DECEMBER 2004
Budget, Program, Overhead & Asset notes on 160 animal protection
charities
1 - 53% of African Wildlife Found-ation funding was from government
grants.
2 - 32% of American Bird Conser-vancy budget was
from government grants.
3 - Foundd in 1876, American Humane has had separate
animal and child protection divisions since 1878.
In 2003 American Humane allocated 34% of budget to child protection,
66% to animal protection.
4 - American SPCA assets include $13.5 million
in “beneficial interests
in perpetual trusts held by others.” The ASPCA in 2003 distributed $1.2
million among approximately 200 other animal charities.
5 - ANIMAL PEOPLE overhead expenditures in 2003
included $99,848 in legal fees incurred in defending against
a series of motions filed against ANIMAL PEOPLE since July 2002
by fund-raising counsel Bruce Eberle and Fund Raising Strategies
Inc., one of several firms involved in nonprofit fundraising that Eberle owns
or controls. The last of these motions was denied on December 19, 2003. The case
is now closed, and the time for filing appeals has expired. [See subheading “Represented
by Bruce Eberle,” page 19, for particulars about animal charities that
the Eberle firms have represented.]
6 - The Animal Rescue Branch owed $35,109 in accounts
payable as of March 2004, when––because ANIMAL PEOPLE asked––senior volunteers
learned how severe the ARB cash flow crisis had become since it relocated from
inner Beijing to the northern edge of the city. A veterinary clinic at the old
site, expropriated without compensation due to planned freeway construction,
had raised the income that sustained the ARB shelter. Only eight dogs were rehomed
during the first year after the move. The ARB founder was reluctant to seek outside
help as an apparent legacy of the Cultural Revolution, when charitable fund-raising
was persecuted as “parasitism.” The volunteers began emergency fundraising.
In November 2004 the ARB again relocated.
7 - The Animal Sanctuary of the U.S. was formerly
called Wild Animal Orphanage.
8 - The Animals Asia Foundation branch in the U.S.
raises funds on behalf of the Animals Asia Foundation
of Hong Kong, which operates the China Bear Rescue Project in
China, Dr. Dog projects in Hong Kong, mainland China, the Philippines,
and Vietnam, and has a variety of other pro-animal programs.
Form 990EZ, filed in the U.S., shows only the U.S.-based activity.
9 - The same AVAR data was in the December 2003
edition of “Who gets the
money?” GuideStar does not have a newer Form 990.
10 - An affiliate, the Bat Conservation Intl. Foundation,
holds assets of $565,411.
11 - Big Cat Rescue was formerly Wildlife On Easy
Street.
12 - The Brooke Fund for Animals, formerly the
Brooke Hospital for Animals, has equine clinics
in Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethi-opia, Jordan, India,
and Pakistan.
13 - Conservation Inter-national assets include
$260,824,153 in grants receivable.
14 - The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund Intl., of Atlanta,
and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund Europe, of London,
U.K., both purport to continue the gorilla studies
begun in 1967 by the late Dian Fossey at the Karisoke
Research Center in Rwanda. “We
are the original Digit Fund established by Dian Fossey in 1978,” says Dian
Fossey Gorilla Fund Intl. director of development Elyese Christensen. “Our
name was changed in 1992. The other fund is completely separate.” Fossey
was murdered at Karisoke in 1985. Her will, written to endow the Digit Fund,
was overturned in 1988. Use of her legacy and name are still disputed.
15 - Dogs Trust was until October 2003 called the
National Canine Defence League.
16 - The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust of
the U.K. and Wildlife Trust of the U.S., also called
the Wildlife Preservation Trust, are the largest of the organizations
founded by the late author and filmmaker Gerald Durrell. The
DWCT operates the Jersey Zoo.
