From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2005:

Pope John Paul II, 84, died on April 3, 2005. Recalled
the PETA-owned <www.GoVeg.com> web site, “Pope John Paul II taught
love for animals more than any other pope in recent memory. In 1990,
His Holiness proclaimed that ‘the animals possess a soul and men must
love and feel solidarity with our smaller brethren.’ He went on to
say that all animals are ‘fruit of the creative action of the Holy
Spirit and merit respect’ and that they are ‘as near to God as men
are.’ After he became Pope, His Holiness went to Assisi, the
birthplace of St. Francis, and spoke of the saint’s love for
animals. He declared, ‘We, too, are called to a similar
attitude.’ PETA is grateful that His Holiness spoke out so
beautifully for animals and their souls, and we hope that his
successor will also speak out for them with the same love and
compassion.”
While Pope John Paul II never formally responded to petitions
on animal issues, the Vatican under his direction shifted in small
steps toward more animal-friendly policies.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2005:

Bina Robinson, 81, has ended the Civil Abolitionist
newsletter, after 15 years, due to falling circulation and rising
costs, but remains active by e-mail at <civitas@link-ny.com>, and
still directs the 500-acre Civitas Wildlife Sanctuary at Swain, New
York. “Civitas began in the early 1980s as the U.S. branch of CIVIS,
Swiss medical historian Hans Ruesch’s international anti-vivisection
organization,” explains the Civitas web site,
<www.linkny.com/~civitas>. In 1983 it split into two parallel
groups, Citizens for Planetary Health, which continues the original
focus, and the Coalition to Protect Animals in Parks and Refuges,
whose newsletter Robinson issued as a Civil Abolitionist insert.

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

Starting on page 15 is our 15th annual report on the budgets,
assets, and salaries paid by the major U.S. animal-related
charities, plus miscellaneous local activist groups, humane
societies, and some prominent organizations abroad. We offer their
data for comparative purposes. Foreign data is stated in U.S.
dollars at average 2003 exchange rates.
Most charities are identified in the second column by what
they do and stand for: A for advocacy, C for conservation of
habitat via acquisition, E for education, H for support of hunting,
I for supporting the eradication of “invasive” feral or non-native
species, L for litigation, P for publication, S for
shelter/sanctuary maintenance or sterilization project, U for
favoring either “sustainable” or aboriginal lethal use of wildlife,
and V for focus on vivisection.
As most listed charities do some advocacy and education, the
A and E designations are used with others only if advocacy and
education use more of the charities’ time and budget than other roles
for which they may be better known. Charities of obvious purpose may
not have a letter. While many charities pursue multiple activities,
space limits us to offering no mre than three identifying letters.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

Budgets, Programs, Overhead & Assets – 160 animal protection charities

Linis Gobyerno (Philippines)
TYPE: S
GIVEN/EARNED: $ 4,464
BUDGET: $ 4,050
PROGRAMS: $ 3,900
OVERHEAD: $ 150
DECLARED OVERHEAD: 4%
ADJUSTED OVERHEAD: 4%
NET ASSETS: $ 17,857
TANGIBLE ASSETS: $ 17,443
FUNDS/INVESTMENTS: $ 414

NOTE: “Our tangible assets consist of a piece of real estate donated
by a member for the purpose of constructing a dog/cat halfway house,”
Linis Gobyerno founder Freddie Farres told ANIMAL PEOPLE. The
facility would shelter animals temporarily after seizures from
illegal butchers.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

Budgets, Programs, Overhead & Assets – 160 animal protection charities

African Wildlife Foundation
TYPE: HIU
GIVEN/EARNED: $ 13,064,298
BUDGET: $ 12,248,819
PROGRAMS: $ 9,709,892
OVERHEAD: $ 2,538,927
DECLARED OVERHEAD: 21%
ADJUSTED OVERHEAD: 24%
NET ASSETS: $ 8,700,400
TANGIBLE ASSETS: $ 92,554
FUNDS/INVESTMENTS: $ 6,975,323

NOTE: 53% of African Wildlife Foundation funding was from government grants.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2004:

Individual Compensation
(Chief executives &/or top-paid staff & consultants)

