"I'm Hungry." reads the text next to the face of a sad-looking puppy in a wire crate. "Food Needed Now for Rescued Animals" reads the text below. People who see the ad likely believe the funds they are donating are going to help animals in need of food now. But a closer look at the organization running the ad, The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), shows that is not likely the case.
A quick look at the ASPCA's 990 Form, the organizations maintains more than $200 million dollars in assets and only runs one animal shelter, while spending a paltry 4% of its annual budget helping shelter animals. We believe the ad, however, is even more misleading than that, because the ASPCA also spends a lot of money across the USA fighting important legislation that would save animals' lives, laws like the Companion Animal Protection Act (CAPA) that would require more transparency of animal shelters and end convenience killing of healthy and treatable pets in these same shelters.
In reality, ASPCA has plenty of money to feed more animals than they are helping now. What they will likely do with the money given by animal lovers believing they are helping feed homeless pets is to pay exorbitant salaries to their executives, bank more cash, and continue fighting important animal shelter regulations.
In other words, if the puppy in the photo is hungry, ASPCA donors have a lot of questions to ask about all the cash already sitting in ASPCA coffers. Don't be fooled.