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Charity for Sale

Whistleblowers Reveal How the ASPCA Amassed a Financial Empire, While NYC’s Animals Were Left Behind

Ed Boks

Sep 17

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Editor’s Note: Much of the data and all core financial analysis in this exposé are derived from an independent financial review of ASPCA’s public filings from 2019–2023, conducted by corporate auditor Sheila Massey, President and Founder of Hard Hat Cats.

Disclaimer: The financial numbers are the ASPCA’s; the opinions and conclusions in this analysis are Massey’s own.

While this investigation focuses on the ASPCA, the issues revealed here shed light on national trends and systemic challenges across U.S. animal welfare.

On a recent New York City summer morning, a volunteer returned home dejected after being turned away, denied spay/neuter services for one of city’s countless street cats. For front-line rescuers, this has become routine. The ASPCA’s tearful ads flood the airwaves, its headquarters is fortified by immense wealth, yet real help for animals remains out of reach.

The Crisis in Plain Sight

At a City Council Health Committee (CCHC) hearing in September 2024, experts described a perfect storm: surging surrenders to Animal Care Centers (ACC), rising abandonment, and soaring veterinary costs as independent clinics were absorbed by corporate chains. At the same time, ASPCA services collapsed, public resources shrank, and enforcement weakened.

“It’s not just funding cuts. The ASPCA’s entire grants office is downsized… there’s simply no grant money coming from them anymore,” said one NYC rescue leader.

Today, new revelations, driven by both internal and external whistleblowers, have forced a reckoning with the organization’s mission and the public’s expectations. Alongside a sweeping lawsuit from a former ASPCA executive alleging gross financial mismanagement and self-enrichment at the top, a year-long analysis conducted by corporate auditor, Sheila Massey, paints a damning portrait: the investment portfolio soared even as grantmaking fell by half and services were gutted between 2019 and 2023.

“These service reductions are not just in the past,” Massey notes, “they continue to this day.”

Fortunes Hoarded, Lives Overlooked: In the shadow of wealth, NYC’s animals are left begging for help..

Billions In, Pennies Out

Between 2019 and 2023, the ASPCA took in $1.7 billion and grew net assets 95 percent, adding $256 million in surpluses to cash and investments. At year end 2023, investments totaled $377 million and liquid assets available for current use amounted to $404 million. While not all assets are immediately deployable, these represent vast resources that could be mobilized to help animals in crisis, yet ASPCA leadership has chosen to amass wealth rather than spend surplus funds to meet urgent needs.

In contrast, grants plunged 50% to $7 million, just 2% of $356 million in operating expenses. Of 190 groups nationwide receiving grants above $5,000 in 2023, only four were in NYC, the ASPCA’s home and area of greatest need.

Despite their professed commitment to animals, ASPCA’s spending reveals a different set of priorities: between 2019 and 2023, fundraising and promotions soared, staff compensation and overhead grew sharply, while veterinary and medical services rose far less, and grants to outside organizations were cut in half.

“Public donations make up 96% of ASPCA revenue. Donors respond to heart-wrenching ads, but NYC animal rescuers carry out the ASPCA’s mission, not the ASPCA,” Massey notes.

The “75 Cents on the Dollar” Claim

ASPCA executives assure donors that 75 cents of every dollar goes to end the animal suffering depicted in graphic fundraising campaigns. But the numbers behind that claim tell a different story.

In 2023, only a small portion of donor dollars actually went to hands-on animal care: $10 million to veterinary services and $7 million in grants. By contrast, the ASPCA spent $38 million on media promotions and $128 million on staff compensation, much of it on a top-heavy administrative tier making six-figure salaries.

It’s true that employees are necessary to fulfill any organization’s mission. But at the ASPCA, the cost of a large, highly compensated bureaucracy and an aggressive promotional strategy consumes the overwhelming majority of every donated dollar. While donors believe that most of their contribution reaches animals in need, the reality is much of it enriches middle and upper-management or is diverted back into media campaigns intended to raise even more revenue.

The Spending Policy Sleight-of-Hand

ASPCA’s policy allows spending up to 5% of its investment portfolio annually for animal welfare. From 2019 to 2023, up to $58 million could have been spent to mitigate the spiraling animal population crisis. However, only $5 million was spent, leaving the rest invested.

Charities must plan for stability, but nothing in law or donor restrictions explains a 97% jump in ASPCA’s investment portfolio while frontline services cratered. Put simply: ASPCA leadership chose to grow its reserves rather than spend available resources to help animals in crisis.

While a portion of the portfolio is not immediately liquid, due to long-term obligations such as the endowment and donor restrictions, a significant share of ASPCA’s investments could have been deployed for emergency programs and lifesaving direct care as urgent needs rose.

The decision to prioritize self-enrichment and financial growth over its stated mission placed ASPCA at odds with donor expectations and the rescue community’s needs, as well as with NY tax authorities who expect that generous tax subsidies will be used to benefit the community.

Executive Pay and Asset Growth

CEO Matt Bershadker earned $1.2 million in 2023, more than double his peers, while 27% of ASPCA staff have six-figure salaries far outpacing sector averages. Most of the organization’s budget is now absorbed by overhead and fundraising, not direct animal care.

Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, observes,

"I’ve watched the ASPCA transform into what most of the NYC animal community regards as a fundraising organization. Their influence is largely seen on TV, not among the people doing prevention, rescue, or street-level lifesaving work.”

The review also found the ASPCA made upwards of $1.8 million (2019–2023) simply by selling or renting out donor lists, a practice Charity Navigator warns undermines trust.

Moreover, annual program-service revenues, including fees for poison control and spay/neuter, brought in $25 million dollars in 2023 alone, further blurring the line between public benefit and nonprofit business enterprise.

Whistleblowers Speak

Former CFO Gordon Lavalette has filed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging retaliation for questioning no-bid contracts and demanding more resources for animal care. He claims over $340 million in donor funds were diverted by executive policy.

Combined with Massey’s findings, these allegations depict an organization operating as a warehouse for wealth, not a lifeline for animals.

Cuts that Cost Lives

ASPCA’s withdrawal from spay/neuter and TNR support, once credited with turning NYC’s animal crisis around, has devastated rescue work and exacerbated the exponential growth of NYC feral, stray, and abandoned cats. Today, clinics are scarce, appointments nearly impossible, with only 10% of certified rescuers able to book at all.

For years, the ASPCA’s mobile and stationary clinics provided tens of thousands of free or low-cost spay/neuter surgeries across NYC, with fleets operating in dozens of neighborhoods and supporting massive feral cat TNR efforts. In its own newsletters, the ASPCA reported 23,000 spay/neuter surgeries in 2008, projecting 30,000 by 2009.

Joel Lopez, then Administrative and Outreach Manager of ASPCA’s Mobile Spay/Neuter Clinic (MSNC), stated that five MSNCs operated seven days a week in more than 80 neighborhoods, and "the euthanasia rate in the city has dropped significantly over the last few years, definitely due in part to programs such as the MSNC.” These clinics were the admired backbone of NYC’s progress, a role now abdicated by ASPCA’s retreat.

Today that infrastructure is gone.

“The ASPCA seems to have abandoned its TNR mission mid-flight. Where robust support and broad clinic access once existed, newly certified TNR volunteers are completely excluded while not even the experienced can rely on booking the spay/neuter slots desperately needed for prevention,” said Mike Phillips, President and co-founder of Urban Cat League.

Just how dramatically the cost burden has shifted onto grassroots organizations became clear at the CCHC hearing. Phillips testified (5hr 33min mark) that in 2003, it cost $15,000 to spay/neuter 200 cats. Today, it would cost $130,000, an almost ninefold increase. Rescuers now pay $800 for a neuter, $1,200 for a spay, making lifesaving work almost impossible for most volunteers.

This explosive rise in costs, even as ASPCA’s financial reserves climb, underscores the brutal disconnect between organizational wealth and animal welfare in the city. These escalating costs are not solely the result of inflation or rising supply prices, they’re driven by a wave of corporate chains buying up independent vet practices and consolidating the market, leaving volunteers and rescues facing monopoly pricing power. More than ever, this new reality makes meaningful ASPCA support for grassroots organizations not just helpful, but essential.

Turning Back the Clock

The ASPCA’s 2010 Animalessons® curriculum warned:

“A single pair of cats may result in a population as high as 2,048 cats in 2½ years... Spay/neuter is the most effective way to combat overpopulation.”

While most animal welfare professionals refute the legitimacy of this exponential calculation, it remains the figure the ASPCA used to justify its former prevention priorities. Today, with as many as 1 million stray cats still breeding and access cut, the organization is no longer concerned with large-scale population control, and the clock is turning backward on the progress the ASPCA itself once led, by any calculation...

“Getting an appointment is like trying to win concert tickets on the radio,” testified one rescuer at the CCHC hearing, describing the anguish and stress of trying to get spay/neuter slots. Of 9,000 certified rescuers, only about 10% (892) can make appointments. The ASPCA blames a lack of veterinarians.

But the real issue is not a shortage of veterinarians. With over $404 million in liquid assets and hundreds of millions more in reserves, the ASPCA could recruit veterinarians, expand clinic hours, and restore services. Its persistent claim of a veterinary shortage, when paired with such financial muscle, does not hold up to scrutiny; it is a policy decision, not a fiscal or market constraint.

A Manufactured Crisis

At the same hearing (2hr 20min mark), ASPCA officials claimed they “lacked capacity” and needed “more revenue streams.”

Meanwhile, grassroots leaders describe a vacuum of leadership. Multiple rescue leaders report, the ASPCA has downsized its grants office, laid off staff, and abandoned partnerships, even as fundraising intensified.

“There’s a culture of treading water” one rescuer said. “No sense of direction, no drive to support others or improve itself, and certainly no vision for empowering those on the ground.”

The fallout is clear: ACC shelter intake fell from more than 23,000 animals in 2018–2019 to 15,000 in 2023, with thousands turned away under managed intake. The crisis has simply moved to the streets. Stray, abandoned, and feral animals now overwhelm neighborhoods while volunteers strain to respond. Loss of ASPCA stipends for rescuers “pulling” shelter animals has only deepened the instability, noted a rescuer.

