ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide. Founded in 1992, ANIMAL PEOPLE has no alignment or affiliation with any other entity.

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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.

May 2008

Booking agency sues SHARK for dissuading entertainers from performing at rodeo

CHEYENNE--Romeo Entertainment, incorporated in Omaha but based in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, on April 16, 2008 sued the animal advocacy organization SHARK, of Geneva, Illinois, for allegedly using "false and misleading information" and "threats of negative publicity" in successful efforts to dissuade singer Carrie Underwood and the band Matchbox 20 from performing at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo in July 2006 and July 2008, respectively.

SHARK founder Steve Hindi sent video of alleged animal abuse at past Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo performances to both Underwood and Matchbox 20, he acknowledged. Romeo Entertainment, headed by Bob Romeo, "has arranged for night show entertainers for Cheyenne Frontier Days at times over the last 20 years," says the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed nine days before Cheyenne Frontier Days animal care committee chair Bob Budd announced a ban on "the use of hand-held electric shock devices at the rodeo except in emergency situations where they are needed to prevent injuries," according to Cary Snyder of the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle.

"We're just saying, 'No, you can't do it. Period.' The only exception is if an animal or a human would be hurt," Budd told Snyder. "We have been discussing it for quite a while," Budd claimed. "I think his [Hindi's] video and comments and those sort of things were probably the culmination of a decision that has been coming for 24 months."

"Following the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo in 2006, the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle published a report and photographs that documented the apparent illegal use of Hot-Shots, including by one stock contractor who asked that the photos not be released because he believed he would be disciplined," wrote Snyder. "Cheyenne Frontier Days general chairman Charlie West said the decision to alter the rodeo's Hot-Shot rules was made in early March, and event officials have been working to fine-tune the policy before releasing it publicly."

The Romeo lawsuit was served eight days after SHARK announced that Matchbook 20 had withdrawn from the scheduled July 18 appearance. Hindi said he was informed of the withdrawal by Matchbox 20 accountant Jeff Lamiroult, after he forwarded video of the 2007 Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo to Matchbook 20 in care of the Sidewalk Angels Foundation.

Formed by Matchbox 20 lead singer Rob Thomas and his wife Marisol, the Sidewalk Angels Foundation helps "people who are destitute or homeless" and "animals who have been abandoned or abused," according to the Matchbox 20 web site.

"We ask that [fans] please understand that it would be impossible for us to put ourselves in the position of making money from what we believe to be the mistreatment of animals," Rob and Marisol Thomas said in a statement to Associated Press.

Speaking at a Cheyenne library on the day SHARK was sued,"Hindi presented videos his organization took at the 2007 Frontier Days rodeo," reported Associated Press writer Bob Moen. "They showed calves and steers being jerked by cowboy ropers and dragged through the mud, and bucking horses in chutes where rodeo hands had small electric shock devices."

Encouraged by the outcome of contacting Underwood two years ago, "We were watching the lineup at Cheyenne, because if we found some people with a propensity toward animal care, we were going to get in touch with them," Hindi earlier told Associated Press writer Mead Grover.

Underwood, a vegetarian since her teens, wore a "V is for Vegetarian" t-shirt during the American Idol performance that launched her to stardom.

"Compassionate fans of Carrie believed she was lending her support to the Cheyenne rodeo," SHARK recounted on July 27, 2006,"because she simply didn't realize the cruel reality of this industry. SHARK sent her video of the all-too-common rodeo horrors," and "created a web site urging Carrie to stop her support of the rodeo. Soon thereafter, a press release from the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo stated, 'American Idol star Josh Gracin will take the stage with Phil Vassar, replacing Carrie Underwood, who is unable to perform for personal reasons.'"

Although Hindi suspected the "personal reasons" were compassion for animals and revulsion at the rodeo violence, the Romeo lawsuit was the first actual confirmation he had received that the videos influenced Underwood, he told ANIMAL PEOPLE.

"Bard of rescue" Jim Willis convicted of dog theft

WILMINGTON--Jim Willis, 52, author of several much-circulated poems and short essays about animal abandonment and rescue, was on March 20, 2008 convicted of felony dog larcency in Pender County, North Carolina, and sentenced to do 75 hours of community service, spend two years on probation, and keep no more than one pet, reported WECT-TV6 of Wilmington.

The case was one of two filed in 2007 in which neighbors accused Willis of stealing dogs whom he said he had rescued. One dog was recovered at a Wilmington home where Willis temporarily resided.

The charges involving that dog were not prosecuted, North Carolina Voters for Animal Welfare founder B.B. Knowles told ANIMAL PEOPLE. The conviction, in a case involving an elderly dog who was well-known and well-liked in her neighborhood, according to Pender Post staff writer Jefferson Weaver, was Willis' second within less than a year, with a variety of other cases pending.

Willis was convicted in Pender County Court on July 26, 2007--the day of his indictment for dog larcency--for making harassing telephone calls to one of the women whose dog disappeared. Hers was the dog who was recovered. Willis was reportedly sentenced in that case to serve 24 months on probation, was assessed fines and fees of $685, and drew a suspended 30-day jail term.

Willis was arraigned in January 2008 on charges of resisting a public officer and second degree trespass, both misdemeanors.

A pre-dawn fire on January 25, 2004 killed nine dogs and four cats at Willis' former home in Avella, Pennsylvania, while Willis was attending a birthday party in his honor organized by Joe Maringo of Southwest Pennsylvania Retriever Rescue.

