To quote an acquaintance of mine: What was originally intended as a means for a voice of the people in Missouri has turned into a rape of our political system by the wealthiest out-of-state special interest group. HSUS cruises political arenas looking to make money, spread their propaganda, enact their agenda on the unknowing public and move on to the next money-maker. Pay your taxes, HSUS!

Yes, unfortunately your money was not used to take care of pets in shelters. HSUS does not own or contribute to any pet adoption shelters, nor is it an umbrella organization for shelters with the name "Humane Society." (The same is true of ASPCA, which is not a national umbrella organization for "SPCAs" but merely the New York City shelter which has lately taken on a lot of animal rights propaganda and lobbying as well.) Your money was used to lobby for malicious laws, pay for full-time professional lobbyists in nearly every state capital (multiple ones in many states), initiate lawsuits harassing animal owners, and spread false propaganda about all types of animal uses. As Grace suggests, you can look at http://humanewatch.org/, also...

Your point is well taken, but you left out a major issue – the system is still vulnerable to being warped by determined organizations with subversive intentions and bags of money. An organization that hides its real agenda and spends megamillions advertising propaganda and paying people to get signatures on ballot petitions can get malicious legislation passed by manipulating the sheer ignorance of the public. This is what the Humane Society of the US (HSUS) did in Missouri, where they got the public to support a ballot initiative 'to "get rid of puppy mills." Very few people knew enough about the issue to recognize the lies in the propaganda and to understand that the HSUS is not a humane organization but a radical vegan animal rights...

This is the most straightforward and concise explanation I've seen yet. I'm sending it to all the people I argue with -- surely even those logic-challenged alarmists should be able to understand it (but I doubt they will -- they'll be too busy denying, to activate their CRITICAL THINKING, if they even have such an ability).

And as a member of the media myself (but one who disagrees with practically all her colleagues and hates the direction in which she sees the media going) I find the media slant that I see all around me even more obvious because of my training. I find it truly incredible how completely blind my colleagues are to their own bias even when I point it out clearly to them.