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The Watchdog monitors fundraising, spending, and political activity in the name of animal and habitat protection—both pro and con. His empty bowl stands for all the bowls left empty when some take more than they need.

October 2006

Case against Primarily Primates tossed out, but president Wally Swett resigns under fire

SAN ANTONIO--Bexar County Civil District Court Judge Andy Mireles on September 8, 2006 ruled that former Ohio State University chimp caretakers Klaree Boose and Stephany Harris, along with California veterinarian Mel Richardson, lacked standing to pursue a PETA-backed lawsuit against the Primarily Primates sanctuary.

Named as co-plaintiffs and also denied standing were seven surviving chimpanzees and two capuchin monkeys from the research colony formerly kept by OSU psychology professor Sally Boysen. OSU retired the colony to Primarily Primates in February 2006, with an endowment of $324,000 for their quarters and upkeep, over the objections of Boysen and PETA.

Judge Mireles also dismissed the recommendation of attorney Charles Jackson III, whom Mireles earlier appointed to oversee the care of the OSU animals, that the chimpanzees should be transferred to Chimp Haven, of Shreveport, Louisiana. PETA attorney Leana Stormont told Elizabeth White of Associated Press that PETA had offered pay $20,000 toward the cost of the relocation and aftercare.

One adult male chimp died on arrival at Primarily Primates and another died two months later, both from pre-existing heart ailments. One of the monkeys escaped and has not been recaptured.

"We will be filing an appeal; this is far from over," PETA-hired attorney Mickey Gayler told Mike Lafferty of the Columbus Dispatch.

Mireles ruled five days after Primarily Primates interim executive director Stephen Tello told Mireles that the Primarily Primates seven-member board of trustees had unanimously rejected a proposed out-of-court settlement that would have sent the OSU chimps to Chimp Haven, while leaving the monkeys at Primarily Primates.

Wally Swett, president and executive director of Primarily Primates since 1978, when he relocated a much smaller sanctuary from Massachusetts to San Antonio, "is still on the board, but has resigned as president and executive director," American Sanctuary Association executive director Vernon Weir told ANIMAL PEOPLE. "He will be given a president emeritus contract, which will enumerate his future duties in an advisory capacity--animal histories, health care and behavior issues, socialization issues, fundraising assistance, and the like. That's still being worked out," Weir said.

"Because the PETA complaints seem to focus on Wally's behavior, it was his decision to step down, in the best interest of the sanctuary," Weir continued. "Stephen Tello," Swett's assistant for more than 10 years, "has returned and is working there every day, full time. We have Stephen, and other candidates, who are applying for the permanent job. "

Weir, who has often acted as a spokesperson for Primarily Primates, said the choice of a permanent successor "will be decided at the October 6 board meeting."

As well as Tello, the Primarily Primates board includes Lou Griffin, the founding director of the nearby South Texas Primate Observatory, which after 20 years of independent operation became the Animal Protection Institute Primate Sanctuary in January 2000. Conflicting with then-API executive director Alan Berger, Griffin was fired in March 2002. Berger left API in April 2003.

Friends of Animals and Primarily Primates have discussed a merger, Weir and FoA president Priscilla Feral acknowledged. "Serious discussion will take place on October 6," Weir said. "Both sides have questions that need to be answered."

Rocky Mountain Wildlife sanctuary struggles on--for now

KEENESBURG, Colorado--The Rocky Mountain Wildlife Conservation Center "has received donations and pledges that will help to keep it operating for now," the sanctuary management announced in a September 2, 2006 web posting, but closed to public visits "for an undetermined period of time," the web page said, "so that the board of directors will have time to evaluate the entire situation.

"The animals are in no danger," the posting added. "It is the desire of the board that the animals remain at their current location...If no solution to keeping the sanctuary operating is found, the board will proceed with closure and the placement of as many animals as possible."

Rocky Mountain Wildlfe founder Pat Craig and director of public affairs Toni Scalera announced on August 15, 2006 that the 140-acre facility would close in two weeks due to lack of funding. Of the 150 resident animals, including 75 tigers and 30 bears, Craig said, "As long as I can afford to feed them, I'll try to find homes for them."

