OVERVIEW OF ANIMAL RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS

What You Need To Know - Animal Rights Organizations

Having knowledge about the most prominent animal rights organizations and their true goals is extremely important. They are working hard to influence lawmakers in order to push legislation, regulations, and ordinances that make animal ownership more difficult with each incremental step. They use donation dollars to spread their tentacles far and wide. The list of their activities is very long and includes working to influence law enforcement, teachers, children in school, religious institutions, and more. These organizations are not concerned with animal welfare, they are concerned with pushing their agenda, which has far-reaching implications for all Americans.

Jump to:

Humane Society of the United States - HSUS

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - PETA

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals - ASPCA

Animal Legal Defense Fund - ALDF

Direct Action Everywhere - DxE

Nonhuman Rights Project - NhP

American Wild Horse Campaign - AWHC

Grey2K

Farm Sanctuary - FS

Kirkpatrick Foundation - KF

Links to more information:

Article - HSUS Tentacles

Article - Animal Rights vs Animal Welfare - Know the Difference

Article - Animal Rights Group Pushes for Habeas Corpus for Animals

Article - Animal Rights Groups - Who They Really Are

Article - Anthropomorphism - The Greatest Threat to Animal Welfare

Trent Loos Interview #1 with John Bolin - Past ASPCA Investigator - Animal Rights Organizations Involvement with Law Enforcement

Trent Loos Interview #2 with John Bolin - Past ASPCA Investigator - Animal Rights Organizations Involvement with Law Enforcement

Trent Loos Interview #3 with John Bolin - Past ASPCA Investigator - Animal Rights Organizations Involvement with Law Enforcement

Trent Loos Interview with Security Consultant John Sancenito - Exposing Activities of Animal Rights and Other NGO's

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), is not what they have been leading people to believe:

• They are NOT a humane society. They are an animal rights organization
• They do not own, run, or operate any animal shelters
• They use their donors’ money to write fund and push legislation. They also use it for marketing, advertising, fundraising, salaries, retirement plans, for investments in offshore bank accounts and publicly traded securities.

The closer you look at the labyrinth of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), its leadership, its staff, and its associates, you begin to see the truth behind an organization that is trying to obliterate a large portion of American culture and heritage.

Not Your Local Animal Shelter

HSUS uses the name “Humane Society” but is not affiliated with any local animal shelters or local humane societies. In fact, their national fundraising efforts hurt community organizations by diverting local donations. In recent years HSUS IRS Form 990’s have shown that less than 1% of the funds they raise actually make it to shelters. When they do send money to a shelter, it is typically a small amount ($1,000 to $2,000) to be used to promote low-cost spay and neuter clinics.

Statement from HSUS Ex-CEO Wayne Pacelle:
“We never said we funded animal shelters…That’s not in our history or in our statement.”

HSUS Is an Animal Rights Organization – Culture Starts At The Top

It is a well-known fact that the culture of an organization starts at the top. The current CEO of the HSUS, Kitty Block, is a past PETA Employee. The ex-CEO, Wayne Pacelle, who was in a leadership position within the HSUS for almost two decades has repeatedly revealed his animal rights ideology.
Wayne Pacelle believes that the differences between animals and humans are “differences of degree and not kind.”

For more information about Pacelle and his ideology: https://www.activistfacts.com/person/3366-wayne-pacelle/

The Animal Rights Culture is Perpetuated Via Hiring Practices

Most people are not aware that the HSUS has absorbed some of the smaller, more radical, animal rights organizations. When the HSUS brings staff over from these extreme animal rights groups, it would be extremely foolish to assume they check their radical ideology at the door.

True Agenda Exposed

Food and Agriculture

In its own “Statement on Farm Animals and Eating with Conscience”, the HSUS reveals its true beliefs about food. Outlined on their website, you’ll find their “Three R’s” approach:
Reducing the consumption of meat and other animal-based foods;
Refining the diet by eating products only from animals who have been raised, transported, and slaughtered in a system of humane, sustainable agriculture that does not abuse the animals;
and Replacing meat and other animal-based foods in the diet with plant-based foods.

As you can see, any move the HSUS makes towards agriculture is all in pursuit of the goal of reducing the demand for animal products and drying up the market for these goods.

Funding

Animal rights has become a billion-dollar industry. The HSUS is very well funded from donations given to them by goodhearted people who have been duped into believing they are a national animal shelter organization and that their donations go to help animals in need. The HSUS has hundreds of millions in their coffers, stored in off-shore bank accounts and publicly traded securities. Tens of millions more are spent on fundraising and advertising. Then there are the high salaries of their executives, including millions invested in their retirement funds and other benefits.

Humane Legislative Fund (HLF)

Humane Legislative Fund (HLF) is the legislative arm of the HSUS, sharing offices in Washington D.C. The HLF spends millions of dollars to alter public policy and influence people they call “thought leaders” via campaign donations.
The HSUS and their legislative arm, HLF, spend massive amounts of money to buy new laws and regulations and influence lawmakers. They are working to restrict the rights of farmers, hunters, entertainers and animal owners.

Links to more information about the Humane Legislative Fund:

Spending during election cycles - https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00466813

Contributions to Federal Candidates - https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.php?cycle=2018&cmte=C00466813

Poor Ratings with Charity Watchdog Organizations

It’s no wonder that the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has had trouble impressing charity watchdog organizations like Charity Navigator, which has consistently downgraded their charity rating and often issues donor advisory warnings.

Link to HSUS Rating on Charity Navigator: https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3848

If you gave to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) thinking that you were actually helping your local animal shelters and rescues, it is important to know that it is highly likely your donation dollars did not end up where you intended. Instead, if the goal is to help animals in your community, we recommend considering supporting local shelters who actually provide hands-on care and shelter for animals.

You can find a local shelter over at the Humane Society for Shelter Pets: https://www.humaneforpets.com/the-problem/

Unscrupulous Tactics

The HSUS is well-known for practicing unscrupulous tactics in order to push their animal rights agenda. Some of their activities are listed here:

Paying A False Witness and RICO Case

The HSUS was sued for racketeering (RICO Act) for their unending harassment and lawsuits against Ringling Brothers Circus. They paid $190,000 to a false witness to lie about the care performing animals receive. Feld Entertainment, the parent company of Ringling Brothers, prevailed in the lawsuit and received a combined settlement of $25,000,000 from the HSUS, ASPCA, PETA and their affiliated organizations. It is important to note that the funds to pay for the lawsuits, paying the false witness, and settlement came from funds donated by people who believed they were helping shelter animals in need.

Article - HSUS Settles Rico Case Avoids Charges of Racketeering

Undercover Investigators

It is well known that the HSUS sends operatives to seek employment at farms, ranches, and animal breeding facilities so they can gather information and capture images and videos. They instruct these people to send information back to their superiors who then manipulate images and video in order to present them out of context. There are even cases where the HSUS has sent in operatives to set up unsuspecting employers.

