Carol, and fellow
animal rescuers,
Thank you for your response about the
protest. I was trying to
understand both sides, especially
because the Genesis Awards is nothing
less than wonderful......BUT HOW CAN YOU
SAY THAT HSUS DID A GOOD JOB WHEN THEY
SENT AN APOLOGY LETTER OUT ABOUT THEIR
POOR RESULTS IN KATRINA?!!!! When
you also insist that we should chant
good things about HSUS, why????
They are a monopoly with something like
50 affiliates, which is like having one
political party to vote for. One
of their affiliates is a whole
organization for just promotion, (best
seen during Katrina). They are
doing a wonderful job promoting
themselves without me.
Carol, it is obvious you were not on
ground level to see what was going on
during Katrina. How can you excuse
HSUS for their poor results explaining
it was the biggest disaster, and then
turn around and put Pasado down who,
along with BEST FRIENDS, NEW LEASH ON
LIFE, etc. did 99% of the continued
rescues with hardly the money HSUS
received. Thank the Lord ENRON was
exposed to teach people that big
business can corrupt anywhere, anytime.
History will repeat itself, Carol, if a
company or organization in high position
cannot be challenged.
HSUS said they planned this for 10
years, and was asked by both states, (LA
and MS), to be the lead agency.
Since HSUS admitted they failed in this
apology letter, they need to also take
responsibility and maybe owe a portion
of their donations to the pet owners
that gave them their last dollar to save
their pet. HSUS was consistent in asking
for donations, even when they left town
leaving the rescuing to the other
smaller organizations. Don't get tricked
by HSUS initial presence, because they
made sure to monopolize the Katrina
area, not allowing anyone to come to
rescue, unless these "VOLUNTEERS" were
under the HSUS umbrella. These
rescuers with HSUS were NOT staff
workers, the HSUS staff workers were
busier than usual, with brand new state
of the art computers, because HSUS'
priority was to be able to handle the
millions in donations,...... funny, no
failure collecting the millions, which
is strange when they are an "animal
charity", NOT A BANK!!!! In fact,
taking donations in the mega-millions
was HSUS biggest and only success in
Katrina!
Let us review and ask the public to take
a fair poll by first asking HSUS to
reveal what they made, and ask where the
money went to, and see if animals really
were helped, or did people profit off
this disaster. For being so
"wonderful", HSUS seems to avoid this
question of the total amount they made,
yet they are a charity and should be
telling us that automatically. Let
us then compare to what Pasado made and
what rescues Pasado did, still keeping
in mind that HSUS was called to be the
"lead agency", not Pasado or BEST
FRIENDS. By the way, it was the good ol'
National Enquirer, other few media
outlets, as well as my family and
friends, (in Katrina), that did their
research to see most of the HSUS pet
rescues left behind at the smaller
shelters were killed! If sweet
volunteers and the military did not try
to sneak animals out of the HSUS 30 day
hold, (did you know about that??), those
animals that HSUS takes credit for
rescuing, would be dead. I begged
Bernard, VP of HSUS, to ignore the 30
day hold, to save animals that were
dying, and his response, I swear, was
that he could not disrespect this order,
because he was afraid HSUS would never,
be asked again to be lead agency of the
next disaster, KNOWING THIS 30 DAY HOLD
WAS KILLING ANIMALS!!!
HSUS later told me they gave $100,000 to
2 of the local shelters, because they
wanted to leave, but do the math...HSUS
making millions, (some say 20-200
million for Katrina), yet only giving
$100,000 to 2 local over crowded
shelters, ....yikes!! Though FEMA did
their whole set up, HSUS told me that
they still managed to pay a whole $1000
dollars for refrigerated trucks, four of
them a day. That is right, that is all
they could tell me their millions were
going to when I initially asked on
Howard Stern how much they made.
Other than the refrigerated trucks and
the 2 local shelters, HSUS never could
tell me what their millions were spent
on. People started protesting and
signing petitions to see the amount HSUS
made for Katrina, so HSUS recently
listed their grants, (about 3 million
dollars), that went to organizations,
interestingly, I never saw during
Katrina.
