MARCH 2006
Rescuers send lion to canned hunt supplier
BUCHAREST, CAPE TOWN––Romania is not usually regarded as a lion-exporting nation, South Africa is rarely if ever thought of as a lion importer, and the animal advocacy groups Born Free Foundation and Vier Pfoten are unlikely canned hunt suppliers, but recent lion rescues have taken some very strange twists.
First, in mid-2004 a young African lion named Lutu was “found starving to death in a squalid cage in Romania,” according to Mark Townsend of the London Observer. Actress Amanda Holden raised $250,000 to enable the Born Free Foundation to send Lutu to the Shamwari private wildlife viewing reserve in South Africa. Instead, in August 2004, days before Lutu was to be moved, he disappeared.
“All that is currently undisputed regarding the fate of Lutu,” Townsend wrote two months later, “is that his owner broke an agreement with the Born Free Foundation by selling Lutu to a mystery buyer for an unknown sum.”
Lutu is still missing, suspected dead at the hands of a European trophy hunter. The Born Free Foundation eventually bought a four-year-old lionness named Achee from a Bucharest used car dealer and sent Achee to Shamwari instead.
As notice of the Lutu case subsided, the Romanian radio station Radio Total bought a lion cub from a zoo, hoping to release her into wild habitat.
“To find Frida the right place,” recounts CannedLion.com founder Chris Mercer, of Cape Town, South Africa, “they got in touch with Vier Pfoten, who assured them that it had done this before, and could make all the arrangements.
“On December 5, 2005, Frida was flown to the Camorhi Game Lodge in Free State province. The considerable expenses were born by Radio Total and Bogdan Popescu. Imagine the shock and horror of Mr. Popescu when he found out via the Internet that his cub was not going back to the wild, but had been delivered to the benefit, ultimately, of canned lion hunting. Frida had not been spayed. She is now a perfect candidate for captive breeding.”
Now campaigning to have Frida relocated to the well-regarded Drakenstein Lion Park in Cape Town, Mercer has clashed with Camorhi Game Lodge owner Marius Prinsloo several times before.
Mercer wrote in a 2003 court filing that Enkosini Wildlife Sanctuary cofounders Greg Mitchell and Kelsey Grimm, “from March 2000 until September 2001, ran the Camorhi Game Lodge ecotourism business…They saw tame lions sold for canned hunts, cubs ripped away at birth from their mothers, and lionesses forced into estrus for ‘speed breeding.’
“The Johannesburg Zoo brought two High Court cases against Prinsloo,” Mercer said. The cases were based on information from Mitchell and Grimm that Prinsloo had falsely reported the death of a lion named Zeus, sent to him on a breeding loan.
“With the help of Mitchell in identifying the lions, the zoo removed four of Zeus’ offspring in February 2002,” Mercer related. “The removal was no easy task, as the Prinsloo contingency bolted the gates to the lion enclosures, fired gunshots to stress the animals, and assaulted the zoo veterinarians.”
Mitchell also gave evidence against Prins-loo in a case alleging that he and associate Ken Heuer “organized for wild cheetahs to be captured in Namibia and flown into South Africa,” Mercer said.
“Last year, an estimated 6,700 South African tourists killed nearly 54,000 animals,” Clare Hullis of Associated Press reported in October 2005. “The TRAFFIC wildlife trade monitoring network said 190 lions were hunted, worth an estimated $3.3 million––or $17,500 each. Nearly 5,500 kudus, valued at $5.3 million, also were killed, along with 45 leopards worth an estimated $250,000. The list of slain animals included baboons, giraffes, elephants, hippos, mongooses, porcupines, warthogs and zebras. Prices ranged from $25 for the humble pigeon or quail to $25,000 for the mighty white rhinoceros.”
“This is something that no civilized country can continue to tolerate,” South African environment minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said.
In April 2005 van Schalkwyk appointed an expert panel to review canned hunts and other hunting-related issues. In October 2005 the panel recommended a complete ban on canned hunts; hunting in national parks or provincial reserves; hunting on any properties where captive-bred animals are kept; the use of dogs, traps, snares, bait, lights or luring sounds; and so-called ‘green’ hunting, in which the animals are felled with tranquilizer darts. for photo sessions, then released to be hunted again.
Van Schalkwyk promised that legislation would follow, but it has not yet been introduced.
