rescued is on a Friday and the rules of the shelter (and their wish to have the maximum local adoptions) means they can't leave until Monday.
When thinking about this, the idea of padding of the accounts is a legitimate question if for no other reason, there would not be the opportunity for such if the rescue took place two-miles down the road. Face it there is just no opportunity for an expense account entry for that effort. Now I'm not saying the expense accounts were or are padded - I have no way of knowing - but in assessing what possible motive there would be for making these kinds of trips, the logically devious mind immediately fixates on that as a possible motive - big time.
It also helps explain why an executive VP, instead of a lower-level person, is tasked with the pickup more convincingly than the special trailer that was or was not used.
You might ask why these folks, as executives, just didn't give themselves a raise? Could it be that they reasoned: One: They like to travel and Two: you don't pay taxes on expense account (whether padded or not.)
In the context of the anti-tax attitude and its per-eminence and priority by conservatives, it may be that the reasoning that an animal saved is an animal saved may have been enough moral justification make the scheme acceptable.
I.e. The chairman says ... You've done a great job raising funds. We could justify raising your pay $35,000/yr but we don't want to have to pay the taxes on that and neither do you. What we'll do instead is just rescue animals from here, there and yonder - places you want to go for weekend getaways - and you can pad your expenses as well and no one will be none-the-wiser. Just don't get caught.
I suspect they got caught. Donations will fall off, the Atlanta Humane Society - whether or not they fire those involved (they may not) will have to adjust to the new lower funding level and they'll miss the trips to the Big Easy.
Several of the top spots already make $100,000 plus in salary.
Could they have found a bigger idiot to put on camera as their spokesman? What a doofus!
Paulding Humane Society, Inc. is a 501 c (3) non-profit corporation providing low-cost SPAY - NEUTER options to Paulding County pet owners. Paulding Humane Society, Inc. P.O. Box 674 Dallas, GA 30132 770-443-3565
All donations are tax-deductible and fund SPAY-NEUTER assistance.
It is obvious to me the racket here is executive travel.
The AHS goes to New Orleans to rescue animals because the VP likes to visit the Casinos and French Quarter. Ditto southern Florida... and south Georgia is not but a skip, hop and jump from the gulf shore.
They leave in the morning, drive to the location, book a room, go to the target shelter the next day to pick out the animals, take the rest of the day off because it is too late to leave that day, spend the night and then the next day, pickup the animals for the return trip... all on the expense account.
Whether or not the expense account is padded, the exec. got the time there. If he/she is deft enough, the trip could involve a weekend in which the inspection of the animals to be rescued is on a Friday and the rules of the shelter (and their wish to have the maximum local adoptions) means they can't leave until Monday.
When thinking about this, the idea of padding of the accounts is a legitimate question if for no other reason, there would not be the opportunity for such if the rescue took place two-miles down the road. Face it there is just no opportunity for an expense account entry for that effort. Now I'm not saying the expense accounts were or are padded - I have no way of knowing - but in assessing what possible motive there would be for making these kinds of trips, the logically devious mind immediately fixates on that as a possible motive - big time.
It also helps explain why an executive VP, instead of a lower-level person, is tasked with the pickup more convincingly than the special trailer that was or was not used.
You might ask why these folks, as executives, just didn't give themselves a raise? Could it be that they reasoned: One: They like to travel and Two: you don't pay taxes on expense account (whether padded or not.)
In the context of the anti-tax attitude and its per-eminence and priority by conservatives, it may be that the reasoning that an animal saved is an animal saved may have been enough moral justification make the scheme acceptable.
I.e. The chairman says ... You've done a great job raising funds. We could justify raising your pay $35,000/yr but we don't want to have to pay the taxes on that and neither do you. What we'll do instead is just rescue animals from here, there and yonder - places you want to go for weekend getaways - and you can pad your expenses as well and no one will be none-the-wiser. Just don't get caught.
I suspect they got caught. Donations will fall off, the Atlanta Humane Society - whether or not they fire those involved (they may not) will have to adjust to the new lower funding level and they'll miss the trips to the Big Easy.
pubby
Why MUST you make this a "conservative v. liberal" matter?
That's just disgusting.
It's not about your political leanings. It's about homeless animals and serving THEIR needs.
Why MUST you make this a "conservative v. liberal" matter?
That's just disgusting.
It's not about your political leanings. It's about homeless animals and serving THEIR needs.
Unbelievable.
I was wrong to suggest that this is a conservative affliction - A lot of folks connive to avoid paying taxes and some are more principled in their cons than others.
