Category: Activists & Organizations

Animal foundation ranch allegedly used for hunting

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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.

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Warrant out for scam artist Bartron

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2000:

The Florida Parole Commission on March 3 issued a warrant for the arrest of Ron Bartron, 55, founder of the Priscilla Project, described by Ron Matus of The Gainesville Sun as “a head-spinning plan to save thousands of stray and unwanted cats.”

On January 3, Gilcrist County passed an emergency ordinance to keep Bartron from bringing 3,000-4,000 cats to a 20-acre site he leased along with a mobile home from supporter Diane Boswell, 57, of Alachua. The land and the mobile home were reportedly each valued at $50,000.

On January 13 Bartron sold the mobile home for $20,000, and on February 1 sold the land for $25,000, after shifting title to Molly & Friends, a cat-furniture-making firm begun by his wife Trayce––who said she had not seen or heard from Bartron since he sold Molly & Friends and absconded with the down payment, but left six cats behind who were taken by Alachua County Animal Control.

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SEXUAL PREDATORS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2000:

Former Hornocker Wildlife Institute biologist Patrick F. Ryan, 49, was bound over for trial on 41 criminal counts on March 10 in Reserve, New Mexico, after failing to convice Sierra County Magistrate Thomas Pestak t o exclude as evidence three videos Ryan allegedly made of himself in repeated sexual assaults against former co-worker Jennifer Cashman. As a graduate student assigned to do bear research with Ryan in the Gila Wilderness during 1996-1997, Cashman refused his sexual advances, according to the charges, and was then kept in a zombie-like state on clandestinely given overdoses of the animal tranquilizer Ketamine. Cashman was eventually hospitalized for two weeks, reportedly almost died three times, and suffered severe neurological damage. Cashman received an undisclosed sum in July 1999 in settlement of a civil suit against Ryan and the Hornocker Wildlife Institute.

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Arrivals & Departures

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2000:

The American Humane Association on February 19 confirmed as president six-year board member Timothy O’Brien. O’Brien, a Denver accountant, had served as acting president since October 1999.

Jeanne Westin, involved in humane work since 1961, has become president of United Animal Nations, after 10 years on the board. Westin worked for the California office of the Humane Society of the U.S. during the 1960s. After office chief Belton Mouras left to form the Animal Protection Institute i n 1968, Westin volunteered and served on the board with API, before following Mouras again when he left API to found UAN in 1986.

Former Last Chance for Animals executive director Eric Mindel, who left in January, has become community director for the Los Angeles-based online veterinary service and support firm One2One Care.

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ACTIVIST LAWSUITS

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2000:

The California First District Court of Appeals on February 7 affirmed a 1998 trial court ruling that Chinatown markets selling live animals for either on-site or take home slaughter are not breaking state cruelty and health laws. San Francisco attorney Baron Miller, pursuing the case on behalf of the Coalition for Healthy and Humane Business Practices, indicated that he would appeal again, this time to the California Supreme Court.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Frank Wasielewski on January 21 reversed a 1999 libel verdict won by Society of St. Francis president and Animal Lobby founder Cindy Schultz against radio talk show host Charles Sykes and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal, but on March 10 rejected their petition to seize and sell Schultz’s Mequon home in satisfaction of a claim against her of nearly $500,000. Wasielewski ordered Schultz to pay $155,797. Schultz held that Sykes wrongfully accused her of stealing a dog whose owner she had accused of neglect.

U.S. Magistrate Lawrence Leavitt on February 14 ordered orangutan trainer Bobby Berosini to return $2 million to the U.S. within 30 days. Jeanne Roush, a longtime PETA board member, alleged that Berosini transfered the funds to a Panamanian land investment firm to avoid paying PETA $200,000 in legal fees, plus interest, awarded in 1996 after the Nevada Supreme Court reversed a defamation judgement Berosini won against PETA in 1990 for alleging that he beat his orangutans backstage.

A win for whales

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2000:

MEXICO CITY––Grupo de la Cien founder Homero Aridjis, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and Earth Island Institute all claimed victory on March 4 when Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo cancelled a long-pending plan to build a solar salt extraction plant at San Ignacio Lagoon, an important gray whale calving area. The plant was to have been operated in partnership with Mitsubishi Corporation, of Japan.

But celebration was brief for the Sea Shepherds and IFAW, as the annual Atlantic Canadian offshore seal hunt, another of their longtime campaign focuses, was soon to start. The 2000 sealing quota is 275,000––almost as high as it ever has been.

 

CATASTROPHE

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2000:

Dorothy Reynolds, 84, of Jackson, Michigan, who founded the Jackson Animal Protective Association i n 1961, was on February 25 burnt out of her home of 41 years by alleged arson. She escaped with her two dogs and two cats, but must make extensive repairs with no insurance. Reynolds is receiving mail at P.O. Box 52, Addison, MI 49220.

Thirteen cats died, 13 cats and a dog survived, and two cats were missing after a February 28 fire gutted the home of Cleveland animal rescuer Chris Mohan– – who was fully insured, she told Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Michael Sangiacomo.

Lessie Davis, 54, identified by Michelle Crouch of Knight-Ridder Newspapers as “the only wildlife rehabilitator within 75 miles of Charlotte (N.C.) to take care of baby songbirds,” lost her uninsured home and clinic in January when an ice storm felled two trees on the roof. Davis may be contacted c/o Wild Care, P.O. Box 1049, Wingate, NC 28174.

Five million more homes are waiting by Ruth Smiler

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2000:

In 1997 I closed my antiques shop in Vermont and moved to California to begin a snow-free life. I neither intended nor expected to become an expert on homelessness, either human or quadruped.

When the cottage I had rented in Oakland was sold, I failed to find another apartment for me and my two dogs. The three of us movedback into the camper van in which I had crossed the country, staying with friends for a few days here and there, house-sitting once for four weeks.

Since then I have experienced apartment hunting in Miami, San Diego, and suburban New York. Renting with pets is tough. And it is not just a problem for renters. It is also a growing problem for the humane community.

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