Here’s a video from HumaneWatch entitled “HSUS Whistleblower Tells All”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmXoYF36uAg

Widespread Distribution of Misinformation

The HSUS has become a master at presenting and spreading misinformation in order to push their agenda. They are especially clever in the way they have coined new terms and attempted to make other descriptive words like “efficient” sound like it is something bad. Another example is how they name and write legislation to make it difficult for the public to fully understand the far-reaching consequences of their votes. Additionally, the HSUS spends tens of millions each year on advertising and marketing. They have a massive online presence including front websites that eventually lead people to their donation pages.

To learn more about the HSUS visit:https://www.activistfacts.com/organizations/136-humane-society-of-the-united-states/

Article - How the HSUS is infiltrating Public Schools to influence children

People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)

Unlike the HSUS, PETA is much more front and center about their radical animal rights ideology. They view animal ownership as slavery and abuse. Their co-founder and President, Ingrid Newkirk, has described the group’s overall goal as “total animal liberation,” which means eliminating all human-animal interaction. According to Newkirk, animals should be appreciated from afar and that many are better off dead than in human care.
Total animal liberation and the elimination of all human-animal interaction means that the group is seeking to end the human consumption of animal protein products like meat, milk, cheese, eggs, butter, yogurt, and even honey. Along with this, they protest against hunting and fishing. PETA is also working to see the end of zoos, aquariums, circuses, pet ownership and all medical research involving animals. PETA is most famously known for their outrageous campaigns against the clothing industry by protesting the use of fur, leather, silk, and wool.

Using Horror, Religion and Nudity for Attention

PETA gains attention from shocking and horrifying the public. Their campaigns have featured Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust, religion, nudity, and scenes of animal abuse. They have launched numerous protests at churches and have even attempted to present Jesus Christ as a vegetarian. PETA has gone so far as to sue one church that tried to protect its members from harassment. It is important to note that one of the leaders of PETA’s “Holocaust on Your Plate” campaign now works for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

Unscrupulous Tactics

Like the HSUS, PETA is well known for practicing unscrupulous tactics in order to push their animal rights agenda. Along with the HSUS, they participated in the decade-long harassment of Ringling Brothers and were ordered to pay their share of the $25,000,000 settlement to extricate the organization from a RICO case. Some of their activities are listed below:

Supporting Criminals and Domestic Terrorism

PETA has supported animal liberation terrorists by helping to pay for their legal defense and providing them with funding in other ways. Some of the violent criminals they support are convicted arsonists.
They have provided monetary support to groups the FBI has identified as a domestic terrorist group, like the North American Earth Liberation Front (ELF). They have also supported an Animal Liberation Front (ALF) serial arsonist convicted of burning down a Michigan State University research laboratory. PETA president, Ingrid Newkirk, was also implicated in the crime by the Federal Prosecutor.

Influencing Children

Like the HSUS, PETA has been hard at work influencing children both in the classroom via their “TeachKind” program and via their website PETA2 which hosts a variety of grotesque video games.

For more information about PETA2 and the organization’s efforts to influence and convert children to their radical ideology, follow this link

Widespread Distribution of Misinformation

PETA is well-known in the animal welfare community for producing outrageous, fake videos and images in order to mislead the public. They have gone so far as to create animals out of rubber and wax and then drench them in blood for photo shoots. There are other reports that they have done much worse.
Mashable, a global multi-platform media company that has a large social outlet presence, exposed PETA in June of 2017. They outed the group for photoshopping a fake CGI animal abuse video. PETA had approached their PR firm with a scheme to mislead the public. Here’s a statement from Mashable’s article:

“Through this marketing effort, PETA is trying to convince the media to report and share a fake video as if it's real, in hopes of deceiving the public to create manufactured outrage. As animal lovers, this is offensive. As a media outlet with a responsibility to truthfulness, this is unethical.”

Link to Mashable article: https://mashable.com/2017/06/06/peta-fake-animal-abuse-video/#7hXpQDLfkiqR

While PETA’s approach is far more grotesque and offensive than other animal rights organizations, they are embraced by their affiliated groups, often partnering in projects, lawsuits, and marketing legislation. Just like the HSUS, PETA spends tens of millions each year on advertising and marketing.

Harassment and Throwing Mud at the Wall to See What Sticks

PETA selects targets to harass and pester with form letters and outlandish requests. In a sense, they throw mud at the wall to see what will stick and then hope the letter, outlandish assertion, or request makes the news.
In addition to participating in projects with other animal rights groups, PETA uses their massive coffers to harass innocent people. An example of this is their harassment of Beardise Ranch in Florida, making false claims to the news media, sending threatening letters and calling out via social blasts for volunteers to troll Bearadise Ranch online. Another example is their financial ruin of a photographer. They sued him for copyright infringement when a macaque monkey inadvertently took a picture of itself with the photographer’s camera.

For more information about PETA’s attacks against Bearadise Ranch click here

Information about the Naruto case: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/12/monkey-selfie-macaque-copyright-court-david-slater

Funding

PETA is part of the billion-dollar animal rights industry. They are very well funded from donations and have also sought out celebrity endorsements.
For more information about PETA, their agenda and tactics: https://www.activistfacts.com/?s=peta

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)

The ASPCA was founded in the late 1800s with a noble cause. However, in recent years their culture and agenda have radically changed. They are not what they have led people to believe:

• They are only affiliated with one animal shelter in New York City.
• Less than 4% of the money donated to the ASPCA actually supports animal shelters.
• The ASPCA has repeatedly pushed and supported animal rights legislation
• The ASPCA has thrown up roadblocks to “No-Kill” shelter practices.
• Fundraising is the priority for the ASPCA; they spend tens of millions of donor dollars on advertising and marketing.
• The ASPCA supports numerous animal rights initiatives.

The ASPCA Is an Animal Rights Organization

The ASPCA has numerous staff members previously affiliated with radical animal rights organizations. As an example, the ASPCA campaign, “The Truth About Chicken,” was managed by Suzanne McMillan, a former employee of the radical animal rights group, Compassion Over Killing (COK). Incidentally, COK was founded by the HSUS’s past Vice President, Paul Shapiro who was ousted for sexual harassment claims.

In the 1990s the ASPCA published a book titled, “The Animal Rights Handbook” and since then, their animal rights stance has only become more entrenched. The ASPCA has also repeatedly attacked New York Carriage Horses and has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the unethical animal rights group NYCLASS. NYCLASS is affiliated with NYC real estate developers who are vying for the property that stables carriage horses. They were a party of the Ringling Brothers RICO lawsuit filed against a group of animal rights organizations and spent $9,500,000 of their donor funds to settle.

Legislative Activities – Pushing Animal Rights Ideology

The ASPCA has been a consistent supporter of animal-rights legislation against animal agriculture and animal ownership. As an example, in 2017, they joined in with other radical animal rights groups to push Prop 12 in California. Collectively, the group spent almost $13,000,000 to pay for signatures and bombard metropolitan markets with anti-animal agriculture advertising. They haven’t just stopped at going after carriage horses and animal agriculture; the ASPCA has also adopted a PETA like (“better off dead”) approach to animal sheltering. They have repeatedly introduced and supported legislation in various areas of the country opposing no-kill shelters. In New York, the ASPCA introduced legislation to allow state animal control facilities to euthanize animals within minutes of arriving without any holding period if the shelter staff believes that an animal is “psychologically suffering.” This is highly problematic because the animal rights ideology views ownership of animals and human-animal interaction as slavery and abuse.

