Letters [March 2000]
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2000:
Getting data
I think your publication of the salaries of people in animal defence is so valuable. Would it be possible for you to include some groups from Canada in your list? How exactly do you get your statistics? How could I get some information about salaries?
––Marg Buckholtz
Kingston, Ontario
We include some Canadian groups, and have included more in some past years, but the Revenue Canada disclosure form for charities does not require them to disclose salaries or the names of board members and top-paid staff.
The disclosure documents in Britain and most other nations whose leading animal charities we monitor are likewise deficient.
In the U.S. we get data mainly from IRS Form 990, which all U.S. nonprofits with income greater than $25,000 have had to file annually since 1942. U.S. char – ities must provide their full Form 990 on request. Form 990 filings are also available, for a copying fee, from the IRS Service Center at Odgen, UT 84201. Summary data (without detailed breakdowns of expenditures and investments, and without salary info) is accessible online at
Maddie’s Fund
Just a quick note to say thanks for the absolutely fantastic coverage you gave Maddie’s Fund in the January/February edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE. I can’t tell you how much we appreciate your ongoing interest in our work.
Richard Avanzino
President Maddie’s Fund
2223 Santa Clara Avenue, Suite B
Alameda, Ca. 94501
(510) 337-8980
info@maddies.org
Saving Whales
I have just been reading your January/February article “Saving whales.”
The proposal before the International Whaling Commission to designate an extended Southern Ocean Sanctuary was introduced jointly by New Zealand and Australia, not just Australia, and it is not for an extension of the Indian Ocean sanctuary.
The Indian Ocean and expanded Southern Ocean sanctuaries together would not merely ban whaling on the high seas of the southern hemisphere, but in all waters, as they do now.
You also wrote that the present Southern Ocean sanctuary around Antarctica does not protect minke whales or any toothed whales other than the sperm whale. On the contrary, they apply formally and explicitly to minke as well as to all baleen whales, and also to orca as well as to sperm.
––Sydney Holt
Powys, Wales
Since the Southern Ocean sanctuary both as it now exists and as it would be expanded adjoin the Indian Ocean sanctuary, Holt’s objection to our use of the word “extend” is obscure. His con – tention that the present sanctuaries apply to territorial as well as inter – national waters fails to mention that the Southern Ocean sanctuary boundaries veer around Chilean and Argentinian waters precisely to avoid a conflict with their claims pertaining to national sovereignty.
Japan this winter killed 440 minke whales for “research” in “protected” Antarctic waters.
JoJo
For 15 years in the Turks and Caicos islands, a wild dolphin by the name of JoJo has become a national treasure because of his socialization with humans. He has gained fame in books and a TV special with Robin Williams, and has a cameo role in an upcoming IMAX film about dolphins.
A man named Dean Bernal who came to the Turks and Caicos island as a diver has become JoJo’s caretaker.
“JoJo has received 37 injuries since 1992 related to water skis and boat propellers, eight of which were life-threatening,” Bernal states. Some of JoJo’s injuries have been so serious that without aid from Bernal, JoJo might not have survived.
Similar injuries occurred to human swimmers as well. For example, Francis Mason, then eight, was injured by a water craft propeller in 1997 in the same area where JoJo swims.
Boats from Club Med are especially often involved, according to witnesses. Bernal recently bought propeller guards for the Club Med ski boats in order to protect JoJo from future injuries––but the management of Club Med refuses to use them, and has banned Bernal from even being on Club Med property. Further information on how you can help JoJo is available from or .
––Gwen McKenna
4018 6th Concession R.R. #1
Bradford, Ontario Canada L3Z 2A4
Tel: (905)778-9611 Fax: (905)778-9612
CITES
Congratulations on your excellent January/February feature “Blazing guns and huts as Zimbabwe ignores Kenya lesson.” Also on “Care For The Wild grows into mission” and “Hunting for the truth of animal and land deals.”
Before the previous Genesis Awards I met Care For The Wild founder Bill Jordan and together we visited Tippy Hedron’s Shambala/ ROAR Foundation sanctuary. Bill and I share the concerns you have about our vanishing wildlife and the so-called scientific justification/s for culling. We are also opposed to the exceptions granted to Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species which have permitted them to sell ivory and, of course, we oppose any further exceptions that might be granted.
Dr. Robert N. Cleaves
President Wilderness Conservancy
Kenya
Your January/February 2000 coverage of Kenya was great. We were there with a wildlife tour group in February 1993, traveling from Nairobi to Samburu to Masai Mara. We loved it, and were saddened to learn that there were some real problems developing. Placing dedicated native personnel in authority and taking real steps to educate Kenyans about their national treasures is vital to success in protecting wildlife.
