ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

DECEMBER 2003

THE WATCHDOG (5)

Individual Compensation Notes

A - The Wildlife Conservation Society paid at least 26 salaries in excess of $100,000 and 281 in excess of $50,000. Joan Downs is no longer with WCS. George Schaller, probably the best-known WCS employee, was the 18th highest paid in 2002.

B - The American SPCA gave Larry Hawk a four-year performance bonus of $100,000. Hawk in February 2003 succeeded Gus Thornton, who retired, as president of the Massachusetts SPCA. In June 2003 Hawk was succeeded at the ASPCA by Ed Sayres, president of the San Francisco SPCA since January 1999. Sayres was succeeded as president of the San Francisco SPCA by Daniel Crain, vice president at the SF/SPCA since 1999. The ASPCA paid 80 additional salaries over $50,000 in 2002, the MSPCA paid 97, and the SF/SPCA paid 19.

C - The Nature Conservancy paid 836 salaries over $50,000 in fiscal 2002.

D - The North Shore Animal League America paid 24 additional salaries in excess of $50,000 in fiscal 2002.

E - The Humane Society of the U.S. paid 60 additional salaries in excess of $50,000 in 2002. Former HSUS Wildlife Land Trust director John Kullberg died on April 20, 2003. ANIMAL PEOPLE reported in April 2001 that the IRS was investigating an allegation by former HSUS legal/executive secretary Nancy Dayton that HSUS general counsel and vice president Roger A. Kindler and senior counsel Murdaugh Stuart Madden had long used HSUS staff and facilities for the benefit of their private law practice, including advertising the HSUS address, telephone, and fax number as those of their law firm. Dayton complained to the IRS five months after she told Irwin that HSUS had filed false reports to the IRS in 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999. Dayton was fired, she said, two weeks later. Neither Kindler nor Madden responded to requests for comment. In October 2003 ANIMAL PEOPLE received copies of correspondence between attorney Bruce R. Hopkins, representing HSUS, and Charles F. Egan, Securities Examiner for the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation, indicating the allegations are still being investigated at least at the state level.

F - The National Audubon Society paid at least 14 salaries in excess of $100,000 and 199 in excess of $50,000. G - The World Wildlife Fund paid 192 additional salaries in excess of $50,000.

H - Conservation International paid at least 23 salaries over $100,000 and 111 others in excess of $50,000.

I - The National Wildlife Feder-ation paid 57 salaries in excess of $50,000.

J - Defenders of Wildlife paid at least eight salaries over $100,000 and at least 22 other salaries over $50,000.

K - Includes compensation from nine IFAW affiliates. The CFO post was held by three people during the year: Christopher Tuite, who received 51% of the total compensation; Mary Harrington, who received 47%; and Melanie B. Powers, who received 2%. Also in 2002, IFAW paid $249,206 to the law firm Rackemann, Sawyer & Brewster, in which IFAW board member and legal counsel Michael O'Connell is a partner. Instead of disclosing the top five salaries paid to non-board members on IRS Form 990, Schedule A, part I, IFAW for the fourth straight year left the section blank, and this time omitted a statement that, "During the current year, more than 88% of each key employee's compensation was reimbursed by the other [IFAW affiliates for which work was done]." But the purpose of Schedule A, part I is not to explain who signs the checks. Rather, it is meant to enable donors to decide if the pay is in keeping with the charitable mission. Standard practice is to disclose salaries over $50,000 from all affiliates of a charity combined, footnoting to explain divisions of duties and pay sources.

L - Patrick Noonan, Conservation Fund chair since 1985, retired in July 2003. His successor, Charles Jordan, a director of the Conservation Fund since 1986, recently retired as director of Portland Parks & Recreation in Oregon.

M - Timothy O'Brien left the Am-erican Humane Association on July 3, 2003.

N - EarthJustice in 2002 paid at least 11 additional salaries of more than $100,000 and 50 of more than $50,000.

O - The National Fish & Wildlife Foundation paid at least eight other salaries in excess of $100,000, and at least 24 in excess of $50,000.

P - Patrick Burgas succeeded Michael Wright as president of the African Wildlife Foundation in midyear. The foundation paid 12 other salaries over $50,000.

Q - Peggy & Kenneth Cunniff are wife and husband. North American Anti-Vivisection Society Form 990 filings in 1989-1994 listed Kenneth Cunniff as an independent contractor. ANIMAL PEOPLE pointed out in June 1996 that his pay from NAVS often exceeds $100,000/year plus use of a vehicle, while he runs his own law firm. Since then, NAVS lists him as "Kenneth Cunniff, Ltd."

R - Warren Cox has retired. His successor has not yet been named. Kent Robertson earlier in 2003 left to become division manager, Dallas Animal Services.

S - William & Patricia Burnham are husband and wife.