Rescue leaders describe meetings with ASPCA where urgent calls for more prevention are met with blank stares: “It’s like spay/neuter was a novel idea,” said one advocate. The ASPCA points to its spaying or neutering all ACC animals as a redeeming point. A practice that unquestionably matters to each animal adopted, but wholly inadequate to make a dent in citywide overpopulation or ease the crushing demand facing grassroots rescue. Without the robust prevention programs that once defined the ASPCA, its claim of “supporting NYC Animal Care Centers” rings hollow.

Grassroots Left Holding the Bag

The retreat of ASPCA services has left community rescuers carrying the burden, largely unfunded.

“With its fundraising power, the ASPCA could both lead and empower others,” said Will Zweigart, founder of Flatbush Cats. “Direct funding for grassroots organizations and access to veterinary care would keep more families together and reduce shelter crowding.”

Many advocates echo this: the path forward is achievable, if ASPCA resources are mobilized where the need is greatest, as donors rightly expect.

Public Money, Private Empire

Between 2019 and 2023, ASPCA’s tax-exempt status saved it $44 million in federal income taxes alone, funds that could have relieved animal suffering. The true loss is higher, as local property, sales, and use tax exemptions remain unquantified.

Tax exemption is a contract: the public forfeits revenue in exchange for public good. When reserves balloon while services shrink, that contract is broken.

Solutions and Policy Demands

Based on her five-year financial review, Massey recommends:

Given that the ASPCA increasingly operates like a “for-profit” enterprise, NYC and NYS should launch a formal inquiry into its spending priorities and asset accumulation to re-assess its tax-exempt status. This process should consider whether to revoke the exemption or require significant reforms to rectify the stark imbalance between generous taxpayer subsidies and the ASPCA’s effective abandonment of its mission in New York City.
In light of the current crisis, the ASPCA should be required to make immediate restitution for a significant portion of its $44 million in income tax exemptions, as well as property, sales, and use tax breaks received between 2019 and 2023.
ASPCA should revise its ‘Spending Policy’ to set explicit portfolio thresholds that secure the organization’s solvency and long-term obligations, taking market fluctuations into account. Once those safeguards are met, mandate that at least a minimum percentage of the investment portfolio be spent annually on direct community needs, with retroactive enforcement covering 2019–2023.
Require a percentage of operational and investment surpluses be earmarked as grants for NYC rescue organizations, with fair qualification standards.

ASPCA Response

The ASPCA was asked to respond to these findings. In a statement to Animal Politics, Vice President of External Communications Rebecca Goldrick wrote:

“Your claims are completely unfounded. Our thoughtful and disciplined financial strategy, including our reserve policy, is in compliance with industry best practices and our financial statements are thoroughly and regularly reviewed by independent auditors. Our approach supports our ability to deliver on our mission, in good times and bad, including the lifesaving work we were able to continue to do throughout the pandemic. As the nation’s leading animal care organization, we are keenly aware of all our responsibilities and we work constantly to expand our ability to protect vulnerable animals.

Every year, the ASPCA launches new lifesaving programs to address both systemic and immediate crises facing at-risk animals. Over the last decade, including through the pandemic, the ASPCA has significantly increased its investment in caring for NYC’s most vulnerable animals. Through the ASPCA’s groundbreaking NYPD partnership and our rehabilitation programs, the number of animals rescued from cruelty has increased by 300% since 2014, with cruelty and neglect victims receiving specialized treatment to help them heal and find adoptive homes.

We have built new community clinics in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx to provide critical veterinary care and spay/neuter services to the public, rescue community, and Animal Care Centers, which just recognized us for our longstanding impactful partnership. Our Animal Hospital in Manhattan provides vital veterinary services to those who cannot otherwise access vet care. We fund and operate New York City’s first and largest high-volume kitten nursery and an adoption center focused on serving at-risk dogs and cats.”

Fact Check: The ASPCA’s Evasion of Core Issues

Notably, the ASPCA did not address specific questions about the reduction in grantmaking, the accumulation of large unrestricted reserves, or calls for tax restitution. Instead, its response redirected attention to broad claims about new programs, historical partnerships, and general community investments, without engaging with the central findings of our investigation:

The statement does not explain why grantmaking to NYC rescue organizations has declined so sharply.
It fails to justify the decision to stockpile hundreds of millions in unrestricted reserves even as frontline crises escalate.
It does not address the rationale or public benefit for its continued tax-exempt status in light of shrinking direct community support.

While the ASPCA lists notable achievements and initiatives, its response deflects attention from evidence presented by watchdogs, whistleblowers, and independent financial experts. It does not answer any of the core questions about why it chose to accumulate and retain large surpluses and unrestricted assets, rather than increasing support for direct care, grants, or relief for NYC’s rapidly growing animal crisis and rescue community.

For New York’s animals, and the donors who believed in this mission, the stakes could not be higher. In the face of mounting evidence, accountability remains urgent.