––Eleanor Edmondson-Collins
SPCA of Josephine County
POB 5045
Grants Pass, OR 97527
HSUS seminar speaker suggests shooting birds
On November 8, 1999, I attended a seminar called “Wild Neighbors: Humane Solutions to Conflicts with Urban Wildlife” at the Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control Center. The seminar was presented by the Humane Society of the U.S. in cooperation with the University of Florida, for wildlife rehabilitators, humane workers, animal control officers, and pest control personnel.
University of Florida faculty member Bill Kern told us [ a s documented by enclosures] that killing should be an option in dealing with sparrows, pigeons, and vultures; distributed a handout describing firearms he deemed appropriate for killing “nuisance” birds; suggested selling pigeons to pet stores; and recommended that armadillos be eaten, describing how he marinates their meat.
In correspondence with University of Florida Center for Natural Resources director Joseph M. Schaefer, I was told that Kern “has been repeatedly invited to present this same information on many occasions by the Humane Society.” Please ask HSUS to not support such presentations, c/o HSUS Wildlife Programs, 2100 ”L” St. NW, Washington, DC 20037.
––Susan Beattie
Director
Wildlife Rehabilitation & Refuge Center, Inc.
5255 S.W.
Savage St. Palm City, FL 34990
We asked HSUS Wild Neighbors program director John Hadidian for comment. So far, we have received none.
Chained dogs
Beginning in 1995, the Animal Advocates Society of B.C. has won bylaws providing for the humane treatment of dogs in 10 municipalities. These laws specify: clean water at all times; sufficient food; areas free of excrement; a dog house large enough in which to sit, stand, and lie comfortably; protection from heat, wet, and cold; and regular exercise away from the place of confinement or tethering. This last section attempts to give dogs a life. We are now seeking to limit the hours a dog can be tethered or confined to four hours a day.
––Judy Stone
President
Animal Advocates Society of B.C.
(604) 984-8826
Karen Bunting
I am sitting in my office in utter disbelief and shock. We have just learned from your January/ February edition that Karen Bunting has suddenly passed away.
Karen was a longtime supporter of Primarily Primates. Our efforts to retire the 12 Buckshire Corporation chimpanzees, the 11 chimps we got from the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates at New York University, the 34 NASA chimpanzees, and the 130 cotton-top tamarins we received from a Tennessee university laboratory all began with her help. In these and other difficult rescues, she was usually the first to pledge support. Today is truly sad for us.
––Stephen Rene Tello
Corporate Secretary
Primarily Primates
P.O. Box 15306
San Antonio, TX 78212
Nigerian millennium conference
I am writing to you because of the significant role you played in helping us to found the Nigeria Vegetarian Society (NVS) and the Nigeria Animal Welfare Foundation (NAWF). As the animal rights movement spreads worldwide, ANIMAL PEOPLE has become the Bible of the movement. No other organisation has done more for the animal rights movement worldwide in recent times. We can only pray for and look forward to more significant roles that ANIMAL PEOPLE w i l l play in the 21st century.
We are now pleased to announce a Millenium Animal Welfare Conference to be held on April 7-8. We hope to have international representation. In particular, we are looking at the possibility of people stopping over in Lagos for the Conference en route to Nairobi, Kenya, for the CITES triennial meeting which is to begin on April 10. Our conference could serve as a preCITES forum for people from other nations to meet and share ideas.
Primarily, however, we want to use the Conference to launch the animal rights movement in Nigeria––African’s most populous nation, with about 110 million people. We want to print The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, which is in our constitution, though most people are unaware of it, and do mass distribution of the Act in both English and the local languages.
There are many other things that need to be done. We will do as much as we can within the constraints of funding. As the first conference of its kind in this part of the world, our Millennium Animal Welfare Conference should create a strong and lasting public impact.
––Emmanuel Eyoh
Nigeria Animal Welfare Foundation
POB 3893
Oshodi, Lagos Nigeria
Telephone: 234-1-523-420 or 234-1-520-342
Fax: 234-1-452-5481
E-mail: Eyoh@frankadel.com
Why Irwin gets mega-bucks
I am surprised and puzzled by some of the salaries listed in your December 1999 “Who gets the money?” report, e.g. Paul Irwin of the Humane Society of the U.S. receiving $570,325.
I realize that many people cannot afford to volunteer their services, and that it may be necessary to salary an administrator, but to get over $500,000 a year or over $200,000 a year is one heck of a salary. One charity naturally takes in more money than another, but shouldn’t that mean there is even more money to spend on actual charitable work? Instead, it seems that the wealthier the charity, the more the administrators get paid. What is the justification for this?
By comparison, also in “Who gets the money?” one can see other well-known national group executives who either take no salary at all, or receive salaries in the $40,000 to $75,000 range. Do they function at only a tenth of the capacity of the $300,000 to $500,000 administrators? Are their accomplishments and duties so inferior that they deserve less? I would bet that most people donating money to help animals have no idea how much does not get to the animals.