"Craig was almost $200,000 in debt and faced the same crisis in December 2005," wrote Dan England of the Greeley Tribune, "Donations gave him enough breathing room to organize a plan to stay open. But that plan was contingent on at least one $250,000 gift promised to him. Craig recently found out that the gift wasn't going to come through."

The Rocky Mountain Wildlife shutdown, announced three days after the sudden death of Big Cats of Serenity Springs cofounder Karen Sculac, 47, threw into uncertainty the fate of about 250 animals altogether. A third Colorado sanctuary, Prairie Wind, was reportedly already relocating animals due to financial trouble. The American Sanctuary Association and Association of Sanctuaries have often placed animals from failing sanctuaries, but never before on such a large scale.

Craig started Rocky Mountain Wildlife in 1980. The sanctuary moved three times as it grew.

N.J. Consumer Affairs prosecutes another coin-can fundraiser

HACKENSACK, N.J.--Exiting New Jersey Office of Consumer Affairs director Kimberly Ricketts on August 2, 2006, her last day with the agency, appealed for public help to locate and impound an estimated 1,400 to 1,500 coin collection canisters believed to have been placed by an entity calling itself Lovers of Animals.

The Office of Consumer Affairs has filed suit, reported Newark Star-Ledger staff writer Brian T. Murray, alleging improper accounting for about $7,500 raised and spent in 2005.

The case followed the state shutdown of coin can fundraiser Patrick Jemas in June 2006. Jemas did business as the National Animal Welfare Foundation.

"Lovers of Animals was incorporated when Russell Frontera, 49, of Beachwood was furloughed from state prison in late 2004 after serving two years of a seven-year sentence for loan sharking," wrote Murray. "His name appears on documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service and the state that year, when he also opened a post office box for the charity.

"Frontera was banned from charity work for five years under a consent agreement with the state in 1993," Murray added. "The state had sued his AIDS Research Foundation in Toms River, accusing him and his wife of soliciting funds to help people with AIDS, but spending only a tiny fraction on supposed beneficiaries. A court found him in violation of the 1993 order a year later, when Frontera and his wife began operating a pet rescue operation involving 150 canisters placed in businesses around Toms River."

Frontera told Murray that his name was wrongly put on the Lovers of Animals paperwork by an accountant hired by his sister, Lovers of Animals president Josephine Thornton.

HSUS absorbs Doris Day Animal League

WASHINGTON D.C.--The Humane Society of the U.S. on August 31, 2006 announced that it has absorbed the Doris Day Animal League by merger, affirming nearly three months of speculation.

Founded in 1987 by actress Doris Day's son Terry Melcher, who died of cancer in November 2004, DDAL in 20 years never spent less than half of its revenues on fundraising and administration, cumulatively spent more than two-thirds of all the money it ever raised on direct mail, and in the most recent fiscal year reported on IRS Form 990 operated at a loss of more than $400,000, with revenues of just over $2.5 million, raised from approximately 180,000 donors.

HSUS claims 9.5 million donors, with a 2006 budget of $103 million and 2005 revenues of $145 million.

But Sportsmen's & Animal Owners Voting Alliance head Bob Kane took the HSUS acquisition of DDAL seriously as a threat. "This latest HSUS merger not only makes it the 1,000-pound gorilla in the field of U.S. animal rights lobbying. It gains some very experienced DDAL professionals," Kane told SAOVA members on September 2.

HSUS publicist Rachel Querry credited DDAL with helping to win "passage of bills to end the sale of videos that depict animal cruelty such as fetish animal 'crush' videos, and to require the use of alternatives to animal tests."

DDAL "has strongly backed efforts," Querry said, "to end the slaughter of horses for human consumption, and to pass state laws to regulate the sale of puppies, require counseling for animal abusers, and add bittering agents to anti-freeze to protect children and animals."

DDAL executive director Holly Hazard and HSUS president Wayne Pacelle have often worked together on projects, beginning in the 1980s.
"Hazard will become chief innovation officer at The HSUS, where she will focus on new initiatives for HSUS' Wild Neighbors and Pets for Life programs and develop new business ventures," Querry continued. "DDAL legislative director Sara Amundson will become executive director of the Humane Society Legislative Fund," whose president, Mike Markarian, was president of the Fund for Animals before the Fund merged into HSUS in January 2005.