Funding

Like its sister animal rights organizations, the ASPCA has amassed a large war chest of funds. According to its income statement found on Charity Navigator, their net revenue for 2016 was $217,398,213.
CharityWatch found that 35% of the ASPCA’s budget is spent on overhead and a large percentage of the money it collects from donations, goes to fundraising efforts. In 2012, the ASPCA spent $52,000,000 on fundraising.

Taking Resources Away from Community Animal Shelters

Despite national fundraising tactics, the ASPCA is not affiliated with local animal shelters. This is problematic for many community shelters and humane organizations because their fundraising activities fool the public into believing their donation dollars are going to provide care for animals in their area. In fact, the State Humane Association of California filed a complaint with the California Attorney General about ASPCA fundraising tactics due to their deceptive practices harming local shelters. To note, this is also the case with the HSUS.

For more information about the complaint against the ASPCA: https://www.humanewatch.org/california_spcas_snarl_at_name_confusion

Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF)

The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) was founded in 1979. It is a legal organization that follows the animal rights ideology and until recently solely focused on animals. Like other animal rights organizations, they too have branched out to focus on environmental activism as well. ALDF files high profile lawsuits and provides free legal assistance and training to prosecutors with the goal of changing the legal system in order to push their animal rights and environmental activism agenda. In addition to their goals of changing the legal system, the ALDF also supports animal rights legislation and fights legislation that they believe stops animal rights groups from their activism. For example, the ALDF opposes laws that protect farmers and ranchers from undercover animal rights operatives who get hired under false pretenses with the sole purpose to attack animal agriculture.

The ALDF has defended radical animal rights extremist groups like PETA and Friends of The Earth, a group listed on the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium website.

Link to website: https://www.trackingterrorism.org/

The ALDF is affiliated with the following organizations:

• Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, Environmental Law Institute, Center for Animal Law Studies. Together with the ALDF, they formed a coalition against lab animal research.
• National District Attorney’s Association – According to the ALDF website, “NDAA created the National Center for Prosecution of Animal Abuse (NCPAA) in partnership with the Animal Legal Defense Fund and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). NCPAA educates and trains prosecutors and law enforcement professionals on the effective handling of animal cruelty cases, with a particular focus on the link between animal abuse and violence toward humans.”

ALDF Animal Rights Culture within their Organization

The culture and direction of an organization determines their business practices. The ALDF is very open about their anti-animal agriculture position, and it is evident on their website under their mission statement and posted employment rules:

“It is the mission of the Animal Legal Defense Fund to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. To support that mission, the Animal Legal Defense Fund strives to create an office atmosphere that encourages and supports the best practices and products available to reduce the suffering of and harm to nonhuman animals.
Consistent with this mission, the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s staff and volunteers agree that they will not introduce into any Animal Legal Defense Fund office, or at any Animal Legal Defense Fund function outside the office (e.g., staff lunches, meetings, etc.), products that are derived, in whole or in part, from an animal. Such products include, but are not limited to, meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products (including milk, yogurt, and cheese), leather, and wool.”

Information about ALDF Co-Founder Roger Galvin: https://www.activistfacts.com/person/1510-roger-galvin/

DXE - Direct Action Everywhere

Direct Action Everywhere, also known as DxE, is an emerging radical animal rights group that was founded in 2013. Based out of San Francisco, their cult-like following has spread to numbers of international cells.
Their motto is “Animal Liberation”, and their website has three main headings, “Confinement, Greed, Death.” They do not support incrementalism, a tactic that other animal rights groups employ. Their dream is for people who eat animal protein products to be arrested and prosecuted for crimes. They also plan to have their members elected to political office.

The Founder’s Connections

DxE Founder Wayne Hsuing is a lawyer. Before graduating from law school at the University of Chicago, he attended MIT. According to Wikipedia, “As a lawyer, Hsiung was involved in environmental advocacy and studied behavioral economics, studying with economics scholars including Eric Posner and Mark Duggan. He partnered with behavioral law and economics scholar Cass Sunstein to write an analysis of the effect of climate change on nonhuman animals.”
To note, Cass Sunstein was the Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2012. What many may not know is that Cass Sunstein is an animal rights ideologue. He authored a book titled, “Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions.” Also of note is that Sunstein is married to Samantha Power, United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2014 to 2017. Samantha Power published a book in 2008 about the life of Sergio Vieira de Mello, Special Representative of the Secretary-General of UN. One of his many roles at the U.N. was his involvement in Agenda 21 implementation and the Habitat Agenda.

Committing Crimes for Attention

DxE’s radical approach to animal liberation involves breaking and entering, stealing animals from farmers, and invading farms with busloads of their followers which exposes animals to potentially deadly pathogens. They look for confrontation in order to draw attention to their activities and agenda. The founder of DxE, Wayne Hsiung has had numerous arrests and is facing at least four felony charges for crimes he has committed (as of 2018). His arrests, however, have not stopped his illegal activities.

“Open Rescue” - Complete Disregard for Animal Health and Welfare

DxE calls their break-ins and thefts, “Open Rescue.” However, their activities show a complete disregard for animal health and welfare. They are not rescuing animals; they are stealing them and putting the health and welfare of other animals at great risk. The results of the break-ins and thefts of animals by DxE has led to the necessity of mass destruction of an entire flock of chickens. To date, DxE has stolen a piglet, pigs, kid goats, turkeys, and chickens. In one case, they stole backyard chickens from an 8-year-old girl.

Targeting Organic Farmers and Businesses

Unlike other animal rights groups that use cloak and dagger “cooperation via legislation” and animal welfare as a ruse to fool voters, DxE is straight-forward about their agenda. True to the animal rights/animal liberation ideology where all animal ownership is considered slavery and therefore abuse, DxE has determined to also focus on smaller, organic farms. They have been doing this to demonstrate their belief that all animal agriculture is abuse and no forms of animal agriculture are acceptable to their ideology.

Videos

One of the ways DxE has increased their following is by producing numerous, heavily edited videos of their break-ins. These videos grossly misrepresent farming practices. According to the website Activist Facts, “In 2015, DxE released a video of hens filmed when some activists broke into a farm and stole livestock. The hens were from a Whole Foods supplier. After the video was made public, the local sheriff department investigated the farm and reported the farm to be operating at ‘industry standards’.” The owner of the farm responded to the video stating that the footage “isn’t anywhere indicative of our operation — they had to go through 15 barns off and on over a year to find three chickens they could use to make their point in this video.”

