CALEDONIA, Miss.--Cedarhill Animal Sanctuary founder Kay McElroy,of Caledonia, Mississipi, on September 1 notified Virginia-basedfundraiser Bruce Eberle that she wants nothing more to do with him. A week later, however, as ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press, McElroy and Cedarhill were still ensnarled in a contract which has already paid huge sums to Eberle and has him claiming he is owed still more, while producing little benefit to Cedarhill.

"I haven't had one comfortable day since I signed with Eberle," McElroy told ANIMAL PEOPLE. "It has been eight months of misery," during which Eberle has identified Cedarhill as Tiger Tracks in mailings very similar to those he sent in representing Tiger Haven, of Tennessee, and Tiger Creek, of Texas.

On August 14, McElroy complained to Eberle in writing that, "The stories written on behalf of Cedarhill did not represent events as they actually happened. Exaggerations made on behalf of the residents of Cedarhill were very offensive to me."

For example, McElroy said, "I was asked to write a story about one of our tigers. I e-mailed it in. When it was faxed back to me, it was so upsetting that I did not want to use it. I was told that people would not donate to a happy story. That particular tiger has been at Cedarhill for 10 years, and I felt it was a bald-faced lie to dupe the public into believing that the rescue was a recent event." That wasn't all. "Initially I was told that Cedarhill would not receive any money for the first two to three months. Six months later, I was told that it may be as long as 12 to 18 months," McElroy said. "The initial mailing was supposed to be sent once," McElroy continued. "It seems it was mailed four or five times. I have received many letters, calls, and e-mails about sending a graphic letter that was visible on the outside of the envelope. I expressed my disgust, but was told that it was the best way of getting the point across. I disagreed then and disagree now. I really don't think graphic photos should be used to raise money."

On August 17, McElroy told ANIMAL PEOPLE that Eberle had agreed to sever the Cedarhill contract without the required 90-day notice, but that Wendy Newman, representing the Eberle-owned firm Fund Raising Strategies,"was told to tell me that FRS had outstanding bills in the amount of$160,000 that had to be paid, and if I didn't let them mail what was printed, I would get the bill. As of June 30," McElroy added, "FRS hadreceived approximately $266,000 from Cedarhill donors, and Cedarhill hadreceived $9,000: three cents of every dollar."

"Kay is upset," Eberle told ANIMAL PEOPLE on the morning of August18, "Kay is upset, but we are trying to assist her in terminating herarrangement with us in a simple, straightforward manner. I should adviseyou that both parties to our agreements are not allowed to divulge theterms. I intend to live up to that obligation. I'm sure Kay will too." Returned ANIMAL PEOPLE to Eberle, "That serves your interests, perhaps, but not those of customers who might have the same right and reason as customers in any other field to compare terms. Are you in fact attempting to oblige McElroy/Cedarhill to authorize further mailings in order to pay off debts allegedly incurred in connection with previousmailings? Were these alleged debts run up with companies, contractors,and/or subcontractors which are under your control, and which did notobtain the work through an open competitive bidding process? Does this not amount to raising funds in the name of an animal sanctuary, little or none of which will go toward the benefit of the animals? Does your apparent position not amount to telling McElroy/Cedarhill that they owe their soul to the company store? Are you trying to use a contractual shroud in defense of figurative sharecropping?"

Eberle on the afternoon of August 18 replied that he was "confident that we will be able to resolve any dispute with Kay to her full satisfaction," and asserted that building a direct mail donor base "typically takes about 24 months," twice the waiting time McElroy said she had most recently been told to expect. Eberle also said that since ANIMAL PEOPLE was requiring him to respond to all questions in writing, "This will be my last communication with you."

On September 1, McElroy e-mailed that after a meeting with Eberle, she believed she would "get control of my web site back immediately. All MasterCard, Visa, and American Express donations will be transferred to my bank. There will be no more e-mail solicitations and no more prospect mailings. My donor list will be mailed to me. I will not get any more money. Stopping the campaign now, Cedarhill will have received five centsout of every dollar collected."

