• Why has property seized by the state of Indiana been handed over to an organization predominantly involved in political lobbying such as the HSUS ?
• Does the state of Indiana or the Indiana Attorney General’s office have a formal arrangement with the HSUS allowing its people to act as law enforcement officers in the State of Indiana?  If so, why is an organization predominantly involved in political lobbying being permitted to act in law enforcement capacity?  If not, why was the HSUS involved in this proceeding with the tacit approval of Indiana Attorney General Zoeller, who has not disavowed the HSUS involvement? 
• Why has property seized by the state of Indiana been been given away, preventing the state selling the seized property to offset the outstanding tax debt and prior to the laying of criminal charges or any legal conviction?
• Why was member of the Indiana House of Representatives Linda Lawson permitted to participate in the seizure of property on behalf of the HSUS in a law enforcement operation? Rep. Lawson can be seen in the images below in HSUS t-shirt participating in the raid.

Upon obtaining a copy of the search warrant indicating the terms of the property seizure, the questions of the terms of the sale or gifting of the dogs seized by the Indiana AG’s office to any organization becomes especially troubling.  According to the terms of the search warrant, issued to the “Officers of the Indiana State Police, the Indiana Attorney General and his Agents, and any Law Enforcement Officer of the State of Indiana”, the items that authorities were allowed to seize related to the jeopardy tax assessment included:

h)  Any and all cash, canines, or other inventory or business proceeds found.

The troubling part is the section directly after this portion of the warrant, which reads as follows word for word:  YOU ARE FURTHER ORDERED to seize such property, or any part thereof, found during such search and hold said property pending further order of this Court. 

The warrant gave the authorities the authority to SEIZE the dogs but not to DISPERSE the dogs.  The court order set down immediately after the raid barred the Garwoods’ from giving permission to disperse the dogs.

So if the authorities had no legal authority to disperse the dogs and the Garwoods’ were legally barred from consenting to the dispersal of the dogs, why was Indiana Attorney issuing press releases (see here and here) related to the dispersal of the dogs to rescues around the state of Indiana (and beyond Indiana borders) for adoption?

Copyright 2009 by Erica Saunders
All rights reserved

The HSUS appears to be becoming much more comfortable with the label Animal Rights very recently.  It was only Easter Sunday this year when the HSUS Internet Marketing Manager, Carie Lewis, rejected the ‘Animal Rights’ label outright in conversation with me on Twitter.  Yet in the HSUS blog re-print  on Opposing Views titled “Humane Society Responds to Attacks on Animal Rights Record” the term seems to raise no alarm. The increase in acknowledgement of an Animal Rights position becomes more apparent with Schedule of Events at the upcoming HSUS run TAFA conference such as the lecture “Animal Rights as a Mainstream Phenomenon” and a sponsorship list composed of Animal Rights Industry members such as:

•  Farm Sanctuary
  • Animal Rights Anti-Animal Agriculture group
  • contributing a minimum $10,000 sponsorship to the event and 3 speakers participating on the agenda
• Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF)
  • Animal rights law organization based in California. Programs include civil litigation, working to enact state felony anti-cruelty statutes, and the Great Ape Legal Program, dedicated to winning legal rights for great apes
  • contributing a minimum $2500 sponsorship and 1 speaker to the event
• American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS)
  • Animal Rights group dedicated to ending experimentation on animals in research, testing, and education
  • contributing a minimum $1500 sponsorship to the event & contributing 1 speaker from  AAVS and 1 speaker from New England Anti-Vivisection Society
  • HSUS donated $500 to this organization according to their most recently available  tax forms

The focus on legislation, lobbying, influencing public opinion and manufacture of message is even higher, which can be easily seen be examining the schedule of events.  Due to the massive number of items to examine on the agenda, I will be breaking these items down into a series of articles looking at the conference’s focuses on combating Animal Agriculture, combating Animal Research, Legal/Legislative involvement & manipulation of the media.  These will be presented leading up to the actual TAFA conference start and through the HSUS guiding attendees in participation in the Lobby Day on July 27th on Capitol Hill.  Wait a minute, isn’t this exactly the kind of action that is in violation of the terms of the HSUS 501(c) 3 status?  I thought that HSUS didn’t have any employees or volunteers participating in attempting to influence national, state or local legislation, including any attempt to influence public opinion on a legislative matter or referendum?

