ANN FIELDS LEAVES MONEY MISSING, 900 ANIMALS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

ANDALUSIA, Alabama––Ann Fields, 49,
founder of one of the most lucrative no-kill shelter scams
ever, died at home in Palm Springs, California on October
21 of an apparent heart attack. Her second husband, Victor
Lagunas, apparently many years younger, reportedly buried
Fields in Mexico.
Circa 1983, Fields and her first husband, Jerry
Fields, whom she divorced in 1993, founded a small outdoor
no-kill shelter near Conyers, Georgia, initially called Love
and Care for God’s Stray Animals. Questionable animal care
and high-pressure fundraising appeals soon drew notice from
at least four major national and regional humane groups, but
each was apparently scared away from attempted intervention
by Fields’ ability to portray herself to donors and the public as
a beleaguered saint, saving animals no one else would help,
claiming she was the victim of a mean-spirited conspiracy.
She meanwhile evaded creditors by repeatedly changing the
wording of her Love and Care business name, and by routing
donations to a variety of mail drops. Finally obliged to relocate
from Georgia to Alabama by a 1989 zoning dispute,
Fields left behind an unpaid federal tax lien of $574,889,
plus state tax liens of at least $31,000.

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Creative accounting

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y.––Over the past four years Farm Sanctuary annual reports
have claimed $822,878 more in spending than Farm Sanctuary declared to the Internal
Revenue Service––and have ascribed $683,146 of that amount to program service. The ghost
expenditures have enabled Farm Sanctuary to claim that it spent 86% of revenues on programs
in 1993, and 88% on programs in 1994.
The income lines in the annual reports for fiscal years 1991 through 1994 match the
Farm Sanctuary IRS Form 990 filings, but the program spending and total expenditure lines
vary by as much as $257,961:
Year Program expense Difference Total expenditures Difference
To donors To IRS To donors To IRS

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Humane Society of the U.S. settles affairs without a Wills

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

WASHINGTON, D.C.– – Humane
Society of the United States executive vice
president Patricia Forkan is to assume authority
over HSUS domestic operations effective
on January 1, 1996. HSUS president Paul
Irwin, now heading domestic operations, will
move over to head the umbrella organization,
Humane Society International, while current
HSI president John Hoyt, 65, will serve as
vice president until he retires in May, officially
for health reasons.
Former HSUS vice president for
investigations and legislation David Wills,
Hoyt’s longtime protege and onetime chosen
successor, was formally terminated on
October 14, two months after he was officially
placed on “administrative leave,” and was
in fact fired, in so many words, according to
a very highly placed informant. HSUS has
also sued Wills, seeking the recovery of
funds––believed to be about $16,500––
allegedly misappropriated to his personal use.

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High-Tech Activism

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

High-Tech Activism
The high cost of losing vs. the economics of victory
by Steve Hindi
president, Chicago Animal Rights Coalition

In 1992, the Forest Preserve District of DuPage
County, Illinois targeted thousands of “surplus” deer for
slaughter by sharpshooting and by rocket-netting followed by
captive bolt dispatch. While we opposed killing healthy deer
by either method, sharpshooting at least theoretically offered
the possibility of instant death. Rocket-netting was an entirely
different matter.
Rocket-nets are explosive devices that literally blast
a heavy net over groups of deer drawn to a baited site. People
who live nearby often call rocket nets “howitzers,” as their
roar can be heard for miles. The stress to the victims cannot
be overestimated, as the explosives detonate just a few feet
from the victims as they feed. Rocket-netting also causes a
high incidence of unintended injury, as frightened deer hurt
themselves trying to escape.