Harassment

This group tends to focus on a target, and then they exert relentless harassment.
Some of their many tactics include disrupting political events, covering themselves in blood and laying down in front of a butcher shop, protesting inside stores and restaurants, screaming at restaurant patrons, covering themselves in feces, damaging meat in grocery stores, and most recently a DxE group invaded a restaurant and played tapes of what they claim are animals dying. To date, some of their targets have been:

• Whole Foods
• Costco
• Safeway
• Trader Joes
• Los Angeles Dodgers
• Organic egg farms in Petaluma
• Dairies
• Urban eateries
• Organic butcher shops
• Chipotle
• Small, backyard farms
• Anglers fishing at community parks
• Senator Bernie Sanders
• New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
• Ohio Governor John Kasich
• The Dalai Lama

For more detailed information about DxE and their agenda visit: https://www.activistfacts.com/organizations/direct-action-everywhere/

NonHuman Rights Project

According to their website, the mission of the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) is to, “.. secure legally recognized fundamental rights for nonhuman animals through litigation, legislation, and education.”
This organization is working to change the legal status of animals so that they can achieve “personhood,” affording animals the same legal rights of people. They are working to gain this change in status via grassroots efforts, legislation, and lawsuits. Their website states they are seeking, “…to promote recognition of nonhuman animals as beings worthy of moral and legal consideration and with their own inherent interests in freedom from captivity, participation in a community of other members of their species, and the protection of their natural habitats.”
In short, they want animals to have the same legal rights as people.

Article - Habeas Corpus is for Humans, Not Animals

Article - Anthropomorphism is the Greatest Threat to Animal Welfare

Pushing the Animal Rights Agenda Inside the Courtroom

Initially, the Nonhuman Rights Project focused on the courts to work to change the status of animals.
The founder of NhRP, Steven Wise, is a lawyer and animal rights ideologue. Since he is a lawyer, Wise understood the power of legal precedent and has used this to his advantage. NhRP continues to work toward this goal of changing the status of animals by refining their arguments based on legal feedback and by looking for select clients and sympathetic courts in which to file their cases.

Pushing the Animal Rights Agenda Outside the Courtroom

Even though the Nonhuman Rights Project is mostly known for animal rights litigation, their activities are broadening in scope. According to a July 2017 interview with Matthew Dominguez, the Animal Charity Evaluators website reveals their activities aimed to forward the animal rights agenda. Matthew Dominguez is NhRP’s new Director of Public Affairs (who is also past HSUS employee).
“NhRP has expanded their mission and they are now also active outside the courtroom. They are building an infrastructure in order to develop a grassroots movement for their rights-based approach which is similar to those of animal protection organizations. NhRP is also preparing their public policy activities and will soon introduce rights-based legislation at both city and state levels. Currently (before they introduce any new initiatives), they are still doing research, thoroughly vetting the issue, drafting legislation carefully, and building a coalition. For much of the past year, they focused on these activities behind the scenes so that when they finally introduce their first piece of legislation, it has a high probability of being passed.”
“NhRP will choose the best cities and states in which to begin their legislative initiatives based on demographics, local support, and in-depth research into the most promising places. The grassroots campaign has already grown by at least 50% in the last six months and will continue to do so. For the remainder of 2017, NhRP’s public policy department will focus on building a well-trained grassroots “army,” implementing a new advocacy-focused software platform, and developing legislation that will be introduced in 2018.”

Staff and Culture

With any organization, learning about the team can tell you a lot about their culture and agenda. The Nonhuman Rights Project is no different. Team members have deep roots both in animal rights ideology and in environmental policy.

President, Steven M Wise -

A lawyer, Steven Wise has spent the majority of his career immersed in the animal rights ideology and agenda after reading Peter Singer’s “Animal Liberation.” He is the Past President of the Animal Legal Defense Fund and has ties to the Humane Society of the United States as a contributing author in their publications. Wise has taught animal rights courses at a number of law schools; Harvard Law School, Vermont Law School, St. Thomas University School of Law, and John Marshall Law School.

Director of Public Affairs and Government Relations, Matthew Dominguez -

Matthew Dominguez also has ties to other animal rights groups. Dominguez was the past HSUS Director of Public Policy and worked on the HSUS Farm Animal Protection Campaign before joining NhRP.

Executive Director, Kevin Schneider -

Schneider earned his law degree from Florida State University in 2013 with a specialization in environmental and land use law. Schneider isn’t simply interested in animal rights and granting personhood to animals, he advocates for plant-based diets and reforming the food system.

Director of Government Relations and Campaigns, Courtney Fern -

Courtney Fern has other ties to animal rights organizations as well. She was the California State Director for the HSUS and recently worked for the animal rights group, Last Chance for Animals. Additionally, like Schneider, Fern has had her fingers in environmental regulations working as a law clerk for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and as a legal fellow at the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Development Director, Erika Mathews -

Mathews has over 20 years of experience working in the animal rights industry, including groups like Farm Sanctuary, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and the ASPCA. Erika is also involved in the aggressive and relentless campaign against New York Carriage Horses.

For more information about NhRP’s culture, agenda and future plans, see this interview with Matthew Dominguez: https://animalcharityevaluators.org/charity-reviews/charity-conversations/conversation-with-matthew-dominguez-of-the-nonhuman-rights-project/

Article - Habeas Corpus is for Humans, Not for Animals

American Wild Horse Campaign

Behind the façade of beautiful images of horses on American rangelands lies a group of animal rights ideologues. The group, the American Wild Horse Campaign, is determined to undermine every step the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and other organizations take to help solve the animal welfare crisis occurring in the American West. The American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) was originally founded by animal rights activists Neda Demayo and Virginie Parant who are also founders of the animal rights sanctuary, “Return to Freedom”. The name “Return to Freedom” is a misnomer in itself as they don’t actually return horses to freedom and instead warehouse them on their 300-acre facility in Lompoc, California.
The American Wild Horse Campaign states on their website, “Our efforts include working collaboratively with other advocacy groups, meeting with members of Congress on Capitol Hill and their district offices and mobilizing and empowering our supporters to reach out to their elected officials on behalf of wild horses and burros.” Their goals also include repealing the Burns Amendment. The AWHC lists animal rights groups such as the ASPCA, the HSUS, In Defense of Animals, the Animal Law Coalition, The Animals Voice, The Cloud Foundation, Last Chance for Animals, Southern Sun Farm Sanctuary, and the World Wildlife Foundation as members of their coalition.

Litigation

Contrary to what their website suggests when seeking donations, “Act now to save the Mustangs,” the American Wild Horse Campaign has invested considerable donation funds on litigation instead of actually working to help horses on our American rangelands. Their litigious activities have done nothing to help prevent horses on the rangelands from dying from starvation and dehydration, nor have their activities increased adoptions significantly or helped to curb the overpopulation crisis in any meaningful way. Their website has a “Litigation” tab and when opened it displays a list of over 20 lawsuits and legal actions they have taken against the BLM and other organizations that are working to manage the populations and improve the welfare of rangeland horses. They have even inserted themselves into lawsuits against ranchers in Nevada and Utah as well as the state of Wyoming.

