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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.

NOV 2006

What became of the International Network for Religion & Animals?

WASHINGTON D.C.--What ever became of the International Network for Religion & Animals? Realtor Joanna Harkin of Washington D.C. recently wondered.

The late Virginia Bourquardez, "Ginny Bee" to fellow activists, founded INRA circa 1981, winning charitable status in 1986. The INRA board included scholars and clerics from a variety of religions, but the organization disappeared after Bourquardez died in May 2000, at age 88.

"I was a friend of Ginny's," Harkin told ANIMAL PEOPLE. "She used to say, 'I'll be a lot more good to the animals when I'm dead,'" referring to her estate, which she often said was left to INRA.

Harkin began her search for INRA by checking the deed to Bourquardez's former home in Forest Glen, Maryland. Harkin found that the house had passed to Peter Gerard, an attorney whose name before marriage to the former Kathy Sanborn was Peter Linck. At marriage, both changed their surnames to Gerard. In June 2005 the Gerards apparently sold the house for $443,000.

Bourquardez's will showed that, "She gave the house to Peter Gerard," Harkin found, "but made INRA the residual beneficiary of her estate. That translated into a bequest of about $232,000." "It is my express desire," Bourquardez wrote, "that this bequest be used to advance the cause of animal rights within the world's great religions."

Bourquardez named attorney Roger Galvin as her executor. Galvin, when the will was written, was senior partner in a law firm including Doris Day Animal League president Holly Hazard and longtime Animal Legal Defense Fund staff attorney Valerie Stanley. Bourquardez named Peter Gerard as alternate executor. As Galvin had retired, moved, and dissolved the law firm before Bourquardez died, Gerard succeeded to the duty.

By then Bourquardez had spent several years in nursing homes. INRA was long inactive--and Gerard also headed it. Soon after INRA received Bourquardez's residuals, Gerard dissolved INRA. The assets were given to a new entity the Gerards formed, called the National Organization for Animals & their Habitats, NOAH for short. A private foundation, NOAH had $107,031 in remaining assets at the end of 2004, the most recent year for which IRS Form 990 is available.

NOAH claimed program expenses of $36,174 in 2002, $50,173 in 2003, and $62,184 in 2004, incurred to "Rescue wild and domestic animals," and to "acquire rescue equipment" plus "developmental materials for animal protection education." Itemized expenditures included $1,740 for "wildlife supplies" and $624 for "animal rescue supplies" in 2002; $2,021 for "animal rescue supplies" and $3,290 for "animal rescue vehicle expenses" in 2003; and $87 for "animal care" plus $1,672 for "animal supplies" in 2004.

Kathy Gerard was paid $19,000 in 2002, the only salary listed. Peter Gerard was paid $24,667 in 2003, and Kathy Gerard was paid $20,000. Peter Gerard was paid $52,000 in 2004, as the only listed paid staff member.

The Gerards did not respond to inquiries from ANIMAL PEOPLE, sent to them at a variety of addresses associated with their names in the vicinities of Washington D.C. and Reno, Nevada.

This was not the first time ANIMAL PEOPLE had occasion to ask them where money went. Both Gerards worked in the early 1990s for the now defunct National Alliance for Animal Legislation. After taking control of the National Alliance from founder Syndee Brinkman, Peter Gerard directed the 1990 "March for the Animals" in Washington D.C., which attracted less than a quarter of the projected crowd of 100,000. Gerard then staged a 1996 encore that also projected attendance of 100,000, but drew just 3,000. Both marches were endorsed and supported by most major U.S. animal advocacy groups.

The 1996 march program thanked donors for contributions totaling more than $750,000. Asked by ANIMAL PEOPLE, Friends of Animals, In Defense of Animals, and the Elephant Alliance to account for the funds, Gerard provided financial statements indicating receipts of upward of $950,000 in cash and donated goods and services, claiming cash expenses of $674,339. This was more than triple the pre-march estimate given to donors, and included about $207,000 in apparently still unexplained expenditures.