17 - Nest Eggs Inc., a subsidiary wholly owned
by FACT, from 1983 until 2002 sold eggs laid by
debeaked free-range hens. FACT has also promoted Rambling Rose
outdoor-reared veal. The firm was started by FACT founder Robert
A. Brown, who later sold it.
18 - The Foundation to Support Animal Protection
board consists of PETA cofounder and president
Ingrid Newkirk, Physic-ians Committee for Respon-sible Medicine
founder and president Neal Barnard, MD, and Nadine Edles. FSAP
exists, says IRS Form 990, to “Provide support to various charitable, educational and scientific
organizations.” In fiscal 2003 FSAP apparently as in past years paid the
mortgage on the PETA headquarters, leased the site to PETA, and did direct mail
fundraising. PCRM paid FSAP $55,851 for “financial services.” PETA
paid FSAP $324,531 in rent, $2,289,134 for supporting services, and $4,785,641
as a “donation” under the heading of “program service.” However,
FSAP claimed only $13,830 in program activity during the year. The chief role
of FSAP in 2003 appears to have been concealing the true extent and nature of
PETA spending and assets. If FSAP and PETA were seen as a single fundraising
unit, they raised $23.3 million; spent $17 million; spent $11.4 million on programs;
declared overhead of $5.6 million, 33% of budget; and their overhead, counting
the cost of all mailings containing fundraising appeals, came to $8.5 million:
50% of budget. Their total assets were $22.9 million, 67% held by FSAP, including
75% of the cash and securities. Their combined payroll was $4.7 million, of which
FSAP paid $1.5 million: 32%. PCRM, previously a major recipient of funding from
FSAP, neither received money from FSAP in 2003 nor “donated” money
to it. Instead, PCRM created the PCRM Found-ation, whose sole activity appears
to have been receiving a “donation” of $4,000,153 from PCRM.
19 - Founded in 1957 to promote low-cost neutering,
Friends of Animals spent $1.7 million on neutering in fiscal
2003–– $100,000 less than in
1983, and almost 50% less after adjustment for inflation.
20 - Help In Suffering operates a multi-species
sanctuary, animal hospital, and Animal Birth Control program
in Jaipur, plus a clinic and sanctuary in Darjeeling.
21 - Once a public charity, the Holiday Humane
Society is now a private foundation.
22 - In Defence of Animals/ India, founded in 2000
by Sudnya R. Patkar of Mumbai, is not related to
the U.S. organization called In Defense of Animals.
23 - This ISAR data was for 2002. Newer data is
not available from GuideStar, the IRS service contractor
hired to post electronic copies of Form 990. A 2003 filing is
available for the Institute for Animal Rights Law, named on
line 80b of the four most recent ISAR filings as a related organization.
Henry Mark Holzer, the president of both, is shown on all four
ISAR filings as receiving no compensation. However, a program
service item called “contributions” on three of
the four filings is just slightly more than the reported non-interest income
of the Institute for Animal Rights Law, and the cumulative figure is 87% of the
Institute income. Holzer in these years was paid $105,921 of the total of $138,000
that the Institute received (76%), and in 2003 was paid $24,349 of $30,000 that
the Institute received (81%). Holzer did not respond to e-mailed questions.
24 - The International Wildlife Coalition claimed
as an asset $137,547 worth of art.
25 - The Jane Goodall Institute financial data
comes from a balance sheet combining operations in the U.S.,
Congo, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Represented by Bruce Eberle
26 - Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, Noah’s Lost Ark, Peaceful Valley Donkey
Sanctuary. Tiger Creek, Tiger Haven, and Wildlife Waystation were and apparently
remain clients of Fund Raising Strategies Inc. of McLean, Virginia, owned by
Bruce Eberle, who also owns, controls, or represents several other firms involved
in fundraising.
Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, Noah’s Lost Ark, Peaceful Valley Donkey Sanctuary.
Tiger Creek, Tiger Haven, and Wildlife Waystation all flunk ANIMAL PEOPLE ethical
standards for animal charities #1, #2, #5, and #10 (pages 13-14), pertaining
to fundraising practices and accountability. This is the first year we
have reviewed the Peaceful Valley Donkey Sanctuary filing of IRS Form 990. For
the rest, this is a recurring pattern.
Noah’s Lost Ark and Tiger Creek were cited in July 2003 by the Wise Giving
Alliance for either failing to meet the WGA standards or supplying insufficient
information to enable the WGA to determine if the standards were met. Tiger
Haven in May 2004 flunked five of the 20 WGA standards. All three flunked the
standards requiring that the majority of expenditures be for program service,
exclusive of activities undertaken in connection with fundraising. Wildlife Waystation
failed to meet four of the 20 Wise Giving Alliance standards in December 2002,
and is due for reappraisal in December 2004.
Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue, of Lancaster, California,
spent $347,428 on identifiable program work in fiscal 2003,
including $30,951 to buy horses at auction, ostensibly to save
them from slaughter. Selling horses for slaughter is illegal
in California, but the law is poorly enforced. Buying horses
at auction tends to help support auction prices, and is widely
seen as a self-defeating tactic. $868,571 was paid in “professional fundraising fees,” said IRS Form 990, of which $521,143
was called “program” expense. $123,679 was paid to Fund Raising Strategies
Inc. Lifesavers filings of IRS Form 990 have never named any other fundraising
service provider.
The Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue filing of IRS
Form 990 for fiscal 2003 did not list $475,289 in direct mail
receipts as part of direct public support received on line 1a,
but acknowledged the receipt on line 9a. Line 9b listed $381,080
as “direct expenses other than fundraising expenses,” but Statement
1 listed this same amount as “direct expenses” of “direct mail
fund raising.” Line 15 listed no expenditure for fundraising.
Tiger Creek, incorporated as Tiger Missing Link,
declared on page 2 of IRS Form 990 that it had no joint costs
from a combined educational campaign and fundraising solicitation,
but in Statement 4 declared as a program expense that “The
organization reached an estimated 400,000 households through direct mail creating
awareness of the tigers and other big cats’ plight.” Tiger Creek
claimed $170,981 in “postage and shipping” costs and $109,781 in “printing
and publications” expense as program service.
The Tiger Haven financial data presented in these
tables was for the fiscal year ending in January 2002. No more
recent data is available from <www.Guidestar.org>,
the IRS service contractor hired to post electronic copies of Form 990.
Wildlife Waystation filed IRS Form 990 for fiscal
2003 on July 5, 2004. The copy posted by Guidestar omits Statements
1-10. The missing Statements 4 and 5 should have included itemizations
of claimed program spending that amounted to 45% of the total
claimed Waystation program cost.
Other current or recent clients of Bruce Eberle
and his companies have included the Elephants of Africa Rescue
Society, Exotic Cat Refuge & Wildlife Orphanage
(not to be confused with Wild Animal Orphanage, not an Eberle client, but also
located in Texas), and Great Cats In Crisis.
There are probably others.
Linis Gobyerno to PAWS
27 - “Our tangible assets consist of a piece of real estate donated by
a member for the purpose of constructing a dog/cat halfway house,” Linis
Gobyerno founder Freddie Farres told ANIMAL PEOPLE. The facility would shelter
animals temporarily after seizures from illegal butchers.
28 - The Massachusetts SPCA took in $26,779,638
from program service in 2003, 96% of it from fees charged for
vet care at the Angell Memorial, Rowley Memorial, and Nantucket
animal hospitals. It netted $1.5 million in securities income.
Among MSPCA subsidiaries, the American Humane Education Society had assets of
$2,615,744, income of $155,933, and spent $164,411 on programs. The American
Fondouk Maintenance Committee had assets of $5,762,355, income of $345,545, and
spent $313,214 on programs. The Alice Manning Trust had assets of $1,900,207,
income of $107,834, and spent $27,944 on programs. The Center for Laboratory
Animal Welfare had assets of $243,277, income of $49,510, and spent $73,256 on
programs. The Mary Mitchell Humane Fund had assets of $6,528,901, income of $351,772,
and spent $238,060 on programs.
29 - Actual McKee Project cash receipts were $21,050.
Other income included donated equipment and transportation.
Administrative services were donated by founder Christine Crawford,
board members Ben Watkins and Mary Schanz, and fulltime executive
director Gerardo Vicente, DVM, who was paid $6,000 in his veterinary capacity.
30 - The National Anti-Vivisection Society in fiscal
2002 granted $150,000 to the subsidiary Intl. Foundation for
Ethical Research, $100,000 to the Intl. Institute for Animal
Law, and $100,000 to Americans for Medical Advance-ment, founded
by antivivisection author Ray Greek. NAVS’ 1999 Financial Report & Program
Summary explained that “the educational component” of a direct mail
campaign about vivisection brought donations amounting to 180% of investment––but
the “educational component” of direct mailings sent to benefit the
NAVS Sanctuary Fund brought returns of 420%. That discovery helped NAVS to raise
40% more money in 2000, and keep up the pace in 2001––but direct
public support has fallen 38% in the past two fiscal years.
31 - The National Fish & Wildlife Foundation data is from fiscal 2002, their
most recent filing. 73% of the NFWF income––$45 million––came
from the U.S. government.
