OKLAHOMA SUBPOENAS ARE LATEST DISASTER FOR HSUS

As if things weren’t bad enough for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt now has issued subpoenas to HSUS as part of his office’s ongoing inquiry into the organization’s fundraising practices, according to Humanewatch.org.

The animal rights watchdog website reported that Pruitt shared the news on a recent broadcast of “All Around Oklahoma Agriculture.” He reportedly told listeners that his office met with HSUS representatives after news broke that the huge direct-mail firm that HSUS uses to solicit donations had reached a $25 million settlement with the New York Attorney General for deceptive charitable fundraising in another case. Pruitt said the reaction of HSUS leaders to the meeting was “in some respects, not good…there’s been denial.”

In the New York case, nearly all of the funds raised for a disabled veterans charity were sent back to the fundraising firm as payment for the campaign. The New York Attorney General’s office described the settlement as “the largest amount of financial relief ever obtained for deceptive charitable fundraising.”

The Humanewatch.org article quoted Pruitt as saying, “Someone can sit across a table and say, ‘We’re doing it the right way,’ but when you raise literally hundreds of millions of dollars, and all that we see so far is less than one percent of those monies going into what would be considered local shelters, it is a very fair and right question to ask this organization nationally, are they being deceptive and unfair in their communications? We intend to push that issue, we intend to find out, and if in fact they are engaging in what we consider deceptive practices, we will bring enforcement actions…and seek to recover damages.”

Pruitt also said he has been in contact with other state attorneys general. “We’ve talked about this on a national basis…I don’t have concrete information about their involvement but we are talking about that.”

A rash of Attorney General investigations nationwide would be HSUS’ worst nightmare, especially coming on the heels of several other financial and PR disasters, including:

• The $15.75 million settlement HSUS and other co-defendants agreed to pay to end the federal racketeering case brought against them by Feld Entertainment;
• HSUS’ insurance carrier’s refusal to cover the cost of the Feld litigation, leaving HSUS donors to foot the entire bill (something HSUS lied about in its initial public statements regarding the settlement);
• Charity Navigator’s issuance of a “Donor Advisory” against HSUS, indicating “extreme concern” that funds donated to the organization might not be used for the purposes intended by the donor;
• A $20 million dollar drop in contributions in 2013, according to HSUS’ latest fundraising report;
• The embarrassing failure of a June HSUS fundraiser near Capitol Hill, which drew an estimated 35 people, and came on the heels of a Washington DC “lobby day” held while Congress was in recess;
• Exposure of HSUS’ funneling of millions of dollars in donor funds into “investments in the Cayman Islands” instead of directing those funds to shelters or other programs that directly benefit animals.

Given these recent and high-profile failures, one thing is certain. Elected officials, donors and the media are beginning to see HSUS for what it really is: an organization that pretends to be about animal welfare while it pursues a not-very-well-hidden agenda of deception, greed and corruption.

As President Lincoln once said, “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” HSUS, are you listening?