Are animal charities losing their appeal?

Some time ago, I commented on the Waitrose "Community Matters" scheme that effectively allows customers to vote from a choice of three causes to receive a donation.

A couple of days ago, I checked out the "vote" a the local store; the options were:

• RSPCA - an animal charity
• A local metal health day centre
• Stroud Refuge

Intrigued by what I saw, I invited my friends on Facebook to guess which was the most popular. Pause here and have a guess yourself....
.
.
.
.
.
My friends expected the animal charity to be top but actually, it was joint second with the mental health organisation. The most popular (by around 30%) was the refuge.

Are times changing?