From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:
CHICAGO, Ill. — Independent auditor William Foy assumed administration of the
National Anti-Vivisection Society on August 1 for an indefinite period, replacing president
Mary Margaret Cunniff, who took a paid maternity leave. .
The NAVS board of directors hired Foy to perform an internal audit shortly after an
expose by ANIMAL PEOPLE editor Merritt Clifton revealed that over a fourth of the NAVS
stock portfolio was invested with firms who perform or commission vivisection and/or have
become notorious for environmental abuses—including U.S. Surgical, whose sales demonstra-
tions on live dogs Cunniff denounced in print in May 1991, only days before purchasing
$46,745 worth of U.S. Surgical shares. The stock had nearly doubled in value when sold.
Earlier exposes traced the extensive use of NAVS funds to benefit members of Cunniff’s family,
including her husband, attorney Kenneth Cunniff; her sister, Catherine Curran; her father,
George Trapp, who preceded her in the presidency; her brother-in-law, Patrick Rocks; and her
uncles, Robert Mahoney and Al Lamier. Cunniff and her husband alone received an estimated
$172,000 in salaries and benefits during 1991. During their administration, according to well-
placed staffers, NAVS membership has fallen from 53,000 to 11,000; following the exposes,
the organization was believed to be losing from $25,000 to $50,000 a month.
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