The American Wild Horse Campaign works with the “public interest firm” Meyer Glitzenstein & Eubanks which is a legal organization that represents other radical animal rights and non-governmental organizations (NGO’s). Included in the list of groups they represent are: PETA, HSUS, the animal rights based group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), the Center for Biological Diversity, In Defense of Animals, Defenders of Wildlife, International Fund for Animal Welfare, and the Rescue Freedom Project-formerly the Beagle Freedom Project which is founded by a convicted arsonist. Meyer Glitzenstein & Eubanks also partners with the Animal Legal Defense Fund on litigation. Of note, a simple Google search will reveal that Meyer Glitzenstein & Eubanks seems to be a training ground for lawyers willing to represent radical animal rights groups.

Animal Rights Connections Run Deep

The connections to animal rights organizations are deep within the American Wild Horse Campaign. These connections range from having past members of radical groups on staff, being featured in articles and on radical animal rights websites like Animal Liberation Front, to donating over $100,000 to the animal rights extremist group PETA. They also publicly support domestic animal rights terrorists with criminal convictions for arson.
On a fairly consistent basis, the AWHC publishes guest articles by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) staffers. They also share other articles directly from HSUS on their website to push the unethical and inhumane contraceptive insecticide, PZP.

Hidden Culture

Unlike some other animal rights organizations, the American Wild Horse Campaign does not reveal its animal rights culture to the typical website visitor. However, with some searching online, it is easy to discover the true ideology of its Board of Directors and staff:

President, Eleanor Phipps Price –

Phipps Price is listed on PETA’s 2014 Year End Report under the “Directors Circle” for donating between $25,000 and $49,999 to the organization. In 2011, she was listed under PETA’s Campaigners Circle donating up to $9,000. Phipps Price also donated $100,000 to the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in 2011 and is on their Global Leadership Council. The NRDC is one of the largest environmental NGO’s known for promoting alarmist junk-science and was accused publicly of fraud during the apple scare they created in 1989. The NRDC is also known for its “sue and settle” tactics as a way to raise money off of the federal government (your tax dollars). The website, Activist Facts, reports that the NRDC has been involved in nine such “sue and settle” cases, according to a 2011 report from the Government Accountability Office, “between 1995 and 2010, taxpayers reimbursed the Natural Resources Defense Council to the tune of $252,004.”

Treasurer, Stephanie Zill –

Zill’s animal rights roots run deep. She was a featured speaker at the 2014 National Animal Rights Conference and a public supporter of domestic terrorist and convicted criminal Kevin Tubbs, calling him a “Hero.” Kevin Tubbs was a member of a radical group called “The Family” which is a Eugene, Oregon cell of the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front. According to the Los Angeles Times, Tubbs plead guilty to conspiracy and arson charges connected to a string of 20 arsons in five states that did a total of $40 million in damage. This is her comment on the Los Angeles Times website about Tubb’s case:

“When Judge Ann Aiken sentenced Tubbs, she accused him of having wasted his life by choosing violence rather than raising public awareness about the slaughter of wild horses. As a law-abiding citizen who has worked tirelessly through legal channels to close the horse slaughterhouses in Illinois and Texas -- now both closed -- I can testify to the effect of direct action ("terrorism") on public awareness. Tubbs is a hero for his contribution to ending the slaughter.”

Quote on the Los Angeles Times website: http://articles.latimes.com/2007/may/25/nation/na-arson25

Article about Tubb’s sentencing: http://articles.latimes.com/2007/may/25/nation/na-arson25

In addition to her involvement with AWHC, Zill is also on the board of the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and serves as their Treasurer. The CBD is a radical environmental group that has partnered with other organizations to spread misinformation about animal agriculture and promote a plant-based diet. According to the website leftexposed.org, “In 2002, CBD was caught inserting falsified evidence of range damage into the federal grazing permit file of an Arizona ranching company the group had targeted for destruction. The wronged rancher took CBD to court in 2005, and a guilty verdict at trial required CBD to pay $600,000 in damages.”

Executive Director, Suzanne Roy –

According to her own bio found online, Roy has spent 25 years as an animal rights activist. Prior to joining AWHC, she worked for the radical group, In Defense of Animals. With that organization she worked in conjunction with PETA, the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida, United for Animals and other animal rights groups to oppose zoos. She also has worked on the Born Free USA project, one of the organizations that Ringling Brothers and its parent company, Feld Entertainment filed a RICO lawsuit against. Suzanne Roy is well versed in animal rights organizations cloaking themselves as advocacy groups. She served as the Communications Director for the animal rights-based group, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). A 2004, Newsweek article described PCRM in this way: “The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. PCRM is a fanatical animal rights group that seeks to remove eggs, milk, meat, and seafood from the American diet, and to eliminate the use of animals in scientific research. Despite its operational and financial ties to other animal activist groups and its close relationship with violent zealots, PCRM has successfully duped the media and much of the general public into believing that its pronouncements about the superiority of vegetarian-only diets represent the opinion of the medical community…. Less than 5 percent of PCRM’s members are physicians.”

For more information about the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine: https://www.activistfacts.com/organizations/23-physicians-committee-for-responsible-medicine/

Founder, Board of Directors Neda Demayo –

A quick Google search will turn up an interview with Neda Demayo on the website of the radical animal rights group Animal Liberation Front (ALF) under the title, “Activist Profiles, Bios, Interviews.” The Animal Liberation Front is listed on the FBI website as a dangerous domestic terrorism group. In addition to agreeing to associate with ALF, Demayo allowed the organization to set up fundraising features for her Return To Freedom organization on its website.

Demayo has also been featured on Care2, which is an alternate website of PETA’s. Demayo founded both Return to Freedom and the American Wild Horse Campaign and serves both organizations. Listed on the Return To Freedom website they have the following advocacy partners: ASPCA, HSUS, Society for Animal Protective Legislation, and the radical environmental group World Wildlife Foundation.

Link to information on the FBI website about ALF: https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/testimony/animal-rights-extremism-and-ecoterrorism

Government Relations and Policy Council, Brieanah Schwartz -

Prior to joining AWHC, Schwartz worked as a law clerk with Meyer Glitzenstein & Eubanks. She also worked for Defenders of Wildlife and worked as law clerk for the US Dept of the Interior in environmental investigations regarding the Clean Water Act. In college Schwarts was a member of the student group “Animal Legal Defense Fund Maryland Cary Chapter”. It also appears that Schwartz is a proponent of habeas corpus for animals and the environment. At the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law Colloquium in Oslo, Norway, she presented a paper on how animals and the environment could have standing to sue under U.S. law.

Communications Director, Grace Kuhn –

Kuhn has been involved in a number of animal rights initiatives in her career. She worked as the Social Media Manager on two radical animal rights propaganda films, “What The Health” and “Cowspiracy.” Kuhn has also worked booths at animal rights conferences and promotes plant-based diets online. She has also been involved in the aggressive animal rights campaigns against both Ringling Brothers Circus and the Grand National Rodeo.

Grey2K

Grey2K is an animal rights group that claims it is a charity. However, there is no listing for the organization on Charity Navigator because it is not a 501c3 and donations to Grey2K are not tax-deductible.

