by Merritt Clifton WASHINGTON, D.C.––Humane Society of the United States executive vice president Patricia Forkan is to assume authority over HSUS domestic operations effective on January 1, 1996. HSUS president Paul Irwin, now heading domestic operations, will move over to head the umbrella organization, Humane Society International, while current HSI president John Hoyt, 65, will […]
Triple trouble for HSUS: VP David Wills fired
by Merritt Clifton The puppy mill flap was just one headache for HSUS president Paul Irwin and Humane Society International president John Hoyt, whose organization is the umbrella for HSUS and several affiliated organizations. On August 9, they were obliged to put HSUS vice president David Wills on administrative leave. On August 11, after rumors […]
HSUS vp Wills sued for alleged bad debts
by Merritt Clifton (July 1995) DETROIT––Humane Society of the U.S. vice president for investigations David Wills, founder of the short-lived National Society for Animal Protection before assuming his present post, is accused of failing to repay NSAP-related loans totaling $57,411 in cash and valuables in separate lawsuits filed by William and Judith McBride, of Ortonville, […]
Moral relativism & Marine World
by Merritt Clifton March 1995 VALLEJO, California––Any day now the fishing crews of Iki, Japan, may string nets between their boats and, banging metal objects together to make a noise that carries underwater, herd scores of Dall’s porpoises and pseudorcas into an inlet to be harpooned and hacked apart with machetes. Spring […]
Dirty Pool, part 3: Keiko
by Merritt Clifton January/February 1995 I had not planned to write a third part of my “Dirty Pool” series on propaganda interfering with marine mammal protection, but as the second part went to press on November 22, 1994, Warner Brothers and New Regency Productions donated $2 million to a new Free Willy/Keiko Foundation formed by Earth […]
Dirty Pool, part 2
by Merritt Clifton December 1994 VANCOUVER, KANSAS CITY, CHICAGO––Propaganda wins converts to causes by reducing issues to good against evil, forcing observers to take sides. Propaganda is among the most effective tools of warfare; but like warfare itself, it exacts a high price from those who use it. Much as the dead from either side […]
Dirty Pool, part 1
by Merritt Clifton November 1994 ORLANDO, NEW YORK CITY, MYSTIC––Activists don’t believe anything they hear from the “aquaprison industry.” Oceanarium people don’t trust activists to know truth when they see it. And small wonder on either side, given the pitch of the propaganda for and against keeping marine mammals in captivity. This debate differs from […]
Ohio data confirms hunting/child abuse link: Stronger than link to rural poverty
November 1994 TOLEDO, Ohio––The number of hunters in a county more accurately predicts the level of child abuse than either population density or median income, according to a new study of Ohio state statistics and the findings apply to all four standard categories of abuse, including physical violence, neglect, sexual abuse, and […]
New York state statistics show link: Hunters and molesters
March 1994 ALBANY, New York––As a team of 165 volunteers shoved snow from the frozen forest floor near Raquette Lake, New York, in early 1994, where hunter Lewis Lent Jr. said he had killed and buried 12-year-old Sara Anne Wood the preceding summer, ANIMALS 24-7 editor Merritt Clifton confirmed through a county-by-county […]
People’s Park
(From Betrayal, SAMISDAT #96, 1980.) Vietnam in Berkeley (about the May 1969 Peoples Park riots) The Hueys shrieked in low, so low I might have downed one with a well-aimed rock. But there were no rocks. Entering Sproul Plaza at the end of Telegraph Avenue, each spewed a yellow-green cloud, rising slightly to clear […]