BELTWAY AD HIGHLIGHTS HSUS DECEPTION, LEGAL PROBLEMS
A July 31 full-page ad in the Capitol Hill newspaper Politico blasted the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) for spending millions of dollars on executive salaries and pensions, investments and legal fees instead of animal shelters. A Washington, DC-based watchdog group, HumaneWatch.org, paid for the ad, whose headline quotes HSUS President Wayne Pacelle as saying, “We never said we funded animal shelters.”
The Politico ad notes that HSUS is currently defending itself in federal court against allegations leveled under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. The RICO law was passed in 1970 to help federal authorities prosecute organized crime cases.
The RICO allegations are part of a countersuit against HSUS and other animal rights groups by Feld Entertainment, the parent company of Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus. Background and current information on the lawsuit is available on the HumaneWatch website.
The legal battle goes back more than ten years, when a coalition of animal rights groups, including HSUS, sued Feld Entertainment for allegedly abusing elephants in violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In 2009, a federal court dismissed the charges against Feld, and last fall, a federal appeals court upheld the dismissal.
As a result of evidence gathered in that action, Feld countersued, alleging under the RICO statute that the animal rights plaintiffs had paid certain key witnesses to lie about the treatment of elephants in the circus. The HSUS and its co-defendants tried to get the countersuit dismissed, but last month, a federal district court judge in Washington, DC, denied their motion, and ruled that Feld’s RICO suit can move forward.
HumaneWatch reports that Feld is still hoping to recover $20 million in attorneys’ fees from HSUS and the other plaintiffs in the original suit. If the company is successful, HSUS donors will end up paying the bills.