But on September 6 McElroy e-mailed that she had misunderstood."They want to continue mailings to satisfy the debt," she wrote, "and if anything is left after the debt is paid, Cedarhill would get it. They want to continue this arrangement until January 1, 2001. Even under our original contract, my 90-day termination clause would be effective on November 19, 2000."

"Would you buy an appeal from fundraiser Bruce Eberle?" ANIMALPEOPLE asked in a September 2000 expose, mentioning besides Cedarhill seven other animal protection organizations for which his companies were known to have prepared mailings.

Robert Cleaves of the Wilderness Conservancy gave Eberle a good reference but said they were no longer doing business together. Joe Taft of the Exotic Feline Rescue Foundation gave Eberle a negative reference and said he had not done business with Eberle after one test mailing. The founders of at least two other sanctuaries had also discontinued relationships with Eberle, ANIMAL PEOPLE learned after going to press.

Tiger Creek founder Brian Werner told ANIMAL PEOPLE that his association with Eberle ended in mid-June, between two weeks and a month after he told us that he had agreed to have Eberle do a test mailing for him, at the recommendation of Tiger Haven cofounder Joseph Donovan Parker. Scott and Heidi Riddle of Riddle's Elephant & Wildlife Sanctuary, in Greenbriar, Arkansas, e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE on August 30 that, "We are not clients of Eberle and Associates, nor of Fund Raising Strategies," though ANIMAL PEOPLE had received a copy of mailing materials evidently prepared for Riddle's Elephant & Wildlife Sanctuary by one ofEberle's firms, and submitted to another prospective client by Eberle or a representative as a sample of their work.

"We did have exploratory discussions with them," Scott and Heidi Riddle said, "but we decided that the firm's proposal was not the direction our organization wanted to take, and declined a business relationship."

Also distancing herself from the relationships and history recounted in the September 2000 ANIMAL PEOPLE Watchdog feature "Would you buy an appeal from fundraiser Bruce Eberle?" was Tiger Haven cofounder and president Mary Lynn Parker, wife of Joseph Donovan Parker. "Joe Parker is no longer associated with Tiger Haven, having been terminated by the board of directors," Mary Lynn Parker wrote on August 21, confirming information volunteered by Eberle on August 7. "Joe is no longer associated [with Tiger Haven] by any means, "Mary Lynn Parker continued, "has never co-owned any lands [occupied by Tiger Haven], and the facilities," near Knoxville, Tennessee, "are owned by the non-profit corporation, with which he is not associated in any way. He is not associated with any organization that Tiger Haven does business with, fundraising or otherwise," she said. "Divorce papers are filed," Mary Lynn Parker added, "and usually take 60 days to complete."

But as recently as August 3, two days after the September edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press, the Christian Science Monitor published a photograph of Joe Parker and Mary Lynn Parker posing together at TigerHaven. Christian Science Monitor staff writer David Holmstrom quoted JoeParker as speaking for the sanctuary.

Holmstrom also noted, as ANIMAL PEOPLE first reported in March1997, that Joe Parker had operated bingo parlors in fundraising agreements with several other charities, was in 1986 and 1987 accused of skimming $50,000 from the proceeds of two of the charities he raised funds for, and in 1990 plea-bargained a reduced sentence for conspiracy and tax evasion after turning prosecution witness against other suspects. Parker later operated a bingo parlor for two-and-a-half years to raise funds for Tiger Haven. Holstrom reported that it took in about $2 million before Tennessee officials ordered it closed.

The first Tiger Haven filing of IRS Form 990 since 1997, reachingANIMAL PEOPLE in mid-August 2000, claimed the sanctuary had assets of $607,317 as of January 31, 1999, lost $63,870 during the preceding fiscal year, and spent nothing to raise funds. The declared filing period apparently ended shortly before Eberle began doing mailings for Tiger Haven. Tiger Haven sent the form to the IRS in March 2000.

Still working with Eberle are Wildlife Waystation, of Angeles National Forest, California, and Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, of Lancaster, California.