––Petra Murray
Howell, New Jersey
Nonprofits which pay high salaries tend to rationalize them for these reasons:
• Nonprofits compete for talent with private enterprise. In private enterprise, executives may benefit by investing in their firms. Nonprofits often pay higher salaries to make up for the lack of investment opportunity.
• Nonprofit boards fre – quently consist of high donors from the for-profit sector, who expect to reward performance with cash.
In truth, however, animal protection nonprofits are not losing talent to the private sector. In the ten years we have presented “Who gets the money?”, we know of no listed person making $100,000-plus who has left the animal protection field to make more money in private enterprise. But animal protection organizations have recruited quite successfully from the private sector.
Irwin, like his predeces – sor John Hoyt, is an ex-clergyman. Hoyt hired Irwin in 1975, five years after Hoyt himself joined HSUS.
Hoyt and Irwin each began their presidency at the high – est salary paid to any U.S. humane society head. Hoyt kept that status in all but three years of his tenure; Irwin soon made even more. His $570,325 compensation in 1998 included retirement benefits
Report from India’s fastest-growing city
I am very grateful for your help. ANIMAL PEOPLE readers, especially Ms. Victoria and Ms. Margaret, have provided a most vital link in enabling the Visakha SPCA to start and consolidate our various projects. Ms. Ingrid of PETA has also been helping us in a big way.
Our Animal Birth Control program is going very well, with more than 2,200 dogs (mainly females) sterilized and immunized. Veterinarian Saidou Nacambo is here from Geneva to assist us, as our local vets are demanding $6.50 per dog, which is impossible for us to pay. The municipal dogcatching is unfortunately totally erratic. Of course there is a lot of resentment from the public. We are doing our best with the resources available.
Due to the heavy rains we had, there was leakage into the kennels. Through Christine Townend of Help In Suffering, Mrs. Janne Vogler of Animaux Secour came forward to help us buy land and build a strong hospital that can resist the cyclones that often hit this area. So far this winter we have already received four serious cyclones, and the supercyclone that devastated Orissa just missed us.
We have begun protecting stray cattle from unscrupulous traders. The municipality used to dump stray cattle 90 miles away in a forest, where villagers killed many in most agonizing ways. I pleaded and threatened, and now about 125 cattle have come to us. We are looking after them on government land. It is a great job feeding and looking after them, and we shall have to beg for help. Unfortunately, most suffer from having ingested plastic bags. We have lost 20 so far, and are now campaigning to ban plastic bags. Not only are cattle affected; also in one instance we found plastic bags in a dead sea turtle who washed ashore.
We recently raided five illegal cow slaughtering sites in and around Visakhapatnam, filing two sets of criminal charges and arresting eight people. In one incident I came across a cow being skinned alive. Even more horrible, in Anandapuram we saw cows were being killed with heavy stones, the reason being to not allow blood to flow out, to insure that there was more weight in the beef. I am sure than gradually this kind of mad menace will stop––but because the killers are part of the Noe religious minority there is now a political row kicking up over this issue.
We have come across evidence that cows are being supplied through the Anandapuram area to Al-Kabir in Hyderabad and to the state of Kerala, where cow slaughter is not banned. I notified Ms. Ingrid and sent particulars also to Ms. Maneka Gandhi. I am now on the cattle traders’ hit list, but will not be cowed by threats or be deterred by bribes.
We have begun anti-poaching raids as well, and so far have booked 24 young boys who were hunting with powerful flashlights mounted on headgear and noisemakers around their necks. This equipment was used to make animals freeze until the poachers could attack with trained dogs and spears. The poachers’ victims included wild birds, wild cats, rabbits, monitor lizards, wild pigs, deer, tortoises, and snakes.
Just a week ago I was asked by the Wildlife Protection Society of India to travel to Rajamundry to investigate the smuggling of tortoises into Orissa, where they are eaten. The Forest Department seized 186 tortoises, jailed the smuggler, and fined the driver of his vehicle $1,220.
We are also prosecuting a case of trading in tiger cub skins. One of the two accused culprits died recently.
Not far from there is a place where open-billed storks have nested for ages. Their numbers are depleted because there are no longer sufficient trees for them to build nests in (the birds’ own feces kills the foliage). I am forming a Bird Society with the local villagers, to plant trees and protect the area from pollution and disruption.
I have also come across a rare species there which I do not yet know the scientific name for. In local dialect it is called the Krishna Jhinka.
We are entering the fourth year of our sea turtle nesting beach protection program, and on the occasion of Nagachouthi, the annual “snake festival,” we conducted raids on the roads and seized 43 live snakes and snake skins.
––Pradeep Kumar Nath
Visakha SPCA
26-15-200 Main Road
Visakhapatnam, India 530 001