The organization was founded in 2001, by the husband & wife team of Carey Theil & Christine Dorchak. This husband and wife team has remained the organization’s Executive Director and President ever since. However, other board members have come and gone over time.

Finances

From 2009 to 2014 Grey2K raised over $2,000,000 from donations and grants. They receive support from animal rights groups in various ways. The ASPCA granted $25,000 to the organization. Despite their donation page that reads, “Give Now to Save Greyhounds” during that 5-year period only 1.4% of donor funds actually went to Greyhound adoption efforts.

Other financial information obtained directly from the Grey2K website:

• 82% of all 2017 expenditures were used directly for programs including legislative advocacy, ballot initiatives, legal research, and investigation into the cruelty of greyhound racing.
• 9.4% of 2017 expenditures were focused on the production of adoption information and educational materials for the general public, distribution of campaign updates to supporters, upgrades to our website, and other member services.
• 8.6% of 2017 expenditures paid for registration and reporting in racing states, legal and accounting support, and administrative costs for our Massachusetts headquarters.

Lack of Ethics

It is well known that animal rights groups deliberately misinform the public. Grey2K is no different. They misled Florida voters about changes to their Constitution when they campaigned to ban Greyhound racing in that state. In regard to the campaign, the list of misinformation and slander of the Greyhound racing industry is long. Therefore, it came as no surprise to also discover that Grey2K is connected to a federal arrest for extortion.

To read about the extortion case: http://www.timesleaderonline.com/news/local-news/2011/09/maloney-grey2k-linked-to-fed-arrest/

True Agenda

The strategy of many animal rights groups and especially the HSUS and their affiliates like Grey2K is to attack smaller, and therefore more vulnerable animal enterprise sectors. This has been played out over and over. Some examples are pushing legislation, regulations, and ordinances that harm circuses and traveling animal exhibitions, exotic animal owners, and Greyhound racing. In Massachusetts, the HSUS cleverly conducted a poll to discern vulnerability and then marketed and passed legislation against egg production (Question 3) in a state that has only one egg producer.

Make no mistake, Grey2K is an animal rights group. After Prop 13 passed in Florida, their operatives lost no time shopping legislation against animal owners in Oregon. In this case, they are branching out. They are going after all animal sectors by proposing civil action against animal owners outside of the criminal justice system.

When researching current board members (December 2018) connections to animal rights extremist groups are evident. However, one board member’s true reason for involvement doesn’t seem to have anything to do with animals. He is a Reverend who councils against gambling. Documentation can be found where he visited Hawaii to discourage the opening of casinos. This is quite ironic since the change in the Florida State Constitution that Grey2K pushed through in November of 2018 will allow for more casinos to open now that the dog tracks in Florida will be closing.

Founder, Christine Dorchak -

Christine Dorchak’s background in animal rights goes back to her employment with the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, a group that seeks to end research with animals. She also has had a number of speaking engagements at animal rights conferences, for example, HSUS’s Taking Action for Animals Conference, and the Foundations of a Movement: An Animal Rights Conference. It is interesting to note that a Greyhound racing website found she was a keynote speaker for the radical animal rights organization Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and on their Hall of Fame list but it is now no longer visible on the ALF website. She has also been photographed at a PETA protest.
Her Facebook profile has a “friends list” heavy with staffers from animal rights organizations. Additionally, the list of animal rights and vegan organizations she supports via her profile is quite lengthy.

For more detailed information about Grey2K:

https://grey2klies.blogspot.com/2012/07/?m=1&fbclid=IwAR0CfYSL46US3if0HWr-OFGOsWve3l1P0hAkJ38Nklhipcul2Tj1-JQ44cY

https://www.ngagreyhounds.com/Media?h156=38

Article - Animal Rights Agenda Wins in Florida and Greyhounds Lose

Article - Animal Rights Groups Push to Ban Greyhound Racing in Florida

Farm Sanctuary

Farm Sanctuary.Org is a radical animal rights group with a vegan agenda that targets animal agriculture. One has to ask, “What does a lawyer, several fashion designers, a media producer, investment managers, a public relations executive, several marketers, an actress, and a philanthropist know about farming and the proper care and welfare of farm animals?” The answer is, “Nothing”, which is pretty obvious when you look at the photoshoot from their t-shirt collection! Collectively, their background and experience has no practical application in farming and yet, these are the founders and board members of Farm Sanctuary.Org.
They have big plans. Farm Sanctuary is partnered with the Humane Society of the United States. Like the HSUS, they are involved in state and federal legislation. Follow the “get involved” tab on their webpage and you’ll find:

“Farm Sanctuary works hard both to pass good state legislation and to stop bad state legislation.”
“Because state legislative sessions are generally fairly brief, and because we coordinate activities on bills with other organizations, we generally do not post state legislative updates here, but instead we ask that you please make sure we have your email address and postal address (so we know what state you’re in), and we will alert you to any future legislation that affects farm animals in your state. Also, please be sure to follow the Compassionate Communities Campaign on Facebook for news, petitions, and other opportunities to help our farm animal friends.”
“Since Farm Sanctuary partnered with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida… momentum has spread to get rid of some of the worst abuses of farm animals.”

According to the webpage, Activist Facts, Farm Sanctuary is growing in power and resources:
“The organization has grown from selling tofu dogs at Grateful Dead concerts into a multi-million dollar enterprise committed to the systematic abolition of livestock agriculture. And its political capital has grown even faster than its budget. Farm Sanctuary activists have already scored several victories in their quest to cripple livestock farms, and nothing — not even electoral fraud convictions — seems to slow their pursuit of that goal.”
 
“Farm Sanctuary uses ballot initiatives to sidestep state legislatures. And while it’s vulnerable to activist fraud, the ballot initiative process sports a feature even more useful to Farm Sanctuary: the vast majority of voters will know next to nothing about what they are voting on.
Farm Sanctuary stacks the odds further against an informed electorate with an even more deplorable tactic: it never gives the full story, knowing that the urban audience for its propaganda doesn’t know much about livestock agriculture.”

Protect The Harvest, along with other organizations, for example, Humane Watch, The Calvary Group and Animal Agriculture Alliance, have been sounding the alarm for years about the growing threat of extremist animal rights groups. Animal Rights extremists are attacking our heritage, our right to feed our families, and our way of life. While we have been making progress informing and educating the public about their activities, unfortunately, there are still those that don’t know what is going on. Worse, there are others who do not believe these extremist groups will gain traction and impact us. The sad truth is they are making an impact. These extremist groups are well funded, active, and are joining forces. They are attacking our way of life, agriculture, and animal ownership, through legislation and other means. They need to be stopped and we need your help to spread the word about their activities and their agenda.

Link to Activist Facts page exposing Farm Sanctuary.Org: https://www.activistfacts.com/organizations/115-farm-sanctuary/

Kirkpatrick Foundation

The Kirkpatrick Foundation probably does not ring a bell for you unless you live in Oklahoma. However, many Oklahoma residents will recognize this family’s name from the Kirkpatrick Bank and the Kirkpatrick Oil and Gas Company.

