Woofs and growls…
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1993:
Fed up with nonprofit executives who hide the size of
their salaries by dividing them among related groups who file sepa-
rate returns, the Internal Revenue Service asks on the 1992 Form
990, “Did any officer, director, trustee, or key employee receive
aggregate compensation of more than $100,000 from your organiza-
tion and all related organizations, of which more than $10,000 was
provided by the related organization?” If the answer is yes, detailed
explanations are required.
The Senate Select Committee on Prisoners of War and
Missing In Action Affairs has recommended that the IRS should
crack down on charities who report fundraising costs as “educational”
program expenses. This would affect many animal-related charities;
see the notes accompanying the financial tables on over 60 national
groups published in the December 1992 and January/February issues
of ANIMAL PEOPLE. (Copies are still available at $2.00 each.)
1991 tax filings received after deadline for publication in
the ANIMAL PEOPLE tables on opposition groups show that
$980,000 of the $985,928 raised by Americans for Medical Progress
came from U.S. Surgical Corporation. AMP spent $1,014,134, for a
net loss of $28,000, had assets of $33,323, and paid no salaries to
directors and executives. The National Trappers’ Association mean-
while raised $449,348, spent $472,138 for a net loss of $22,790, had
assets of $117,976, and paid no salaries exceeding $30,000.
Humane Society of the U.S. vice president for laboratory
animals Marty Stephens says he was quoted out of context as saying
that animal research is “a justified and necessary evil” in the January
18 edition of People. According to Stephens, he was attempting to
outline the biomedical research industry point of view for the reporter,
not giving the HSUS view.
The fall 1992 edition of Muckraker includes a comprehen-
sive report on physical attacks on environmental activists, including
arsons, rapes, shootings, and torture killings of dogs and horses.
Compiled by Jonathan Franklin, the report is available from the
Center for Investigative Reporting, 530 Howard St., second floor,
San Francisco, CA 94105-3007.
Zimbabwean member of Parliament Benjamin Moyo, a
member of the ruling party, drew five years at hard labor on February
13 for illegal possession of two black rhinoceros horns, only five
days after being arrested. Zimbabwean authorities eager to lift the
global ban on traffic in elephant ivory presented the case as proof of
their will to stop poachers––who have killed about 1,200 of the 2,500
black rhinos who lived in Zimbabwe seven years ago.
The anti-animal group Putting People First says it has an
anonymous donor who will match all gifts up to a total of $1 million.
PPF had a 1991 budget of just over $60,000. The announcement
came days after PPF and the Foundation Internationale Pour la
Sauvegarde de Gibier filed suit against the U.S. Department of the
Interior, claiming the Argali bighorn sheep is improperly listed as an
endangered species. Former Texas governor Clayton Williams, then
running for the office, was embarrased in 1988, along with former
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service adviser Richard Mitchell, when
USFWS agents seized the pelts of four argalis Williams shot in China
while accompanied by Mitchell. The pelts were eventually returned,
under pressure from the George Bush administration and pro-hunting
groups including the Wildlife Legislative Fund of America and Safari
Club International (to which both former president Bush and former
vice president Dan Quayle belonged). Mitchell, however, was
indicted in June 1992 for smuggling, tax fraud, and conflict of inter-
est. He faces up to 30 years in prison and fines of up to $1.12 million.
The American Hunting and Fishing Ethics Bureau, a
new pro-hunting group founded by J.C. VanKirk of San Antonio,
Texas, has persuaded the Target department store chain to cease sell-
ing a children’s book called Will We Miss Them? Endangered Species,
because it identifies the role of hunters in wiping out species. The
publisher, Charlesbridge Inc., is reprinting the book without the ref-
erence to hunting. VanKirk claims the support of PPF, SCI, WLFA,
and Ted Nugent World Bowhunters.
Mike Wallace defended biomedical researcher Michael
Carey’s cat-shooting experiments at the University of Louisiana for 13
minutes on the January 25 episode of the CBS news program 6 0
Minutes, discrediting a witness who retracted a claim that she heard
cats screaming in pain, but ignoring a General Accounting Office
report that established the cats suffered pain and found the whole $2.1
million project pointless. The cat-shooting experiments were can-
celled in 1991. Other 60 Minutes reporters, including fur opponent
Andy Rooney, have done many stories friendly to animals.