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The price of meat

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

WASHINGTON D.C.–– Eating
meat costs Americans $28.6 billion to $61.4
billion per year in extra health care, Dr. Neal
Barnard, Dr. Andrew Nicholson, and Jo Lil
Howard of the Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine reported in the edition
of the peer-reviewed journal Preventive
Medicine published November 21. The
PCRM team based their estimate on studies
of large groups of Americans, mostly
Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists,
whose living habits differ chiefly in eating or
not eating flesh. In every such study to date,
meat eaters have had more health problems.
About 29% of all heart disease is related to
meat consumption, the PCRM team calculated,
costing $9.5 billion a year––but meatrelated
diabetes costs even more, they said,
at $14 billion to $17 billion per year.

FUR

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

The European Union Commission on November 22
announced yet another postponement of the European Union
ban on imports of furs that may have been caught by leghold
trapping. The ban, originally to take effect on January 1, 1995,
is vigorously opposed on behalf of the fur trade by the U.S. and
Canadian governments. EU officials were reportedly moved by
visits from Canadian Native Americans, who claimed the ban
would harm their people without mentioning that Native trappers
account for less than 5% of Canadian trapped pelts and less than
1% of total North American trapped pelts. Great Britain broke
with the rest of the EU, moving to impose the ban unilaterally.
The Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility
for releasing 2,400 mink from the Dargatz farm in Chilliwack,
British Columbia, on October 23, and 4,000 mink from the
Rippin farm in Aldergrove, B.C., on November 14. Most were
quickly recaptured, but at deadline about 140 remained at large
in Chilliwack and about 600 in Aldergrove. Canadian wildlife
officials predicted that some, at least, might survive the winter.
The Canadian Mink Breeders Association posted a reward of
$50,000 for the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

Voting to kill Flipper

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

WASHINGTON D.C.––“The attempt to gut the Marine
Mammal Protection Act [by repealing dolphin-safe tuna import standards,
as reported on page one of the November 1995 ANIMAL PEOPLE],
backed by the Clinton/Gore Administration, the wise-use movement, and
a handful of conservation groups, is floundering on Capitol Hill,” Craig
Van Nolte of the Monitor conservation, environmental, and animal welfare
consortium told member organization lobbyists on November 14.
“Senator Ted Stevens and Don Young, the two Alaska
Republicans who are pushing the legislation, are finding virtually no
backers. As one key Congressional staffer observed, ‘Who wants to be
seen voting to kill Flipper?’ Sources report that major political and financial
supporters of the Administration are denouncing the dolphin sell-out
in written and face-to-face communications with both President Bill
Clinton and Vice President Albert Gore. White House political operatives
on the West Coast are warning that the scheme could poison political support
in next year’s election. The White House has opened a major backchannel
operation with Stevens and Young in recent months,” Van Nolte
continued, “in an effort to save the Commerce Department and to gut the
MMPA. The two powerful Alaskans are actively helping block the killCommerce
legislation being pushed by radical House Republicans;

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Setting the floor for horse haulers

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

WASHINGTON, D.C.––Just days
ago S1283/HR2433, the Safe Commercial
Transportation of Horses for Slaughter Act of
1995, was rated the one humane bill with a
chance to clear the present Congress.
Introduced by Senator Mitch
McConnell (Kentucky) and Representative
Bill Goodling (Pennsylvania), both members
of the Republican majority, S1283/HR2433
was jointly endorsed by the leading horse
industry group, the American Horse Council;
the American Horse Protection Association;
the Humane Society of the United States; the
American Association of Equine
Practitioners; the American Humane
Association; and the American SPCA.

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ADC does damage control–– could be killed by Farm Bill

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

WASHINGTON D.C.––Caught in a political trap, the
USDA Animal Damage Control program is battling for survival.
The ADC still has powerful friends, including western Senators of
both major parties, but the forthcoming Farm Bill debate could kill
it, after 65 years.
Conservative Republicans are queasy about the ADC
because it’s a federal subsidy for private enterprise: of the $19.6 million
1994 ADC budget, $10 million went to protect livestock.
Eastern politicians of both parties see the ADC as
expendible because it does little for their constituents: $9.7 million––97%––of
the livestock protection funds were spent in the 17
western states.
Environmentalists hate the ADC because it helps keep cattle
on federally owned land.

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