Copyright 2009 by Erica Saunders   http://AR-HR.com
All rights reserved

• Why has property seized by the state of Indiana been handed over to an organization predominantly involved in political lobbying such as the HSUS ?
• Does the state of Indiana or the Indiana Attorney General’s office have a formal arrangement with the HSUS allowing its people to act as law enforcement officers in the State of Indiana?  If so, why is an organization predominantly involved in political lobbying being permitted to act in law enforcement capacity?  If not, why was the HSUS involved in this proceeding with the tacit approval of Indiana Attorney General Zoeller, who has not disavowed the HSUS involvement? 
• Why has property seized by the state of Indiana been been given away, preventing the state selling the seized property to offset the outstanding tax debt and prior to the laying of criminal charges or any legal conviction?
• Why was member of the Indiana House of Representatives Linda Lawson permitted to participate in the seizure of property on behalf of the HSUS in a law enforcement operation? Rep. Lawson can be seen in the images below in HSUS t-shirt participating in the raid.

Inquiries to the Office of the Indiana Attorney General (Constituent@atg.in.gov ) have been met with the following response:

From: Constituent@atg.in.gov

To: ***********

Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 7:20 AM

Subject: RE: Mauckport, IN dog breeder raid

Thank you for your inquiry but our office cannot comment on an ongoing  investigation.

The problem with this response is two-fold (1) the Attorney General’s office has already commented on this investigation at length in the media and (2) the inquiries sent to the Attorney General’s office do not address the details of the investigation but address the conduct of the Attorney General’s office.   Why are these questions being ignored?

Rep Linda Lawson, in HSUS garb participating in tax-related dog seizure 305 miles from her home district

Copyright 2009 by Erica Saunders   http://AR-HR.com
All rights reserved

It is ironic because the HSUS is claiming four years of accomplishments that did not involve their volunteers, their employees or their executive according to the their tax records. 

In 2006, some of the HSUS major legislative and political accomplishments included:

• The HSUS led a successful Arizona Ballot Initiative against sow gestation crates and battled against a Michigan State  Ballot Initiative regarding Mourning Dove Hunting, yet according to the tax records no HSUS volunteers, employees or executive worked on the campaign?
• The HSUS ”led the fight in Congress to achieve passage of the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act to ensure adequate planning for moving companion animals out of harm’s way” yet according to the tax records no HSUS volunteers, employees or executive worked on this endeavor?
• The HSUS “helped pass 69 new laws in state legislatures”  and worked on a total of 73 legislative proposals, yet according to the tax records no HSUS volunteers, employees or executive worked on these campaigns?

In 2007:

• The HSUS claimed credit for helping to pass a record 86 new laws at the state level, yet according to the tax records no HSUS volunteers, employees or executive worked on these campaigns?

Now, keep in mind that in 2006, the Humane Society Legislative Fund (HSLF) spent a total of just over $3.3 million while spending just over $3.1 million in 2007.  Also keep in mind that much of the HSUS executive sits on the HSLF board, but they only claim an involvement  of 10 hours/week.  That’s an average of less than $44,000 per project in 2006 and around $36,000 per project in 2007 without factoring any other associated budget items if one tries to claim all associated personnel costs are attributed to HSLF. 

In 2008:

• The HSUS claims credit for driving the passage of Proposition 2, a California ballot initiative and the anti-greyhound racing bill in Massachusetts.   Will the HSUS tax records state yet again that no HSUS volunteers, employees or executive worked on these ballot initiatives?   Proposition 2 was a campaign that opponents spent 10 million dollars arguing against for reasons proving to be accurate like increased cost to consumers and increases disease and injury in the birds?
• The HSUS claims credit for three significant provisions in the Federal Farm Bill.  Will the HSUS tax records state yet again that no HSUS volunteers, employees or executive worked on this bill?
• The HSUS claims credit for a record 93 pro-animal state laws  that were passed & 53 animal unfriendly laws that were defeated.  Will the HSUS tax records state yet again that no HSUS volunteers, employees or executive worked on these campaigns?

If a similar set of expenses is filed for 2008 for HSLF, $3.3 million, the HSLF attributable costs would drop to an average of under $23,000 per project. 

Its a good thing that the HSUS has started to pursue the religious community, because numbers like this for the HSLF are miraculous. Or dare I say mythical since I don’t share their religious view? 

Copyright 2009 by Erica Saunders   http://AR-HR.com
All rights reserved