During a major disaster when you have
thousands of pets to rescue quickly, I
really think it would be fair to predict
that hoarding will happen automatically,
along with reckless home checks. HSUS
was so lucky to leave early and dump pet
rescues at small shelters that looked
like the bad guys because they were
forced to kill, from over crowded
conditions, or appear as "hoarders",
because they refused to kill.
Animal organizations are obviously
needed, but don't be one of those that
support organizations that may start
with great intentions but end up
profiting off the problems and lobby in
the press to get donations from the
problems that could be solved with their
mega-millions. Did you know that
HSUS is worth about 150 million, also
making that amount a year, and the CEO,
Wayne, gets nearly a half of a
million(?) Gosh, with that money
we could put a BEST FRIENDS sanctuary in
every city, along with a task force and
a free clinic to solve all animal
problems..........but wait, there goes
THAT business, if solved, so instead of
attacking us little people, stand up and
be a proud American by asking questions
like Michael Moore and Bill O'Reilly
insist on doing.
I blame people and celebrities for not
doing their research. So many lose focus
of the animals by ending up in a
cult-like foundation, where this blind
focus later turns toward the leader or
the company, rather than the animals.
Most, for example, probably don't care
if an organization has felony counts of
animal abuse.
All the big organizations do good
things, THAT IS WHAT THEY ARE PAID TO
DO, but as Americans we should welcome
challenges and questions to keep a check
and balance. When the problems of
animals are solved, only then let us
give credit to those who solved them,
but you are jumping the gun to give
credit to those who know how to spin the
media. I can promise you that
since HSUS spends the majority of its
donations on mailing lists and salaries,
a few questions and challenges will not
make this enormous business fall apart.
You may say that by demanding answers
for this failure is "dividing the animal
community". Actually, history will
teach you this approach of not asking
questions enables a "dictatorship". It
is more democratic to listen to concerns
of the little people that have no agenda
with making money.
By the way, I noticed Carol that you cc
HSUS. Do you work for them?
No agenda, nobody rescuers...
Shane
and Sia Barbi, Founders
www.TheKittyLiberationFront.org
P.S We support a
tribute to Gretchen Wyler and all she
has done. We never said we were going
to protest during the event but we
understand people's anger towards HSUS
for the Katrina failure and want to hold
them accountable.
Subject: RE: [penzelda] HSUS
controversy and Genesis Awards
From: Carol
Date: Mon, Feb 27, 2006 9:27
am
Katrina was the
biggest natural disaster to ever hit
this country. Sadly, even more
disastrous was the handling of it by
FEMA and other government groups that
exist to handle such emergencies.
HSUS, while dedicated to animals, does
not have response to disasters it main
focus....so were mistakes
made....certainly. Does that make it a
BAD group....on one that needs to be
publicly embarressed.......again NO.
Anyone who would take the time to go to
their website will know that they have
spent millions.
I find it surprising that those wanting
to publicly excoriate HSUS have remained
amazingly silent on the danger which
Pasado's put animals in when they sent
them to EDNAH over the objections of
those who knew about this place....and
if you followed the story...their
excuses are contradictory, arrogant and
not plausible. When is this going to be
protested? When will HSUS be PRAISED
for the time and money they spent
resolving this mess.?
If you want to provide aide and comfort
to those who seek to dismantle the work
each of us does for animals...by all
means...excercise your rights and go
protest.
How
will weakening groups such as HSUS help
animals...who is going to be there with
a strong national voice if PETA, HSUS
etc are not there? How will this
protest make things better for animals?
I followed closely
the letters and comments from those who
were in the Katrina area. I noted that
the vast majority were proud of what
they did and proud of working with HSUS.
Each of the letters I read urged
ignoring those who selected to find
fault and point fingers.
I also
have followed the HSUS website
closely....and know that claims they are
"sitting on the money" are based either
on ignorance of the facts or simple
unwillingness to admit the good work
this group has done.
If you
seek the negative...you will always find
it...because no organization on the face
of this earth is perfect....but to look
only for the bad...and not see the
good...that is tragic
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