WOOFS & GROWLS (NATIONAL LEVEL)

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996:

Fund for Animals president Cleveland Amory
made the cover of the April 18 Chronicle of Philanthropy,
which explored the ethics of keeping large reserves. The
National Charities Information Bureau holds that reserves
normally should not be greater than twice a charity’s annual
budget. The Fund has reserves of about $10 million, built
mainly through receipt of recent bequests, against a budget of
$3.6 million––the most assets relative to budget of any group
whose IRS Form 990 filings ANIMAL PEOPLE reviews.
“A huge endowment is out of place in certain instances,”
Amory said. “But with as many animals as we have in our
care, it comes close to being a necessity.” Amory said he
hopes to build an endowment able to maintain the Black
Beauty Ranch and other Fund animal care facilities on interest.
Campaigns would still run on direct donations.

DELTA Rescue founder Leo Grillo, battling the
Humane Society of the U.S. for years over HSUS attacks on
no-kill shelters, has opened a new front with newspaper ads
and a press release attacking the HSUS record on puppy
mills––coinciding with an HSUS mailing proclaiming an antipuppy
mill campaign. The release cited a press conference
last August at which HSUS legislative director W a y n e
Pacelle and Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania) publicized
a letter they’d written purportedly asking the USDA for
stricter law enforcement against puppy mills. In fact, the letter
was a gelded edition of a letter signed earlier by three
Senators and 110 Representatives, edited by Pacelle and
Santorum in collaboration with lobbyists Jim Holt of the
American Kennel Club and Pamela Abney of the American
Veterinary Medical Association, to delete specific requests
for new regulations that the USDA sought to close loopholes
currently hindering prosecutions of puppy mills. Details
appeared in ANIMAL PEOPLE for September 1995.
Frederick’s of Hollywood “will receive no sponsorship
award, no ad space in the March for the Animals
Journal, no ad space in the World Congress for Animals program,
no exhibit space, and will in short have no involvement
in these events,” the National Alliance for Animals
said in a March 26 statement. “We do not support or condone
the selling of leather products or products which serve to
demean on exploit either women or men.” The National
Alliance had come under fire from the Association of
Feminists for Animal Rights and Gary Francione of the
Rutgers Animal Rights Law Center for accepting $10,000
from Frederick’s, listed as a top-line sponsor in a February
mass mailing. The turnabout drew comparable flak, mainly
from female participants in the AR-Views online forum, who
pointed out that some Frederick’s franchises distribute animal
rights literature, that few if any major corporations are entirely
vegetarian, and that erotic self-expression can have a central
place in liberation philosophy. Even some AR-Views
participants opposed to the initial acceptance of Frederick’s
argued that the turnabout sent the message that animal rights
leadership can’t be trusted to keep a bargain.
Wilderness Society president Jon Roush abruptly
resigned on March 7, almost a year after Jeff St. Clair and
Alexander Cockburn of The Nation disclosed that Roush had
sold logging rights to his own Montana land for $140,000
while opposing logging on public lands in the same area.
“Roush nearly brought ruin on the Wilderness Society, which
had to close field offices in New Mexico, Florida, and
Oregon to pay the enormous balloon lease payment due on the
Society’s premises in Washington D.C., which will top $6
million next year,” wrote Cockburn of the departure. Said
Roush, “I have accomplished the goals I set for myself.”
Former Michigan Humane
Society board president and National
Society for Animal Protection board
member Bob Sorrock, elected to the
board of the Humane Society of Tucson in
1995, is reportedly lobbying to replace
executive director Carol Munroe, hired in
1993, with longtime friend David Wills.
Munroe’s situation is apparently shaky due
to board resignations. Nominally consisting
of 15 members, the HST board is said
to have just eight active members at present.
Wills headed the Nashua Humane
S o c i e t y, 1972-1978; MHS, 1979-1989;
NSAP, 1989-1991; and was vice president
for investigations at the Humane Society
of the U.S., 1991-1995. Wills’ departure
from each job coincided with missing
money. Wills, 48, was not charged in
either Nashua or Michigan, but was sued
successfully for failure to repay loans he
solicited from NSA board member Sandra
LeBost, and has been sued for allegedly
taking $93,000 from HSUS, where he was
also accused of sexually harassing three
staffers. In a countersuit, Wills claims the
allegations were trumped up to deny him a
promotion to succeed his longtime mentor
John Hoyt, expected to retire this month,
as head of Humane Society International,
the umbrella group for HSUS and affiliates.
The New Orleans-based activist
group Legislation in Support of Animals
opened 1996 by announcing a probable
name change, to the League in Support of
A n i m a l s, to better reflect the range of
activities it undertakes, and got on about a
campaign to improve animal control services
in Mississippi and Louisiana, now in
its seventh year, that has included doing 70
shelter inspections, suing three municipalities,
and accomplishing major reforms in
many more. Early 1996 cases included an
allegation that Lafayette Animal Control
neglected a terminally injured collie, leaving
him to lie in excrement for two days
while failing to call the number on a veterinary
tag, and a long list of complaints
against the Vinton Animal Shelter, which
“we believe is poorly constructed, maintained,
and supervised,” said LISA
founder Jeff Dorson.
The future of the BellinghamWhatcom
Humane Society, of
Bellingham, Washington, may be decided
at a May 21 membership meeting.
Executive director Gary Mugridge
resigned April 9, effective April 30.
Mugridge took the job in August 1994,
amid acrimony surrounding the embezzling
conviction of former director Mary Henry.
Mugridge won the support of most of his
staff, but allegations of mismanagement
were soon raised by public critics.
Exasperated, Mugridge quit after a board
meeting at which four of the eight directors
lost their seats for failing to pay dues; the
other four face a recall vote.
Sun City Animal Rescue, of
Phoenix, Arizona, opened a shelter in
December, but by March 20 appeared close
to dissolution or restructuring, as about a
third of the members sought the resignations
of four board members and the reinstatement
of founder Karen Britten to the
SCAR leadership. Britten was reportedly
ousted from the board in January for alleging
that other board candidates would cause
the deaths of hundreds of cats. She was
replaced by Jack Fullmer, an unsuccessful
board candidate.
Police in Parma, Ohio, in early
March seized records from animal warden
Samuel J. Roe and asked for a state audit
of animal control accounts. Roe, serving
Parma since 1986, is also a nuisance animal
trapper. In February he was charged
with cruelty by North Royalton animal control
officer Sandra Grattan, for allegedly
keeping a caged opossum in the back of his
pickup truck for at least eight hours in
minus-20-degree weather. Wildlife officials
are reportedly still probing claims that
Roe has released raccoons, skunks, and
opossums behind the city garage, instead
of euthanizing them within 24 hours, as
state law requires. Roe reportedly says he
releases the animals when he can’t get them
to a veterinarian soon enough.