Our concern with the Kirkpatrick Foundation is their participation and financial support of radical animal rights groups. Christian Keesee, the President of the Kirkpatrick Foundation, is on the National Council for the Humane Society of the United States, an animal rights group with far-reaching tentacles.

Animal rights groups seek to end animal agriculture and animal ownership. Animal rights groups are well known for harassing 4-H and FFA kids, causing major disruption at county fairs and pushing legislation that hurts farmers, ranchers, pet breeders, and horse lovers. They also push legislation that impacts hunters and anglers and even zoos and private organizations that are involved in education and species preservation.

In Oklahoma, agriculture contributes over $6 Billion to the state economy. The horse industry contributes another $1.6 Billion to the state GOP. The estimated economic impact of hunting and fishing in Oklahoma is an additional $1.8 Billion. We believe the people of Oklahoma need to be aware of what’s going on right in their own state that threatens agriculture, zoos, horse ownership, 4H, FFA, hunting and fishing and animal ownership in general.

To learn more about the difference between animal rights and animal welfare: https://protecttheharvest.com/what-you-need-to-know/animal-rights-vs-animal-welfare-there-is-a-difference/
To learn more about animal rights organizations: https://protecttheharvest.com/what-you-need-to-know/overview-of-animal-rights-organizations/

A History of Philanthropy and Good Works in Oklahoma City
The Kirkpatrick Foundation was started in 1955 by John E. and Eleanor B. Kirkpatrick with an initial contribution of $10,000. This contribution has since expanded into a domain of philanthropy, contributing $67 million in grants through their foundation and $80 million in grants through their affiliated Kirkpatrick Family Fund. Their early work focused on building the community, educating children, establishing museums, and the support of the arts and animal welfare.

Animal Welfare – Oklahoma City Zoo

Joan E. Kirkpatrick, the 2nd generation of leadership with Kirkpatrick Foundation, had a strong focus towards animal welfare. The Oklahoma City Zoo named their state-of-the-art veterinary hospital after her when the foundation gave $1 million to help build it.

The Foundation’s Shift to Animal Rights Ideology
Through Christian Keesee’s involvement with the Humane Society of the United States National Council, the third generation of leadership at the Kirkpatrick Foundation has taken a dramatic turn away from animal welfare and supporting Oklahoma agriculture. As a council member, Keesee must know that the HSUS has been relentlessly attacking animal agriculture and promoting an animal rights agenda for some time.

The Humane Society of the United States former CEO, Wayne Pacelle, wrote a book titled “The Humane Economy” which reads like a manifesto against animal agriculture. Pacelle also previously worked for other radical animal rights groups. The Humane Society of the United States has a long history of pushing legislation and regulations that are harmful to animal ownership. The current CEO of the HSUS is Kitty Block, a past PETA employee.

In 2016 when Oklahoma 777 – Right to Farm was on the ballot, the Kirkpatrick Foundation launched a campaign against it. Oklahoma 777 – Right to Farm would have protected Oklahoma Farmers and Ranchers from the activities of animal rights ideologues. The Kirkpatrick Foundation website has a section titled, “Right to Farm or Right to Harm?” Just like with their ANIMAL conference listed below, on the surface, the information about Oklahoma 777 appears to be fair, even stating, “…Kirkpatrick Foundation provided these non-partisan resources to help with voter education” and by sharing links to viewpoints from both sides. After a closer examination of their video and materials available on the website, the influence of animal rights ideology is more than evident.

In addition to contributing over $150,000 to the Humane Society of the United States, they are also contributing significant funding to even more radical anti-agriculture groups like Mercy for Animals.
To learn more about Mercy for Animals: https://www.activistfacts.com/organizations/mercy-for-animals/

Using Financial Donations for Animal Rights Platforms - The Oklahoma History Center
The Kirkpatrick Foundation donated over $1 million to the Oklahoma Historical Society. Since September 2018, the Oklahoma History Center has been displaying an exhibit titled, “Where They Went: A Photographic History of Oklahoma Animals”. This photographic exhibit, made possible by the Kirkpatrick Foundation’s support, included not only images of Oklahoma animals from the Center’s archives, but placards and banners announcing the triennial conference, The ANIMAL, hosted in part at the center by the Foundation. The conference was held in October 2018.
 
The Kirkpatrick Foundation’s ANIMAL Conference
Who doesn’t like animals? Everyone loves animals, and a conference for those who love animals would be a wonderful thing. However, the unsuspecting name and beautiful imagery of the conference materials and promotional items do not reveal the true agenda. The focus of the conference was not animal welfare. Instead, animal rights groups were the main focus of this event and were involved in multiple breakout sessions.

One of the mini opening sessions included meeting Clare Bland one-on-one. She is the Director of Development at The Good Food Institute, an animal rights organization working to end all animal agriculture. She has also previously worked for the radical animal rights organization, Mercy For Animals. If that wasn’t bad enough, she also spoke about how to fundraise for animal rights organizations during another breakout session.

The Good Food Institute also sent Executive Director and Co-Founder Bruce Friedrich to the event. Friedrich worked for PETA from 1996 to 2009 and is not shy about his push for veganism. His breakout session was titled, “Healthy and Humane Innovation in the Food Supply”, but the only healthy and humane option that The Good Food Institute envisions is a world without animal agriculture.

The Oklahoma State Director of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) Cynthia Armstrong joined a panel session regarding Oklahoma Pet Breeding Laws. It doesn’t get much more animal rights oriented than the HSUS and their stance on wanting to end all pet breeding.

To learn more about HSUS ex CEO Wayne Pacelle: https://www.activistfacts.com/person/3366-wayne-pacelle/
To learn more about the HSUS and their ideology:https://protecttheharvest.com/what-you-need-to-know/overview-of-animal-rights-organizations/#HSUS
To learn more about Mercy for Animals: https://www.activistfacts.com/organizations/mercy-for-animals/

Joe Maxwell was also at the event. Maxwell has deep ties to the HSUS and other radical environmental groups like the Elephant Project and Socially Responsible Agricultural Project (SRAP). SRAP provides pro bono legal work and helps form local committees that engage in the harassment of farmers. Among many things, this group provides resources and legal advice to financially ruin family farmers with nuisance lawsuits. Maxwell has held several positions with the HSUS including, Director of Rural Outreach, Vice President of Rural Outreach and he was the Senior Political Director for the HSUS’s Legislative affiliate, the Humane Society Legislative Fund. Maxwell is now the Director for the Organization for Competitive Markets, and Founder and President of Family Farm Action, a group that uses an advisor Amin Steel, the Executive Director of Real Food Challenge. Real Food Challenge is an organization that partners with the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) and radical animal rights and eco-groups like Farm Forward and Friends of the Earth.

To learn more about Friends of the Earth:https://www.activistfacts.com/organizations/123-friends-of-the-earth/
To learn more about the Socially Responsible Agricultural Project: https://protecttheharvest.com/news/socially-responsible-agricultural-project-threatens-agriculture/

The breakout session Maxwell was involved in focused on “the extreme confinement and suffering of farm animals”. That seems like an unfair topic for someone who worked for an organization that believes any confinement of animals causes suffering and is seeking to end animal agriculture.

