Animal foundation ranch allegedly used for hunting
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2000:
The Ed Rachal Foundation, of Corpus Christi, Texas, on February 16 lost a $500,000 verdict for lost wages, damages, and legal fees to former vice president Claude D’Unger. D’Unger was reportedly paid $80,000 a year for his board-related services.
“Ed Rachal bequeathed the 67,000- acre Galvan Ranch to his charitable foundation to help children and mistreated animals,” wrote San Antonio Express-News columnist Carlos Guerra, but the foundation, with $6.5 million in assets, described itself to the online charity reference as having a religious/spiritual orientation.
The only record ANIMAL PEOPLE found of Rachal Foundation charitable activity pertained to six grants totaling $155,214 made to Texas A&M University in 1996 for studies of the ecological effects of oil and gas production. A paper on the same topic published by D’Unger in the journal Environmental Management, also in 1996, identified him as a Texas A&M environmental science researcher.
Express-News reporter John Tedesco said D’Unger “grew concerned” about the foundation in 1997, “when Galvan Ranch caretaker Ed DuBose, 67, bragged about chasing undocumented immigrants with dogs, firing guns over their heads, and handcuffing them to wait for the Border Patrol.”
“D’Unger was squeezed out by foundation CEO Paul Altheide,” Guerra added, “who D’Unger’s attorneys argued turned the ranch into his private hunting preserve and was funneling ranch business and other benefits to himself, fellow directors, and friends.”
