Ohio Division of Wildlife no longer will do business with supporter of HSUS

With little fanfare but with some nudging by concerned hunters and anglers the Ohio Division of Wildlife is dropping a survey-gathering business due to its support on the nation’s leading anti-everything organization.

Wildlife Division chief Scott Zody says the agency is reeling in its use of SurveyMonkey.com as the portal for collecting data used by fish and wildlife managers.

What SurveyMonkey.com has in its portfolio is a mechanism in which participating clients can voluntarily contribute a portion of their due bill to the Humane Society of the United States, among other (and less threatening) charitable organizations.

Yet while the Wildlife Division said it would never allow so much as a nickel to fall into the coffers of the HSUS the simple fact that SurveyMonkey.com supports the anti-everything organization is still too much for many Ohio anglers, fishers, and trappers.

So much so that the Zody says the Wildlife Division is dropping SurveyMonkey.com and instead will buy survey-collecting software that will entirely bypass the business.

Here is Zody’s electronic response to those who’ve expressed disappointment (even outrage) that the WQildlife Division would work with a business that supports an organization whose sole purpose for existence is the elimination of sport hunting, angling and trapping.:

“We have used SurveyMonkey to send surveys to hunters, anglers and participants in our education programs for the past several years. Online surveys have helped to save thousands of dollars related to design, printing, mailing, return mail and data entry of printed surveys.

“Our initial goal was to find an inexpensive, easy to use method to get feedback from a wide range of customers. After considering several options, we selected SurveyMonkey based on several criteria including survey creation, analysis and administration of the survey, help and support, and ease of use.

“The basic use of SurveyMonkey is free, as opposed to purchasing survey software subscriptions that cost thousands of dollars annually. Because of the ease of use and low cost, SurveyMonkey is the standard survey tool used by state agencies throughout Ohio and by fish and wildlife agencies across the U.S.

“At the end of any SurveyMonkey survey, there is an option for those taking a survey to donate or support a suite of charities ranging from the American Red Cross to the Boys and Girls Club of America (Complete list here: https://contribute.surveymonkey.com/choose-your-charity#more ).

“Participation in donating to any of the charities is at the discretion of the survey-taker. We did receive feedback from our survey takers that they did not appreciate the option to donate to HSUS.

“We researched these concerns, and made the decision to purchase an enhanced account with SurveyMonkey ($300) to direct our survey users back to our homepage (www.wildohio.gov) instead of the charity page.

“Based on the recent feedback from our customers regarding the use of SurveyMonkey we are currently working to halt the use of that service.

“We are now bringing all open surveys to a close and researching new survey software options. Once we purchase new software, we will resume gathering important input from our customers.

“Thanks for asking about this.”

-         Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

-         JFrischk@Ameritech.net

-         Jeff is the retired News-Herald reporter who  covered the earth sciences, the area's three county park systems and the outdoors for the newspaper. During his 30 years with The News-Herald Jeff was the recipient of more than 100 state, regional and national journalism awards. He also is a columnist and features writer for the Ohio Outdoor News, which is published every other week and details the outdoors happenings in the state.