They are more interested in advocacy than sheltering. The Center for Consumer Freedom is the nonprofit think tank propped up with food industry bucks that drummed up much of the anti-PETA fervor.

I have never read that Huffington Post article, nor any anti-PETA opinion columns, and I can't fucking stand them. My hatred of them is a direct social and logical response to their own ad campaigns, press pieces, and actions. They are (in my opinion) to animal rights advocacy what Anti-Vaccers are to medical science.

"They are more interested in advocacy than sheltering." I understand you mean these words as a defensible justification for their actions and monetary discretion, but to me this embodies the entire problem with the organization. They are not "raising awareness" of animal rights, they are deliberately spreading controversy and misinformation. Their entire "business model" is to gather media attention via shock tactics and reactionary press, up to and including the very articles you're deriding as "food industry shills."

They are the animal advocacy equivalent of lobbyists, or perhaps suicide bombers, in that they deliberately pursue a course of radicalism and then claim to represent all animal rights. They offer (IMO) zero practical value, and are in fact actively harming the cause of animal advocacy. They are doing more harm than good.

So yeah, pardon the language, but I'd rather send money to one of the hundreds of organizations focused on spending as much of every donation dollar they can towards doing the dirty trench-work desperately needed all around the world for shelter, rescue, research, or conservation efforts rather than PETA's idea of "advocacy." The need for real, meaningful change is still so great that we can't afford to be blowing hundreds of millions of dollars buying Seaworld stocks.