Regardless all who avoid taxes do so with the idea of gaming the system and I would be wrong to assert that liberals are innocent in these kinds of things.
My only justification is that when I look around the powers that be in Georgia, I see about 50 conservatives for every liberal and so, in typical human fashion, I did 'profile' the people based on the same relative proportions that most profile and associate with other crimes. Mea culpa.
I was wrong to suggest that this is a conservative affliction - A lot of folks connive to avoid paying taxes and some are more principled in their cons than others.
Regardless all who avoid taxes do so with the idea of gaming the system and I would be wrong to assert that liberals are innocent in these kinds of things.
My only justification is that when I look around the powers that be in Georgia, I see about 50 conservatives for every liberal and so, in typical human fashion, I did 'profile' the people based on the same relative proportions that most profile and associate with other crimes. Mea culpa.
dumbestgirlintheworld, on 02 May 2012 - 09:58 AM, said:
Wow. These are some serious allegations. I do hope that you've combed through the annual reports of the HS to back up your 1% claim. You're basically stating that 99 percent of all donated monies goes to administrative costs? I which case it's in violation of 501c3 laws and you should step up and take that information to the IRS.
Let me know if I can help in your whistle blowing efforts.
Whoops- My bad- I think it is an entire 1 percent. Go to humanewatch
And in addition - PETA and HSUS are for Animal RIGHTS ( meaning "activists,with agendas ") , whereas local shelters are for animal WELFARE!
I looked it up. Iteresting:
Berman's Guy Behind HumaneWatch.org: David Martosko
HumaneWatch.org is essentially a one-man blog written by David Martosko, a spokesman for Berman and CCF. Martosko is best known for parroting Berman's industry-paid positions that mercury levels in edible fish pose no harm to children, and drunk driving is no longer much of a problem. Martosko served as CCF's Director of Research in 2006. His qualifications? He was a music major in college and an AM radio talk show producer after that. CCF is an industry-funded organization that Berman set up back in 1995 as a front group for tobacco, alcohol and restaurant industry interests, and it is now famous for running smear campaigns that it dresses up to look like public interest campaigns.
One thing we can be certain about: the Humane Society must be doing a decent job of lobbying on behalf of animal welfare, or it wouldn't have found itself in Berman's crosshairs
Berman's Guy Behind HumaneWatch.org: David Martosko
HumaneWatch.org is essentially a one-man blog written by David Martosko, a spokesman for Berman and CCF. Martosko is best known for parroting Berman's industry-paid positions that mercury levels in edible fish pose no harm to children, and drunk driving is no longer much of a problem. Martosko served as CCF's Director of Research in 2006. His qualifications? He was a music major in college and an AM radio talk show producer after that. CCF is an industry-funded organization that Berman set up back in 1995 as a front group for tobacco, alcohol and restaurant industry interests, and it is now famous for running smear campaigns that it dresses up to look like public interest campaigns.
One thing we can be certain about: the Humane Society must be doing a decent job of lobbying on behalf of animal welfare, or it wouldn't have found itself in Berman's crosshairs
I did go and look up the article from prwatch.org, beacuse I am willing to look at what you are saying. That prwatch.org is connected directly to " The Center for Democracy and Freedom " which is a liberal organization. So we might as well politely agree to disagree, because we can keep peeling back layers of each others info and never get the other convinced. Which would also be basically hijacking the thread and unfair to the OP.
I did go and look up the article from prwatch.org, beacuse I am willing to look at what you are saying. That prwatch.org is connected directly to " The Center for Democracy and Freedom " which is a liberal organization. So we might as well politely agree to disagree, because we can keep peeling back layers of each others info and never get the other convinced. Which would also be basically hijacking the thread and unfair to the OP.
Quote
HumaneWatch.org, is trying to generate outrage against HSUS by ridiculing the group's recent activities ... marketing its own brand of cruelty-free, all-natural dry dog food that does not support the factory farming industry.
As I said before, different people sometimes believe that the groups' funds should be spent in different ways. I'm not familiar with this food but I like the idea of improvements being made in dog food.
I have worked with the HSUS several different times doing rescue work and I can tell you first hand that many dogs,cats,horses,pigs,goats,birds and every other can of animal were damn lucky they were there to save them.
Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.
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I have worked with the HSUS several different times doing rescue work and I can tell you first hand that many dogs,cats,horses,pigs,goats,birds and every other can of animal were damn lucky they were there to save them.
Solo. I'm glad you've been able to do all of that, I souns like some memorable exeriences,
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