Nonprofit chief executive salaries rose 3.6% in fiscal 2003,
according to a national survey by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
This was the same increase achieved by for-profit chief executives,
according to the compensation research firm WorldatWork.
Fundraisers’ salaries rose 4.2%, according to the
Association of Fundraising Professionals, while the U.S. rate of
inflation was 2.3%.
The Pay column below combines salaries, benefit plan
contributions (if any), and expense accounts for the few individuals
who are not required to itemize expenses. Individual independent
contractors such as attorneys, accountants, and consultants are
listed as well as directors and regular staff.
Unfortunately it is not possible to identify from IRS Form
990 which individuals receive perquisites such as free housing or use
of a vehicle.
Neither is it possible to accurately identify all of the
individuals who donate office space, or otherwise rebate material
value to their organizations in a manner amounting to returning
compensation. For example, the four employees of ANIMAL PEOPLE
donate the use of three offices in different states. Our head office
is bigger than the living space in the home of publisher Kim Bartlett
and editor Merritt Clifton. Use of donated office space helps
significantly to hold down our operating cost, but Form 990 does not
provide a way to show the value of this contribution.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Beth Mersten, 29, of Bloomfield, New Jersey, almost
perfectly fits the profile of the 29-year-old, educated, upwardly
mobile single professional woman, born and raised in the greater New
York City metropolitan area, whom the fur industry expects to buy
her first fur coat this winter.
Obviously some women who fit the profile will. Mersten will not.
Mersten is now Northeast community programs manager for the
Best Friends Animal Society, and previously worked for an animal
shelter, but before that she was employed at an animal research lab.
Mersten seemed to be a potential fur customer, according to
fur industry market research–but how accurate were the fur trade
assumptions about how she and her friends formed their image of fur?
ANIMAL PEOPLE asked Mersten about her first childhood view of fur.
“I thought it was strange and old-fashioned,” Mersten
responded. “Probably my grandmother wore it–a mink shawl.”
Did Mersten ever want to wear it?
“No!” Mersten said. “I learned early on about the cruelties
involved and the sad reality of fur,” an affirmation of the success
of 1980s anti-fur campaigns.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:

Veterinary gynecologist R. Balasubramanian on October 14,
2004 was appointed Secretary of the Animal Welfare Board of India.
Assistant commissioner for cattle development in the federal
agriculture ministry since 1998, Balasubramanian “is an animal lover
and vegetarian” who was strongly influenced by the late Blue Cross
of India cofounder Captain S. Sundaram, wrote assistant Animal
Welfare Board secretary K. Ramasamy.

Former Compassion In World Farming staffer Philip Russell has
succeeded Joy Leney, who retired, as Director of Operations at the
World Society for Animal Protection, WSPA Director General Peter
Davies told ANIMAL PEOPLE on October 27. Davies also announced two
new posts: Companion Animals Director, filled by Elly Hiby,
formerly with the Anthrozoology Institute at the University of
Bristol (U.K.), and Education & Training Coordinator, filled by
Jasmijn de Boo, formerly with the Department of Animals & Society at
Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2004:

Shelter Medicine for Veterinarians & Staff “is dedicated to
Lloyd Tait, VMD, the ASPCA’s first ‘head of shelter medicine,’ who
was everything one could imagine in a friend and mentor. Irascible,
supportive, quixotic, and fiercely dedicated to animal welfare, he
laid the early foundation for the formal practice of veterinary
medicine in the ASPCA shelters,” editors Lila Miller and Stephen
Zawistowski acknowledge.
Tait now works for the World Society for the Protection of
Animals. We recently received a copy of his comprehensive report on
the progress of dog sterilization in place of animal control killing
in Sri Lanka.
Tait joined the ASPCA staff in 1968, following former ASPCA
Brooklyn shelter director George Watford, now retired, as the
second nationally prominent humane worker of African descent. Miller
joined the ASPCA staff in 1977. She became the third nationally
prominent humane worker of African descent.
Since Miller was hired, a few other people of African
ancestry have become prominent in shelter work, perhaps most notably
longtime National Animal Control Association board member Keith
Robinson, but a convention of Afro-American executive directors of
humane societies could probably be held around one small table, and
would still have empty chairs.

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