Willis and several surviving animals relocated to the home of Erin Schmidt, 32, in Forward Township, Pennsylvania, who operated a rescue called Animal Friends. Police and humane agencies removed 74 animals from the home on August 18, 2005. Charges against Willis were later dropped, but Schmidt was convicted on two counts of cruelty.

Moving to North Carolina, Willis in May 2006 became involved in the dissolution of the former Northeast Georgia Canine Angels sanctuary. Founded in Athens, Georgia, by Lynette Rowe and Susan Wells, Canine Angels relocated to Dewy Rose, Georgia, in 2001.

"The state Department of Agriculture cited Rowe and Wells for 62 violations of the animal welfare code, and they had racked up more than $15,000 in fines, before they signed a consent agreement to close the sanctuary," summarized Claire Davis in The Legal Animal, published by the Best Friends Animal Society. "Wells and Rowe later reneged on the terms of the agreement, trying to prevent the Department of Agriculture from closing the sanctuary and seizing the dogs, and eventually signing over ownership of all the animals to Willis," Davis wrote.

While Willis became the legal owner of the 130 animals, they remained on the Canine Angels property in care of Kat 5, a charity formed in 2005 by Susan Meyer to help animals left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. Kat 5 and the Best Friends Network spent almost a year finding homes for the former Canine Angels animals.

What is the cost of fraud & theft to animal charities?

NEW YORK, N.Y.-- Data gathered by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and evaluated by four professors of nonprofit accounting indicates that U.S. charities are losing about 13% of their annual income to fraud and theft-- more than twice the 6% rate of loss for all organizations, including government agencies and for-profit businesses.

The sum stolen, estimated at about $40 billion in 2006, is roughly equal to the sum of all giving by corporations and private foundations, Independent Sector president Diana Aviv told Stephanie Strom of The New York Times.

The amount stolen from animal charities, if proportionate to total charitable giving, would be about $400 million: three times the total income of the Humane Society of the U.S., with about half the amount stolen from animal care organizations and the rest from organizations chiefly involved in advocating for wildlife and habitat.

Among 58 cases reported to the fraud examiners in a random survey of charities, the typical thief was a female employee paid less than $50,000 a year, who had worked for the organization at least three years. The average amount she stole was less than $40,000.

The largest thefts were committed by male executives who were paid between $100,000 and $149,000 per year, and were usually the senior person in the organization.

Fraud cases involving animal charities appear to fit the pattern, the ANIMAL PEOPLE archives indicate. The amount stolen, according to the fraud examiners' projection, is similar to earlier ANIMAL PEOPLE estimates.

Researchers Janet S. Greenlee, Mary Fischer, Teresa P. Gordon, and Elizabeth K. Keating published their findings in the December 2007 edition of Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly.

New legislation addresses violent entertainment

NEW YORK, N.Y.-- Nebraska governor Dave Heine-man on April 16, 2008 endorsed into law a bill to ban horse tripping, a common event at charreada-style rodeos. The language that "No person shall intentionally trip or cause to fall, or lasso or rope the legs of, any equine by any means for the purpose of entertainment, sport, practice, or contest" makes the Nebraska law "the strongest such law in the nation, far better than California's," or those of Texas, New Mexico, Maine, Florida, Oklahoma, and Illinois, said Action for Animals founder Eric Mills. A bill modeled on the California law cleared the Arizona house of representatives on March 30.

Georgia governor Sonny Perdue, a former veterinarian, on May 6, 2008 signed into law a bill criminalizing attendance at a dog fight, breeding dogs to fight, or possessing a dog with the intention of having it fight. The bill received a publicity boost from the 2007 dogfighting-related arrest and conviction of former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, acknowledged Best Friends Animal Society chief executive Paul Berry. Associated Press writer Shannon McCaffrey credited Best Friends with helping to write the new law. Vick "certainly helped us put it over the goal line," agreed Georgia state senator Chip Rogers, the bill sponsor.

PETA littering convictions overturned in N.C.

RALEIGH -- The North Carolina Court of Appeals on April 15, 2008 overturned the February 2007 littering convictions of former PETA employees Adria J. Hinkle and Andrew B. Cook.

Hinkle and Cook, who then worked for PETA, were arrested in June 2005, after a police stakeout in Ahoskie, North Carolina, caught them in the act of disposing of dog and cat carcasses in a supermarket dumpster.

Judge Rick Elmore wrote for the three-judge appellate panel that while the defendants' actions leading to the conviction were undisputed, the prosecution failed to prove that the supermarket dumpster where Hinkle and Cook left the remains was an illegal place to dispose of them.

Trial testimony established that PETA has for approximately seven years collected and killed animals from North Carolina shelters and animal control agencies. Usually the animals' remains are taken to the PETA headquarters and cremated, but Hinkle acknowledged that on several occasions she disposed of animal remains in the supermarket dumpster where she and Cook were arrested.

"They had faced 21 charges of felony animal cruelty, seven counts of littering, and three counts of obtaining property by false pretenses," summarized Lauren King of the Virginian-Pilot.

"Superior Court Judge Cy Grant reduced the charges to eight misdemeanors before the jury began to deliberate. He said the state failed to prove malice and any specific motive, necessary elements for the felony charges. He also dropped the three charges of obtaining property by false pretenses against Cook."

Hinkle and Cook were acquitted of misdemeanor animal cruelty.