From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1996:
Adopt-A-Pet, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, quiet for several
years, recently issued a bulletin “introducing our statewide
service,” a purported mobile adoption-and-rescue program,
and soliciting donations. Adopt-A-Pet in 1986-1992 raised
$6,840,756 via the Watson and Hughey direct mailing empire,
which renamed itself Direct Response Consulting Services after
paying $2.4 million in 1991 in out-of-court settlement of
charges pertaining to alleged use of misleading sweepstakes
appeals. Adopt-A-Pet was among the W&H/DRCS codefendants
in a series of cases brought by 22 states. In 1987-1989,
Adopt-A-Pet reportedly spent 97% of revenues on further
fundraising. Overall, according to incomplete IRS Form 990
filings obtained and abstracted by The Chronicle of
P h i l a n t h r o p y in September 1993, Adopt-A-Pet spent at least
55% of revenues on fundraising, with 6% spent on other documented
activities and 39% apparently unaccounted for.
W&H/DRCS also represented the Cancer Fund of America,
which sought donations by claiming it didn’t fund animal-based
research. It apparently funded––and funds––little or no
research of any kind.
German freelance TV producer Michael Born
faces up to 10 years in prison for allegedly defrauding customers
of more than $203,000 by faking at least 22 documentaries
between 1991 and December 1994. In one episode he
purportedly paid an actor to pose as a hunter shooting a housecat.
Born defends his creations as “docu-drama,” in which
players act out real events.
National Audubon Society president John Flicker
says he cancelled publication of an article for the A u d u b o n
magazine by former New York Times columnist Tom Wicker as
part of “a relatively minor adjustment we’re making” to policy.
Wicker had charged that the Clinton administration has not
demonstrated a clear commitment to environmental protection.
The British Advertising Standards Authority censured
the International Fund for Animal Welfare o n
Valentine’s Day for the fourth time in a year, holding that ads
urging Tesco supermarket chain chair Sir Ian MacLaurin to
cease selling Canadian canned salmon “unfairly discredited
Tesco by its false implication about the supermarket’s involvement
in seal killing.” IFAW was previously rapped for likening
hunters to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (who serially torturekilled
wildlife before turning to human victims); using a photo
allegedly depicting John Wayne Bobbitt’s severed penis in an
anti-sealing ad, which pointed out that the major profitable
market for seal products is Asian aphrodisiac demand for dried
penises; and suggesting that South Koreans kill 400,000 cats a
year for use in soup. Cat-eating is technically banned in South
Korea, but is reportedly still commonplace.
Parody
Students United to Protest Research on
Sentient Subjects, now doing business as The Nature of
Wellness, startled Washington Post readers on February 25
with a parody of Americans for Medical Progress a d s
attacking antivivisectionists. Surrounding a photo of a bonneted
baby was the headline, “Most people see a beautiful,
healthy child…We see a cure for Feline Leukemia.”
Continued the text below, “Outrageous, isn’t it? How can
anyone possibly believe that a cat disease can be cured by
conducting research on healthy human beings? Ridiculous.
But, unfortunately, millions of Americans have been led to
believe that it is possible to cure human diseases by conducting
research on healthy animals.”
