Opinions Regarding Donations for Animals Following Disasters

There are lots of animal rescues needing help right now! If you donate, please make sure you are donating to ones that actually do help rescue from the areas affected. Sometimes that can mean one in Houston, in TX, or sometimes even OK, LA, well, that's what I had been saying...now that I have time to take a breath, or at least now that I'm making time to take a breath, let me give my opinion on donating to the large, national groups vs. the smaller, local groups...

I am still having a hard time with my thought process, so this might be about as clear as some of the standing water along the coast, but let me try here. There are a lot of e-mails circulating discouraging people from donating to some of the larger organizations and instead encouraging donations to local groups. Uhm, I kinda do that here ;) I want to offer an explanation of what are just my personal opinions on this. Granted, I do have some knowledge of how things work, but I certainly don’t claim to know it all or even nearly as much as I should. I’m no good to those whom I choose to help if I have too many irons in the fire so I have to choose my battles wisely.

Here goes...one argument people often offer when they ask that people not give to the large groups, for instance the HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) is that the HSUS does not have shelters to which they actually take the animals. That may be true because even though you will see names like “Humane Society of Southeast Texas”, they are not a HSUS shelter; however, and this is a big however, the HSUS has expenses related to rescue! Take a look at this article. That had to be paid for somehow!

Now, where do I stand on donating to the HSUS? Well, if I could be assured that my donation went to rescue relief vs. a campaign to save the blind white salamander that lives in an aquifer in San Antonio, sure I’d be willing to donate! Do I think the blind white salamander isn’t important? Nope, didn’t say that. Just not my thing, no room for him on my plate (yuck, nasty thought). Have I had time to check into it to see if I can donate to a rescue fund only? Nope. Wait, since I first posted this on my Weatherunderground.com blog, I have! I found this, information about how donations made directly to the HSUS Disaster Relief Fund are used! Here's more info on their Emergency Services Animal Rescue Team.

Another reason that I personally believe it is important to give directly to the shelters/rescues in the affected areas immediately after a disaster is because they need the assistance immediately and getting the assistance and supplies from the state and charities such as PetsMart Charities, SPCA, & HSUS takes time (especially the assistance from the state). Also, once those charities & organizations pull out and the attention moves on, they need those funds to help them keep chugging along. The affects of these storms are felt so long after the clouds have passed, after the media attention has moved on, after America’s short attention span has waned.

And, one final reason (though there are so many) is... There is one group, I’m still not quite sure I want to give their name so, I’ll just say it’s not SPCA and it’s not HSUS, that keeps just regurgitating everything that they pull out of newspapers, verbatim, and even from flippin’ e-mails from Yahoo! rescue groups (that is what put me over the edge) and then just throwing all their “donate!” “give!” “NOW” buttons and links all over the place on the e-mails they send out. If you could see these messages (I have GOT to go find one and put it in my blog), you would see how much they blanket the message with pleas. If you click on their website, you will find that they are a heavy-handed animal rights organization. Now, there is nothing wrong with being an animal rights organization; however, there is absolutely, positively something wrong with using a disaster to further your agenda and raise funds that you then use for that agenda vs. for rescue of animals in disasters.

There are lots of excellent rescue groups out there, just watch out for those who are less than reputable or those that are less than straight forward. Have a favorite breed? Give to a breed rescue in honor of hurricane victims. Need a recommendation? I really do have good contacts in 501(c)3 rescue organizations across the country and will be happy to pass along any info you’d like.