Founded in 1977, Wildlife Waystation is among the biggest and oldest animal sanctuaries in the U.S., and--as ANIMAL PEOPLE reported in May and June 2000--is among the best-reputed among fellow sanctuarians, despite a series of high-profile conflicts since 1991 with the California Department of Fish and Game and other regulatory bodies. Wildlife Waystation filings of IRS Form 990 indicate auditions of many different fundraisers over the years. Eberle appears to have become involved only after mid-1998. Eberle then used access to the Wildlife Waystation mailing list as a bargaining chip to obtain the use of other lists and clients.

Lifesavers "rescued about 20 horses in 1999 and 10 in 1998, "founder Jill Starr told ANIMAL PEOPLE. Eberle only began fundraising for Lifesavers in April 1998, 90 days from the close of the organization's first fiscal year, but the initial Eberle mailing nonetheless used 59% ofthe total Lifesavers first-year budget. No further Lifesavers financial data is available.

As ANIMAL PEOPLE reported in September 2000, Starr acknowledged that the Lifesavers "rescues" horses mainly by purchasing them at auction--a modus operandi described as "horses for ransom" by Enzo Giobe and Stacy Wilson, who cofounded the International Generic Horse Association/ HorseAid in 1976. Starting long before Lifesavers existed, Giobe and Wilson have pointed out often that while bidding at slaughter auctions may "save" the horses who are bought, it also tends to raise the sale price of horses, making the auction system more profitable for thesellers, without at all reducing the killer-buyers' quotas. Each horse is"saved" only because higher prices bring others to the auction ring to be sold for slaughter.

As ANIMAL PEOPLE added, Lifesavers' mailings purport that the group is saving horses from slaughter. But Lifesavers is located inCalifornia, where the 1998 California Horse Slaughter Initiative outlawed selling horses to slaughter for human consumption. "However," ANIMAL PEOPLE acknowledged, "since the mailings do not say which auctions Lifesavers attends, or where, horses might be bought at dogmeat auctions or in another state."

Responded Lifesavers board member Willis Lamm in the course of a four-page website attack on ANIMAL PEOPLE, "Anyone who has had any serious dealings with the California Horse Slaughter Initiative knows that it is more of a public policy statement than a law that will have any significant impact. Just go to the Bakersfield or Turlock 'killer sales,' "Lamm charged, "and you'll see agents for the meat packers buying them by the pound, horse after horse."

Lamm also claimed ANIMAL PEOPLE had ignored this. But as ANIMAL PEOPLE e-mailed to Lamm while researching the September expose, "If Lifesavers sent out appeals explaining the loopholes in the California law, that would serve a significantly useful purpose. But the several appeals I have seen, and that we have been getting calls about for more than a year, skip lightly over all the details. They raise money, but they don't educate."

Lifesavers backers also "spammed" ANIMAL PEOPLE advertisers withe-mails urging them to end their accounts, to no evident effect. Two advertisers who did not renew their ads had already told us that they were formulating new campaigns. Both said they would probably advertise again later.

Brian Werner, Scott and Heidi Riddle, and Eberle himself all claimed to have been factually misrepresented by the September 2000 ANIMALPEOPLE expose. Werner said he had not sent above his own signature a list of National Rifle Association allegations against various animal rights groups, and claimed ANIMAL PEOPLE had misread an automatic e-mail signature. ANIMAL PEOPLE received the list by fax, however, on Werner's letterhead, with no other source identification.

The Riddles said they would "state emphatically that we do not support or practice abusive elephant management techniques." But since1986, and as recently as December 1999, Scott Riddle's use of electroshock on elephants has come under criticism not only from humane activists but also from other professional elephant handlers. Eberle objected that "Neither I, nor any of our companies was ever investigated by Congress with regard to Paula Jones or our efforts on her behalf," although members of the U.S. Senate did express concern that Jones' testimony and that of fellow Eberle client Linda Tripp in connection with allegations of sexual misconduct against U.S. President Bill Clinton might be tainted by their association with fundraisers, among whom Eberle appears to have been most prominent.