The ANIMAL Conference, in 2018, also had a session that featured Ann Olson, the founder of Animal Folks, which is an anti-pet breeding organization from Minnesota.

Also of note: Hanna Thompson Weeman of Animal Agriculture Alliance reported that the Kirkpatrick Foundation only served vegan food at the ANIMAL conference. A sure sign of the true agenda. Here’s a link to a radio interview about the conference on Oklahoma Farm Report: http://www.oklahomafarmreport.com/wire/news/2018/12/media/01240_Beef_Buzz_12102018.mp3

The 2015 ANIMAL Conference
The event takes place every three years. A quick glance at the speakers from 2015 shows more animal rights influencers. Some of the animal rights speakers during that conference were:
• Cynthia Armstrong from the HSUS.
• Jonathan Balcombe who has worked for the PETA; the HSUS, and Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PRCM). PRCM is an animal rights group that promotes a vegan lifestyle and actually only has a tiny percentage of doctors as members.
• Tim Harrison who is the director for Outreach for Animals but also has worked directly with the HSUS.

To learn more about the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine:https://www.activistfacts.com/organizations/23-physicians-committee-for-responsible-medicine/

 
The Oklahoma Animal Study – A Deeper Look Into the Kirkpatrick Foundation’s Animal Rights Agenda
After our reviewing information about The ANIMAL Conference, we then discovered a research project the Kirkpatrick Foundation conducted. This study was published in 2016 in attempts “to better understand the interconnection and complicated human-animal relationship”. To do this, they conducted 114 interviews with scientists, veterinarians, animal behavior experts, animal welfare advocates, and animal protection organizations. They also used many other sources ranging from interviews, shelter surveys, scientific articles, government sources, etc.

The first red flag is the advisory council used for this study. There were some legitimate animal welfare advocates included on the council. However, the list of animal rights extremists involved as both members of the advisory council and in interviews shows a biased approach. Cynthia Armstrong, the Oklahoma State Director for the HSUS and Tim Harrison the Director of Outreach for Animals, who has close ties with the HSUS, were both on the council. There were also 4 interviewees that were aligned with animal rights ideology:

• Lora Dunn – Staff Attorney, Animal Legal Defense Fund Criminal Justice Program
• Cynthia Armstrong – Oklahoma State Director, Humane Society of the United States
• Che Green, Executive Director, Faunalytics
• Bernard Unti, Senior Policy Advisor, Humane Society of the United States

While there is no way of knowing how much these extremists affected this study, we can be sure that having them involved in interviews and on the council makes the results and recommendations of the study highly suspect.

After reading through the almost 200-page study, we found recommendations right out of the animal rights ideological playbook. Even though the research for this study ended in 2015, it is still very relevant for what is happening today.

To learn more about the Animal Legal Defense Fund: https://protecttheharvest.com/what-you-need-to-know/overview-of-animal-rights-organizations/#ALDF

The Kirkpatrick Foundation “Safe and Humane” Agenda for Oklahoma Animals
It appears that this study and The ANIMAL Conference were a direct result of the Kirkpatrick Foundation’s twenty-year initiative called Safe & Humane. The goal of this initiative is to make Oklahoma the most safe and humane place for animals by the year 2032. To ensure this happens, the study outlines recommendations for the state. This study contains a lot of information, much of it good. However, once fully reviewed, we found a big problem. The facts and citations in the study from actual scientists, veterinarians, and animal welfare advocates are overlooked. Instead, the emotional aspects animal rights extremists bring to the table are considered reality. The study is riddled with citations from animal rights groups like the Humane Society of the United States, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the ASPCA, and Born Free USA. If this study was actually meant to be unbiased and based on facts, then why would it include so many citations from animal rights organizations? These groups believe people should not eat meat, enjoy dairy products, hunt, fish, or even own pets and livestock. These are groups and people that believe owning an animal for food or companionship is slavery.

Below are the most concerning recommendations that we found in this study:
• Support “humane education” in schools and “teach children how to show compassion to all creatures”. This sounds fantastic on the surface; all children need to learn about animals and to be compassionate. However, both PETA and the HSUS have radical animal rights curriculum they are pushing in schools. Since Keesee is on the HSUS National Council, it would be no surprise to see the Kirkpatrick Foundation pushing the HSUS program. To learn more about PETA and HSUS infiltrating schools: http://protecttheharvest.com/news/hsus-peta-influencing-children/
• Phase out and eventually eliminate animal husbandry practices that utilize animal welfare systems such as gestation and farrowing crates and battery cages. Link to information from Protect California Families and Ag Producers: http://protecttheharvest.com/initiatives/protect-california-families-and-ag-producers/resources-and-links/
• Advocate for the use of pain-relieving medications for common animal agriculture procedures like castration, branding, and dehorning.
• Ban the practice of tail docking in cattle.
• Study and educate Oklahoma residents about what the study calls, “canned hunt facilities” and “inhumane forms of hunting such as trapping and hounding”.
• Educate the public on methods of wildlife management that are “less consumptive” by encouraging non-lethal wildlife conflict-resolution techniques instead of killing and trapping. It is important to note that the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation focuses on protecting Oklahoma Wildlife and permits and regulates Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators. To learn more about how hunting supports conservation: https://www.outdoorlife.com/changes-to-pittman-robertson-funds-are-designed-to-save-next-endangered-species-hunters#page-2
To learn more about the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation: https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/
• Discourage the expansion of large modern farms and educate the public about them.
• Reinstate a ban on horse processing in Oklahoma in case it is ever reinstated in this country.
• Updating Oklahoma animal statues by enacting a prohibition on the private ownership of exotic animals and crafting future state legislation following the Animal Legal Defense Fund model. Per this study, The Animal Legal Defense Fund model has been used in Illinois, Oregon, Maine, California, and Michigan.
• Encourage animal research institutions to reduce the number of animals used, refine practices to reduce distress, and replace animal testing with alternative methods. Animals in research receive exceptional care. Practices have already been refined to ensure their welfare. Research animals serve a vital, often life-saving purpose for both humans and animals.

For facts about animals in research, we recommend visiting Americans for Medical Progress: https://www.amprogress.org/animal-research/

Link to Oklahoma Animal Study: http://www.kirkpatrickfoundation.com/uploads/the-oklahoma-animal-study-final.pdf

What Happened to the Kirkpatrick Foundation?
For 64 years via their generosity, the Kirkpatrick Foundation and their affiliated philanthropic organizations have been involved in great works supporting Oklahoma communities.

In the words of John Kennedy, “…Philanthropy, charity, giving voluntarily and freely…call it what you like, but it is truly a jewel of an American tradition.”

There is no doubt that the Kirkpatrick Foundation was truly a jewel in the heart of Oklahoma. However, their website tells the story. The Kirkpatrick Foundation now seems to be almost solely focused on promoting an animal rights agenda. Their support of animal rights runs counter to the Kirkpatrick family legacy as it undermines the very foundation and heart of Oklahoma, its communities, its families and its children.