SHARK in hot water

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

CHICAGO––Ripped recently on the
Internet and in widely distributed open letters
by two ex-employees, Chicago Animal
Rights Coalition founder Steve Hindi i n
January 1999 invited ANIMAL PEOPLE t o
“investigate my dirty laundry,” but we didn’t
find much. We had in fact already received the
complaints, from the apparent originator in
one instance, anonymously in another.
Dug Hanbicki, hired in mid-1997
as a business manager but titled “executive
director,” expressed unhappiness at having to
take direction from Hindi––who had allowed
her to change the name of the organization to
Showing Animals Respect and Kindness,
and to add people of her choice to the board of
directors. Hanbicki resigned on November 9.

Her handpicked successor, longtime
Chicago activist Jacqui Lewis, lasted barely
two months. Lewis on February 5, and again
on February 18 via attorney Paulette Solinski,
objected that her final pay check had bounced.
According to both Hindi and auditor
Sue Schumacher, a SHARK board member
now straightening out the organization’s
books, Lewis wrote her own last pay check,
which bounced because she hadn’t kept accurate
records of deposits and receipts.