recommendations please for the best animal charities

[LeftyMom]

3. I'm a big proponent of going local, whenever possible.

Seems to me that $100 to a big national organization is a barely-noticed drop in the bucket, but $100 worth of pet food dropped off at the local pet food pantry (or a couple of pet food store gift cards given to the local food bank to give to families in need who have pets, if you don't have an organized pet food pantry in your area) is a huge deal. That's where I've shifted my donations of late.

That said, as big organizations go I toss some money Sea Shepherd's way whenever I can, because in addition to the whale and seal defense that gets all the attention they do a lot related to shark finning*, and you can't have healthy oceans without apex predators. I love that they pay attention to that even if it's not a headline grabbing sexy issue.

*If anybody's not familiar with the term, finning is when ships catch sharks on long lines (which has a huge bycatch issue as well,) cut off their fins while they're still alive and dump the dying shark back in the ocean. They can't swim and they sink to the bottom and die. It's done because dried shark fins are used to make soup and are outrageously profitable.