ORGANIZATIONS
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1996:
The decade-long alliance that enabled
The Fund for Animals and People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals to take control of
the New England Anti-Vivisection Society in
1988, after failing in 1986, is at a messy but
uncertain end. Fund president Cleveland Amory,
also NEAVS board president since 1988, in late
1995 told fellow board members that he planned
to retire, and appointed a nominating committee
consisting of three board members including treasurer
Dick Janisch, Alex Pacheco of PETA, and
Boston activist Evelyn Kimber to seek his
replacement. According to the Amory faction,
including Janisch, Kimber, and Laura Simon,
the committee named psychologist and veteran
activist Theo Capaldo. Pacheco, however, contested
the choice, contending that Amory, having
retired, had no right to name the committee.
Board members reportedly backing Pacheco are
PETA president Ingrid Newkirk, Physicians
Committee for Responsible Medicine president
Neal Barnard, and activists Tina Brackenbush,
Merry Caplan, and Scott Van Valkenburg. On
the verge of the April 17 NEAVS annual meeting,
Fund secretary/treasurer Marian Probst told ANIMAL
PEOPLE, “over 300 proxy ballots for
Theo, which had arrived at the NEAVS office,
‘disappeared.’ The entire process was referred by
the minority side to the Office of the
Massachusetts Attorney General, Charities
Division,” who asked NEAVS corporate counsel
Howard Mayo to report on the matter.
On April 9, PETA introduced Rick
S w a i n, 50, as managing director, assigned to
oversee the PETA legal, financial, information,
and facilities departments, and assist with investigations.
In essence, Swain replaced longtime
PETA director of investigations Jeanne Roush,
who left earlier this year. A retired 24-year veteran
of the Montgomery County, Maryland
police force, Swain “first met PETA founders
Alex Pacheco and Ingrid Newkirk in 1981,” the
press release said, “when he served the searchand-seizure
warrant” on researcher Edward Taub
that began the Silver Springs monkey case, the
first-ever prosecution of a researcher for cruelty,
which brought the then newly formed PETA to
national prominence. Word reached A N I M A L
PEOPLE on August 7, however, that Swain had
already followed Roush out the door.
Humane Society of Canada president
Michael O’Sullivan, acting for HSC and the
Humane Society International, on July 12 sued
the Humane Society of the U.S. and HSUS/HSI
officers Paul Irwin, Janet Frake, and John Hoyt,
seeking to separate the organizations, place HSC
and HSI under control of a board headed by
O’Sullivan, and recover just over $1 million
which was transferred from three HSC and HSI
accounts to HSUS on February 1 and February 2
of this year. The suit alleges that the defendants
improperly and illegally advanced the interests of
HSUS over those of the Canadian donors who
contributed to HSC and HSI, both of which were
founded as HSUS subsidiaries. HSC and HSI
were incorporated with Revenue Canada in 1993,
and commenced fundraising in Canada in 1994.
Fur-Bearer Defenders, also known
as The Association for the Protection of FurBearing
Animals, in July disbanded its U.S. arm
and fired executive director Camilla Fox, who
had just led a successful fight against fox trapping
in California and had put the Missouri
Department of Conservation’s introduction of
otter trapping on the national activist agenda.
Explained Fox and former U.S. chapter vice president
Teri Barnato in a July 26 open letter, “We
believed the organization was against any kind of
trapping which would be harmful to animals,
regardless of the trap used, and that the organization
was opposed to the fur industry. To our surprise,
however, we both learned that interpretations
of the organization’s mission by George and
Bunty Clements, board secretary and president,
were that Fur-Bearer Defenders was neither ‘antitrapping’
nor ‘anti-fur.’” Clements on July 29
told members, “Our funding of this program has
decreased and we are no longer able to continue
our operations from within the U.S.” Whatever
the case, Fox––who had her choice of offers––
was quickly hired by the Animal Protection
Institute to continue her anti-fur work and develop
other wildlife-related campaigns.
While the World Wildlife Fund
claims to be spending nearly $5 million a year
on tiger conservation, including more than
$500,000 in India, director Michael Day of the
British-based Tiger Trust charged on September
11 that WWF has spent only about 10% of that
amount, on average over the past 10 years, and
has spent nothing to physically stop poachers,
who in 1995 are believed to have killed at least a
fifth of the 2,500 wild tigers––half the world’s
total wild population––who were believed to
reside in India. Guy Marriott, a former fundraiser
for the World Wildlife Fund now working for
The Tiger Trust, supported Day’s claims.
Bypassing WWF, another British tiger group,
Global Tiger Patrol, in May teamed with zoos to
raise funds to provide veterinary care to wild
tigers. From field observation, GTP chief executive
Peter Lawton estimated the actual poaching
rate at up to four times the TTT projection of one
tiger killed per day.
Doris Day in July announced the dissolution
of the Doris Day Pet Foundation, a
local animal aid society most active in promoting
neutering, to “devote our energy to our sister
organization, the Doris Day Animal League.”
DDAL a month later announced that, “The
American Veterinary Medical Association has
recently informed us that not only will it not
endorse Spay Day USA,” the most high-profile
DDAL project, “it will initiate its own competing
event.” The AMVA didn’t respond to a request
for comment, but DDAL publicity pertaining to
Spay Day USA has irritated veterinarians, who
by offering discounts for neutering are the major
backers of the event, and the North Shore Animal
League, rarely credited as sponsor of the
Spay/USA referral network that has the lead role
in connecting pet owners with participating vets.
Actual DDAL cash investment in Spay Day USA
appears to be comparatively small.
Eight regional habitat protection
g r o u p s including the Chesapeake Bay
Foundation, the Coalition to Restore Coastal
Louisiana, the Conservation Law Foundation,
the American Littoral Society/Baykeeper, Save
the Bay, the North Carolina Coastal Federation,
People for Puget Sound, and the Save San
Francisco Bay Association joined on September
18 to form a new national umbrella, Restore
America’s Estuaries. Another three regional
groups were expected to join later in the month.
The Portland Oregonian reported on
September 12 that Oregon state officials are
investigating the activities of a Portland-based
organization called Mountain Wilderness Search
Dogs, run by one Harry Oakes Jr. Most search
dog teams do not charge for their services, but
Oakes requests a “donation” of $65 an hour, and
has drawn complaints that he has misrepresented
his role in high-profile search operations, including
after the April 1995 Oklahoma City bombing,
where he was present but not as part of a Federal
Emergency Management Agency team and did
not have access to the bombing site.
