(Beth Clifton collage)
Something changed on Groundhog Day
Did you ever see the film Groundhog Day, in which actor Bill Murray lived the same day over and over until he made some of the right ethical choices?
We had already seen much of the humane cause leadership endlessly repeating unethical conduct, at the expense of animals, volunteers, and donors, when Groundhog Day premiered––in 1993.
Again and again self-serving “leaders” squander activist effort, money given to help animals, and the good faith of all of us who care about animals, exploiting those who trust them most, while animal suffering goes on, and on, and on.
This Groundhog Day, though, something changed. Hit with sexual harassment allegations accumulating for more than a decade, the $380,000-a-year chief executive of the Humane Society of the U.S. won a vote of confidence from the HSUS board of directors, only to be forced into resignation when several high donors, seven board members of integrity, and a few senior staff withdrew their support.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“We believe the women”
The HSUS board majority chose to stop an ongoing investigation of the charges against the chief executive without even hearing from the attorney they themselves hired to ask the questions that had to be asked. But some of the real leaders of the humane cause stood up and said “We believe the women!”
ANIMALS 24-7 exposed the HSUS leadership crisis as it developed, days before other media. We were first to point out how bad attitudes at the top had persisted through generations of executives and board members who failed to change the culture of the organization.
(Beth Clifton collage)
First to follow up
We were also first to follow up, posting seven in-depth exposés of the fast-evolving situation in as many nights. Making sure our reportage promptly reached the decision-makers through social media, Beth tapped her cell phone until her fingers cramped, while I pounded my keyboard. Both of us worked late into the night every night for a week, keeping the humane community informed until justice was served. Even our cats and Bo the dog got less rest than they would have liked.
We pointed out––almost alone among media––how the mendacity and coercive conduct contributing to sexual harassment also corrupted program work on behalf of animals.
Former HSUS president against a background of poultry effluent.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Cut cage sizes
Our coverage, for instance, reminded the humane community that while nominally espousing veganism, the now departed chief executive cut deals with agribusiness which again and again traded tangible progress on behalf of egg-laying hens for promises of future gains that never materialized.
We recalled that just a few months ago this executive claimed “victories” for winning a revision of Pennsylvania humane law that appears to have legalized pigeon shoots, and for passing a Vermont law that drastically cut the cage sizes for dogs at “puppy mills.”
Former HSUS executives & the elephant in the board room. (Beth Clifton collage)
$15.7 million to Ringling
There was also a $15.7 million payout to settle 10 years of litigation against the Ringling circus based on an untried legal theory and a discredited star witness, whom ANIMALS 24-7 had warned was unreliable before the first case was filed.
The now departed chief executive pushed policies contributing to increases of more than 500% in the numbers of animals and humans killed and disfigured by pit bulls during his tenure as HSUS president––including one woman killed and another critically injured within blocks of his own family home, and a 1700% increase in fatalities and disfigurements by pit bulls adopted from animal shelters.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Board rewarded misrepresentation
None of this could have occurred had the HSUS board held the chief executive and others at the top accountable.
Instead, the HSUS board rewarded misrepresentation and retreat from humane principle with five-figure annual raises. Discovering and reporting the truth was left to ANIMALS 24-7.
The now-departed chief executive, at least, took notice of our reportage. Six months before his exit, he emailed to us that some of the ANIMALS 24-7 focal concerns were an “obsession” and “insane,” called us an “outlier,” and contended that our “aggression” in reporting ethical malfeasance is “unwarranted.”
(Beth Clifton)
We are the outliers!
Just a week before his resignation, when we told him that we were not impressed that HSUS said it stopped a pigeon shoot that went on as scheduled, his response was ‘who are we to question him?’
“We” are us, Beth & Merritt, your representatives on the humane news beat.
Who is an “outlier” now? Still ANIMALS 24-7, and still proud of it! Effective humane leadership begins with taking a principled stand, even if alone or nearly so.
U.S. humane movement founder Henry Bergh said, more than 150 years ago, “I always wear a top hat, so that others can see where I stand and stand with me.” Neither of us wears a top hat, but we do stand tall for truth, accuracy, accountability, and responsible use of donated resources, against racism, sexism, exploitation and cruelty, no matter who is exploited and cruelly treated.
(Beth Clifton collage)
We need your help!
Our “vote of confidence” comes from you, when we pass the hat, asking for your support to keep working.
We need your help!
Your Valentine’s Day gift, whether of $50, $100, $1,000, or whatever else you can afford, keeps us on the job for the animals, 24-7.
Thank you,
P.S.––Please remember us this Valentine’s Day! We will be here working for you and the animals you care about.
www.Animals24-7.org/donate
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If being an “outlier” means not drinking the kool-aid of the industry that claims to be about animal rights, but has instead come to stand for profiteering, false claims, credit grabbing and outright fraud, count me in!
If those who really care about animals are reading Animals 24-7, but AREN’T actually giving financial support, I urge you to send a donation now, and then do it regularly. $10 – $5 – $1, surely you can give something to keep the truth coming out.
Over and over again, with great regularity over decades, Merritt has sounded the warning of the bad apples. Why is it that the bad apples get rich, while Merritt & Beth barely scrape by? I ask that not just because I believe in the mission of Animals 24-7, but also because a corrupt, profiteering industry, which is largely what we have today, will not save the animals we all care about.
