By Steve Hindi 
April 27, 2017

When Donald Trump was campaigning for president, a lot of left-leaning people couldn’t believe Trump supporters would sucker for the outrageously over-the-top promises of their candidate, or fall for his ridicules alternative facts, or swallow his self-serving bluster. It is indeed amazing that so many Americans support an egotistic, boorish, incompetent, narcissistic buffoon, whose innumerable flaws and failings could literally put the world economy/order/peace at great risk.  

What is equally amazing however is that many of the same people - particularly animal lovers - who are so dumbfounded by the self-destructive mindset of Trump supporters, are equally blind when it comes to some of their own decisions in supporting animal protection organizations.  

Contemporary animal protection organizations have devolved from entities of a compassionate social movement to an industry supported by mind-numbed donors. Laziness, incompetence, credit grabbing, lying, and in many cases outright fraud have become commonplace among many supposed animal protection organizations, but no matter how many times some of these groups are exposed for bad performance and/or ethical lapses, supporters apparently incapable of independent thought continue to send money like hypnotized members of a religious cult.  

Meanwhile, groups and individuals who are busting their tails to faithfully execute their mission statements to protect animals operate at the point of bankruptcy for lack of support. It should not be a financial liability for a sincere organization to focus on its mission instead of marketing and fundraising schemes. Many productive organizations have ceased to exist for lack of funding.

Witnessing and resisting the corporate perversion of the animal protection movement, perhaps my greatest wish is that I could walk away. Unfortunately, that would mean abandoning not just the creeps and crooks who largely run things today, but also the innocent animal victims those creeps and crooks forgot a long time ago.  

The answer to the dilemma is for SHARK to continue to fight for animals, simultaneously exposing not just those who literally exploit and abuse animals for fun and profit, but also on those who exploit and abuse animals by using them as mere fundraising props.  

In an effort to shine the bright light of truth on the latter group, SHARK has created a new website - CharityCops.com - which will illuminate the misdeeds of those who make money by falsely claiming to champion animal causes.  

CharityCops.com will evaluate organizations based on several principles, including truthfulness, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness.  

Those who support animal causes have plenty of reason to feel contempt for the likes of Donald Trump supporters, but just as the Trumpies have bought a lemon, so have the majority of donors to animal causes. The aim of CharityCops.com will make it possible to discern between truth, hyperbole, and fraudsters.