32 - The National Humane Education Society allocated
$251,874 to the affiliated Peace Plantation, of Walton, New
York, $231,501 to the affiliated Briggs Animal Adoption Center
in Charlestown, West Virginia, and $113,538 to Greener Pastures
Equine Sanctuary, an affiliate in Chesapeake, Maryland.
33 - Assets under National Wildlife Federation
control also included $64 million held by the NWF Endowment.
34 - The Pet Savers Foundation is a North Shore
Animal League America subsidiary, hosting Spay/USA and the Conference
on Homeless Animal Management & Policy.
35 - The Oregon Humane Society filing of IRS Form
990 listed a program expense of $622,000 for “Community Awareness.” OHS executive director Sharon
Harman told ANIMAL PEOPLE, “The purpose of this campaign was strictly public
awareness to establish OHS as an organization that cares deeply about animals,
has an awesome shelter and is a fun place to visit. No telemarketing, no solicitation,
no direct mail...At no time in any of the awareness campaign materials was there
an ask for $$.”
36 - 30% of Peregrine Fund revenue came from government
grants. Archives on falconry, including medieval manuscripts,
were declared an asset worth $687,562.
PETsMART Charities to WBR
37 - PETsMART Charities revenue included $6.3 million
in customer contributions, $1.2 million in employee
contributions, $463,434 in board and corporate contributions,
and $7 million in rent, goods, and services. contributed by
PETsMART Inc. $3.4 million was distributed in grants to nonprofit
animal welfare organizations.
38 - Return to Freedom is also called the American
Wild Horse Sanctuary. Statements #3 and #5, needed to determine
the program vs. overhead spending according to our criteria,
were omitted from the Return to Freedom copy of IRS Form 990
posted by Guidestar.
39 - Save The Chimps is incorporated as the Center
for Captive Chimpanzee Care.
40 - SHARK program service is conducted almost
entirely by volunteers, who cumulatively put in
from 50 to 100 hours a week and cover most of their own expenses.
If their services were compensated, the SHARK balance of overhead
to program expense would overwhelmingly favor program service.
Also of note is that at the end of the SHARK fiscal year, SHARK
had raised the funds to order a second TV display truck, but
had not yet bought the truck, which temporarily distorted the
ratio between SHARK tangible assets and reserves.
41 - Small Paws Rescue, the SPR web site claims, “is composed over over
800 volunteers in all 50 states, along with 5,000 supporters and 35 volunteer
staff members. Since inception in 1998, support has been entirely through donations
and fundraisers.” Despite this acknowledgement of fundraising activity,
Small Paws Rescue declared on IRS Form 990 to have no fundraising expense. The
Small Paws Rescue modus operandi includes buying dogs at auction. The SPR Form
990 lists expenditure of $49,074 in “Rescue fees.”
42 - The Society for the Protection of Animals
Abroad, formerly the Society for the Protection of Animals in
North Africa, operates 21 veterinary hospitals and 19 mobile
clinics to serve working animals in Algeria, Ethiopia, Jordan,
Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia, treating about
300,000 animals per year. It has announced plans to begin working
in Iraq as soon as possible.
43 - Tony LaRussa’s Animal Rescue Foundation had assets of $9,318,870 invested
in building a new shelter.
44 - The Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge claimed
as program cost $168,292 for items usually listed as fundraising
and administration, plus $100,931 in depreciation, an unusually
high amount relative to total budget. (See also Compensation
note LL, page 20.)
45 - The Universities Federation for Animal Welfare
income figure stated is taken from the British Chariites Commission
web site. The <www.Charities-Direct.com> site
puts UFAW income at only $878,400––but this may not have been for
the same fiscal year.
46 - Viva! funds a Polish chapter with three
fulltime staff, which claims to have organized 43 local groups
in opposition to the export of horses for slaughter. Viva!
also has a self-funded U.S. office, whose sole staff member
is Lauren Ornelas, of Davis, California. Focusing on the fast-growing
duck industry, Ornelas has persuaded at least five retail
food chains to stop selling ducks from factory farms.
47 - WAIF also received $152,636 in donated goods,
sold at a profit of $115,429.
48 - Wild Burro Rescue cofounder Diana Chontos
in late 2000 relocated the organization from
Washington state to a former hunting ranch east of Death Valley.