We the people who care about animals could be saving untold millions – billions of animals if we would get serious. Stop supporting names and labels, and start putting your money where it will actually matter.
The first step is to know the truth, and that truth has been there all along – just look to the reporting from Animals 24-7.
I have sparred for years with Pacelle and his minions, Holly Hazard, Heidi Hopkins and Stephanie Boyle over the reprehensible treatment of the BLM towards the wild horses and burros during their horrific round-ups. Ms Boyles once admitted to me, early on in my efforts, that they “speak to BLM almost daily” What this effectively means is they are in cahoots with the agency and its cruel “gulags” set up for warehousing wild horses and burros. They pay lip service to the humane care of these animals all the while ignoring the blighted conditions of the “holding facilities” There is NO shade, NO windbreaks, and no shelter from howling winds, rain,sleet and snow. The poor foals are run by the helicopters so hard over miles of rocky ground, their soft hooves to slough off the leg bones. The HSUS does NOTHING to hold the agency accountable for their bullying behavior to the horses. And the behavior extends to the advocates braving the conditions to film and record —the BLM makes them stay at absurd distances from the action as a way of interferring with decent film footage. Still, folks manage to catch terrible cruelty in images. One of the most blistering letters I have ever composed to a individual was the one I wrote to Ms Hazard after a incident where wranglers hogtied a foal and the incident was filmed by advocates. She wrote me back a mealymouthed, overbearing, patronizing bunch of sentences that did nothing but show how truly pitiless she is regarding animal cruelty. Pacelle can rot in hell—he is a brazen opportunist.
Back in the early 1990s, HSUS, ASPCA, Doris Day Animal League and the Animal Welfare Institute had lobbying offices in Washington, DC. At the time, the horrific face branding of cattle and related tortures of these animals were on the welfare agenda along with banning the steel-jaw leghold trap, cosmetic testing on rabbits, and some other things. So we’re sitting there in one of those lobbying offices at a weekly meeting with coffee and half & half coffee creamer. I asked, “How can we expect the USDA or the cattle industry to change their behavior toward these animals when we, who claim to care about them and be their advocates (unlike government/industry), won’t even forgo a dairy coffee creamer and use soy milk or drink black coffee instead?” There was some consternation over this proposal, and I was rebuked for upbraiding the hypocrisy. Later, there was grudging acknowledgement that I had a point. I don’t recall the outcome, but I do recall the rather fawning timidity of the animal welfare lobbyists at the expense of vigorous advocacy for the animals they were representing in the halls of Congress. Has animal “welfare” advocacy evolved since then? I can’t say, except that among advocates being vegan is now considered appropriate, even obligatory, to our mission, compared to those early days.
Karen Davis, PhD, President, United Poultry Concerns http://www.upc-online.org
Even with Pacelle (officially) gone, his enablers remain in firm control and a culture of secrecy and corruption still looms at the top of HSUS. Also, keep in mind that when Pacelle supposedly “left” the Fund for Animals, he still remained in control via his handpicked executive staff and board members. That dynamic still exists at HSUS with Mike Markarian, Holly Hazard, Heidi Prescott, Josh Balk and all the board members who voted to shut down the sexual harassment investigation and to keep Pacelle in place.
Wayne Pacelle’s misconduct at HSUS goes far beyond sexual harassment allegations. He has, as a matter of routine, lied about his accomplishments and used charitable resources to publicize false claims that elevated his stature and fostered the kind of hero worship that has been so pervasive. This put the women he interacted with at a tremendous disadvantage when considering whether or not to report inappropriate behavior. His fabricated victories enabled his predatory ways by attracting followers and by insulating him from accountability and exposure.
Pacelle generated tremendous publicity for himself when he announced a legislative deal with United Egg Producers, which he claimed would “outlaw battery cages nationwide.” In reality, that deal would have kept laying hens confined inside egg factory cages in perpetuity.
Facing litigation that included charges of bribery, money laundering, and obstruction of justice (a check signed by Pacelle was apparently used to pay a witness who had repeatedly lied under oath), HSUS settled a massive RICO lawsuit by paying the owners of Ringling Brothers Circus millions of dollars of charitable donations that should have been used to protect animals. That’s in addition to all the money in legal fees that were paid out. This use of charitable dollars – to cover the improper conduct of Pacelle and other executive staff – was not unlike the misuse of funds used to essentially buy the silence of women allegedly sexually harassed at HSUS.
Details here: https://www.hfa.org/pdf/Corruption-RICO_Lawsuit-HSUS.pdf
In the biggest blunder in animal rights history, Pacelle squandered over $10 million dollars on Proposition 2, the botched 2008 initiative that resulted in millions of laying hens being subjected to more than nine years (and counting) of preventable cage confinement. Nevertheless, Pacelle’s false assertion that he had “outlawed” battery cages in California has been his biggest claim to fame. Pacelle and the egg industry have now introduced yet another ballot initiative in California. This new initiative would declare battery cages legal in California for additional years and would forever allow the egg industry to provide hens with as little as one square foot of floor space per bird.
Details here: https://www.hfa.org/legalizing-california-battery-cages.html
None of the above would have been possible without the complicity of the HSUS executive staff and members of the board of directors. Just as Pacelle provided cover for Paul Shapiro, HSUS’s senior staff and board members have covered for Pacelle’s behavior. There needs to be a clean sweep.