T - Roseann Trezza succeeded Lee Bernstein as president of the Associated Humane Societies in mid-2003.

U - The Waterkeeper Alliance paid $132,000 to the law firm Kennedy & Mad-onna, in which Waterkeeper president Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a partner. Kennedy appears to have devoted fulltime to the Waterkeeper Alliance in recent years, especially in combatting pollution caused by the pork industry.

V - Brenda Barnette, executive director at Pets In Need since 1998, was in June 2003 named CEO at Tony LaRussa's Animal Rescue Foundation, succeeding former major league outfielder David Stegman, who resigned in January 2003. Art Lee-Drews, who formerly worked with Stegman at the San Ramon Valley Community Services Group, left shortly before Stegman. Stegman was recently hired to head the Valley Humane Society in Pleasanton, California.

W - Holly Hazard received $91,840 from the Doris Day Animal League and $8,243 from the Doris Day Animal Foundation.

X - Foundation to Support Animal Protection development director Scott Anderson was formerly development director for PETA; FSAP functions as a fundraising arm of PETA and PCRM. (See Budgets & Assets note #25.)

Y - Oceana president Steve Roady previously headed the Ocean Law Project, begun by the Pew Charitable Trusts and incorporated into Oceana. Oceana paid at least seven salaries in excess of $100,000.

Z - Ronald Cohn and Francine Patterson are identified by other media as "partners."

AA - Esther Mechler founded Spay/USA in 1990. It became a Pet Savers Foundation program in 1993.

BB - Bill Clark left FoA in late 2002. He now works for IFAW.

CC - Jeanne Westin retired in 2002 and was succeeded by Mercedes Chatfield Taylor, whose compensation for the balance of the fiscal year was $10,000.

DD - The Best Friends presidency rotates annually among the eight cofounders remaining on the board. All were originally fulltime volunteers, and all remain fulltime workers. The president does not get paid during the year that he or she serves. All seven others are paid at an equal rate. Celeste and John C. Fripp are husband and wife.

EE - Javier Burgos leases an office to SUPRESS d.b.a The Nature of Wellness, at $22,550 per year. SUPRESS vice president Hoorik Davoudian took no salary in 2001. Her firm, New Health Inc., was paid $32,100 for "Programs/ campaigns design implementation and management."

FF - Bonnie & Brad Miller are wife and husband.

GG - Kim Bartlett and Merritt Clifton are wife/husband. They donate the ANIMAL PEOPLE office space.

HH - Pat Derby and Ed Stewart are partners. The Performing Animal Welfare Society provides their housing and vehicles.

II - Lorri & Gene Bauston are wife and husband. They also receive housing and transportation from Farm Sanctuary.

JJ - Barbara Yule is now executive director of the Association of Sanctuaries. Craig Brestrup is now secretary.

KK - Alex Hershaft rents an office to FARM in lieu of salary.

LL - The current Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge filing of IRS Form 990 omits statements which on earlier filings declared that co-founder Tanya Alexenia Syrenia Smith, a.k.a. Tanya Gonzelez Smith, whose husband is Scott Smith, leased land to the foundation "at the same cost as her mortgage payment," receiving both housing plus equity in the 463-acre site, relatively little of which is used for the care of sanctuary animals. The current Turpentine Creek filing of Form 990 indicates that it still pays $5,000 per month ($60,000/year) in "occupancy" to someone but the Turpentine Creek web site states that it "has not ever been able to make the $5,000-a-month payments to Tanya and has barely been able to sustain the payments" to the mortgage holder. In 1998, however, Tanya Smith settled charges filed as felonious theft of public benefits by pleading guilty to illegal use of food stamps. Tanya Smith allegedly declared in seeking food stamps and Medicaid that she and her son had no income except the son's Social Security payments, and had no other resources. Affidavits filed by the prosecution and Form 990 filings indicate that Turpentine Creek had paid Smith $5,000 per month rent since April 1994; paid her $20,000 plus 5% interest, 1992-1994; and paid her $34,122 from January 1995 to the date the case was filed. Smith also leased two vehicles to the foundation until July 1997. Hilda Jackson and Robert Jackson were also Turpentine Creek cofounders.

MM - Nancy Parker-Simons and Tony Simons are wife-and-husband. They operate the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch for songwriter Richard "Kinky" Friedman.

NN - Mary Lynn Roberts and Ken Roberts are wife and husband.

OO - Gene and Diana Chontos were formerly husband and wife, and managed Wild Burro Rescue together at Onalaska, Washington. In late 2000 Diana Chontos moved the animal care operations to a much larger site near Olancha, California.

PP - News reports have identified Brian Werner and Terri Block as fiances, indicating also that they live at Tiger Creek and drive vehicles belonging to Tiger Creek.