Finding the ranch too remote and costly to maintain, Chontos
told ANIMAL PEOPLE in November 2004 that WBR recently sold
it for much more than it paid, and will relocate again in
2005.
Center for Consumer Freedom
49 - Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in
Washington (D.C.) executive director Melanie Sloan
on November 16, 2004 alleged to the IRS that the
Center for Consumer Freedom has violated the requirements for
holding nonprofit status “by
engaging in prohibited electioneering against presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich;
by making substantial payments to founder Richard Berman and to Berman’s
wholly owned for-profit entity Berman & Co.; and by engaging in activities
with no charitable purpose.”
Explained Sloan, “According to the IRS, participation by a 501(c)(3) organization
in a political campaign on behalf of or against any specific candidate is strictly
prohibited, yet CCF openly opposed Kucinich. IRS law also prohibits private individuals
from benefitting from non-profit organizations. Richard Berman, the founder and
president of the for-profit lobbying and public relations firm Berman & Co.,
started the nonprofit Guest Choice Network in 1999. All GCN activities were conducted
by Berman and BCI. Berman dissolved GCN in 2001, changing the name to the Center
for Consumer Freedom. Berman and BCI have received nearly $2 million from GCN
and CCF since 1999.
“Tax-exempt organizations must have a charitable purpose,” Sloan
continued. “GCN and CCF really just lobby on behalf of food producers,
restaurants, and the tobacco industry. Documents that became public as a result
of the global tobacco litigation settlement show that Philip Morris was once
of the largest contributors to GCN and CCF. Berman pitched GCN to Philip Morris
to ‘unite the restaurant and hospitality industries in a campaign to defend
their consumers and marketing programs against attacks from anti-smoking, anti-drinking,
anti-meat activists...’ Another document indicated that Philip Morris would
support Berman’s group because it would broaden the focus of the ‘smoking
issue’ and expand into the bigger picture of over-regulation.”
“Any one of these violations would be significant enough for the IRS to
revoke an organization’s tax exempt status,” Sloan said, speaking
from perspective including stints as an assistant U.S. prosecutor in the District
of Columbia, 1998-2003, and minority counsel for the U.S. House of Represen-tatives
Judiciary Committee, 1995 -1998.
The CREW complaint against the Center for Consumer Freedam is posted at <www.citizensforethics.org>.
Other opposition notes
50 - Data from Ducks Unlimited balance sheets.
51 - Safari Club International has more than
160 independently funded U.S. affiliates.
White Buffalo
52 - White Buffalo claims “To conserve native species and ecosystems
by sponsoring, supporting, and conducting scientific research and education...To
aid and assist in the management of wildlife populations through reduction
or enhancement.” What White Buffalo mostly does is enable founder Anthony
DeNicola to hunt deer at taxpayer expense.
Hired by municipal governments to cull deer, DeNicola
and assistants have within the past four years reportedly killed
590 deer in Iowa City, Iowa; 582 in Fairmount Park, Pennsylvania;
875 in Princeton Township, New Jersey; and 119 at sites managed
by Cleveland MetroParks. The city council in Solon, Ohio, on
October 21, 2004 authorized paying White Buffalo $500,000 to
kill deer there in 2005-2006.
DiNicola has outspokenly denouncd contraceptive
means of controlling deer. Yet DeNicola has also been hired
to test deer contraceptives in Princeton Township and Cleveland.
Unknown to DeNicola until March 1, 2004, SHARK
founder Steve Hindi monitored his shooting in Cleveland with
hidden video cameras. After three TV stations aired video of
prolonged struggling by wounded deer, MetroParks rangers found
and seized eight of the SHARK cameras.
Purportedly held as evidence while the possibility
of filing charges against Hindi was under investigation, five
of the cameras were returned on March 30, Hindi said, with the
footage on all of them erased, and with other physical damage.
Metro Parks personnel denied having ever had the other three.
According to an investigation report by Cleveland
MetroParks police officer Ray Dickson, NeNicola on March 8 stated
that he “would take full responsibility
for erasing the video cameras,” and that “the decision was made
to erase the cameras” in discussion with MetroParks rangers Dave Rankin
and Justin Simon.
SHARK, after unsuccessfully seeking a criminal
prosecution, anticipates filing a lawsuit for alleged violations
of civil rights, and on November 24 applied for a federal
injunction that would halt the deer shooting if SHARK is not
allowed to videotape it.
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