Illinois Bureau of Animal Welfare case overload
CHICAGO––“Between 2000 and 2005, Illinois residents filed 3,282 complaints about animal welfare licensees to the state Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal Welfare,” wrote Chicago Tribune staff reporter John Biemer on February 14, citing information obtained by activist Cherie Travis. The Bureau of Animal Welfare supervises pet stores, shelters, pounds, and breeding and boarding kennels.
“Just three of the 3,282 cases resulted in hearings,” Biemer continued, “and each time those actions were deemed unwarranted. Further,” Biemer noted, “Illinois has just seven investigators to check into complaints and make annual visits to the premises of 1,809 licensees.”
Said American SPCA representive Ledy VanKavage, “There’s no way in hell that just seven people can deal with that kind of caseload.”
Added Biemer, “When they find a licensee is not complying with state law, they have only two punitive options: they can either revoke or suspend the license. Those actions create a big problem: what do you do with the animals?”
A bill introduced by state representative Patti Bellock (R-Hinsdale) would enable the Bureau of Animal Welfare to levy fines ranging from $200 to $1,000 for violations not deemed severe enough to warrant license revocation or suspension.
New Jersey sues coin-can fundraiser
NEWARK––New Jersey Attorney General Zulima V. Farber and Consumer Affairs Director Kimberly Ricketts on February 1, 2006 sued seeking “civil monetary penalties and to enjoin the National Animal Welfare Foundation Inc. and its principal, Patrick G. Jemas, from any future charitable activities in New Jersey,” they announced in a joint news release.
“Between fiscal years 2002 and 2005, NAWF collected $70,795 in canister donations,” Farber and Ricketts explained, “but spent $75,891 on fundraising, payroll, meals, automobiles, printing, and other undefined areas. In only one fiscal year,” Farber and Ricketts continued, “did reported donations exceed reported expenses.”
Jemas’ activities came to light in September 2002 though a “phony organizations” alert issued by Associated Humane Societies of New Jersey executive director Rosanne Trezza, then assistant director.
Following up, ANIMAL PEOPLE reported in March 2003 that the NAWF was incorporated in 1998 by Patrick G. Jemas and Gus C. Jemas, both of Metchuchen, New Jersey, and William E. Helwig of Holmdel, New Jersey. ANIMAL PEOPLE found little trace of NAWF program service. The NAWF addresses turned out to be mail drops. The one IRS Form 990 it had filed was mostly blank.
“Jemas previously was barred from employment as a paid fund-raiser for the Associated Humane Societies,” Farber and Ricketts said, “following the state’s investigation into Associated Humane fundraising. In June 2005 Associated Humane agreed to pay Consumer Affairs $138,057 and implement more than two dozen reforms to settle allegations that it violated the state Consumer Fraud Act and Chari-table Registration & Investigation Act.”
Jemas was among many fundraisers of dubious history with whom former Associated Humane executive director Lee Bernstein did business, 1969-2003. Bernstein retired in March 2003 as the details surfaced, summarized in the April 2003 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE.
NAWF and Jemas allegedly operated as paid fundraisers for other charities without being registered to do so, Farber and Ricketts continued.
“NAWF and Jemas also are alleged to have contracted with an unregistered independent paid fundraiser,” Farber and Ricketts charged, while failing to “direct, manage and control that fundraiser’s activities to ensure canister donations were accounted for and provided to NAWF.”
Brenda Barnette leaves Tony LaRussa’s ARF
Brenda Barnette, executive director of Tony LaRussa’s Animal Rescue Foundation in Walnut Creek, California since mid-2003, resigned suddenly at the end of January 2006 after the death of her mother. Previously development director for the San Francisco SPCA and executive director of Pets In Need in Redwood City, California, Barnette at Tony LaRussa’s doubled program spending, halved overhead, and reduced the remaining debt owing for a $16 million new shelter from $6 million to $3 million. Adoptions during her tenure increased from 456 before the new shelter opened to more than 1,800 in 2005.
Waystation audit
The California Office of the Attorney General on February 14 ordered Wildlife Waystation founder Martine Colette to reimburse the Waystation $64,128 for the care of her personal horses. “Colette can deduct that amount from $140,000 the Waystation owes her from personal loans she made when the sanctuary was in financial trouble,” wrote Los Angeles Daily News staff writer Kerry Cavanaugh. “Also,” Cavanaugh said, “the Attorney General’s Office ordered the Waystation to correct information on its web site that said the refuge employs two part-time veterinarians, when in fact the Waystation has two vet techs.” The orders concluded a three-year audit of the Waystation by the Charitable Trust Division of the California Department of Justice.
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