Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The Alphabet Soup of Animal Rights

The Alphabet Soup of Animal Rights


Part I: The Top of the Heap
The link between PeTA, HSUS and ALF is none other than Nanci Bonnie Alexander, founder of the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida (ARFF).

She is the ex-wife of Leslie Alexander, a multi-millionaire. Les made his fortune as a Wall Street trader. He also owns the Texas Rockets. The Boca Raton, Florida couple divorced after 30 years of marriage. He offered her a check for $100 million to settle the divorce out of court, but she tore up his check. It is estimated that Les was worth about half a billion dollars back then, and Nanci wound up with about $250 million of that.

[Les Alexander is still a big supporter of animal rights. For instance, he teamed up with SNAP, the Spay-Neuter Assistance Program, to campaign for matching donations in Houston.]

Nanci Alexander is also on the Humane USA PAC (aka the HSUS PAC) Board of Directors. The Humane USA was formed by leaders of major animal rights organizations, including The Humane Society of the United States, The Fund for Animals, Farm Sanctuary, ASPCA, Doris Day Animal League, Animal Welfare Institute, The Ark Trust, Animal Rights Foundation of Florida, and others.

Other Humane USA Board of Directors members include Carole Baskin, Tampa, Florida; Gene Bauston, Vice-Chair, Watkins Glen, New York; Barbara Birdsey, West Barnstable, Massachusetts; Priscilla Cohn, Ph. D, Villanova, Pennsylvania; Harriett Crosby, Washington, DC; Jane Gale, Las Vegas, NV; Wm Christopher Kerr, Woodstock, New York; Jana Kohl, Psy.D., Chicago, Illinois; Mike Markarian, Chair, Silver Spring, MD;
Michele Martinez-Hixon, Pacific Palisades, CA ; Mary Max, New York, New York; Wayne Pacelle, Washington, DC; Maureen E. Peckman, Nevada; Bonnie Robbins, Seattle, Washington; Adam Roberts, Washington, DC; Staff: JJ Scheele, Washington, DC

Nanci donates millions of dollars every year to PeTA and PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine). In 2004, she donated $5,000,000 to PCRM and another $5,000,000 to PeTA. All total, she donated over $25,000,000 to finance various animal rights organizations in 2004 alone. In 2003 PCRM received $10,000,000 from her and PeTA got $5,000,000.
In 2006 PCRM and PeTA each received $5 million.
IRS records also prove that her foundations have directly funded a violent animal-rights group described by the U.S. Department of Justice as a “domestic terrorist threat.” In 2001 and 2002 two donations, totaling $108,000, were made directly to SHAC (“Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty”), a multinational organization whose tactics have included death threats, car bombings, and physical assaults.

By the time the Alexander Foundation made its first grant to SHAC, that group’s violent activism had already resulted in eleven car-bombings in Great Britain, the baseball-bat beating of a medical research executive, and countless well-publicized threats of death or bodily harm. According to the February 23, 2004 issue of Newsweek, PCRM president Neal Barnard [who is tied professionally and personally to Ingrid Newkirk] co-signed a series of intimidating letters (on PCRM letterhead) with Kevin Kjonaas, then the U.S. president of SHAC. The letters were part of a campaign aimed at crippling a New Jersey company whose work includes medical research which requires the use of animals. Kjonaas, who also formerly served as a spokesperson for the FBI-designated “terrorist” Animal Liberation Front (ALF).

The Alexander Foundation is an animal rights organization’s dream.

However, donations to an obscure charity called Animal Rights America (ARA) tells a more troubling story.

The Alexander Foundation reported to the IRS that this donation was earmarked for Animal Rights America (page 17). The Alexander Foundation financially supported the notorious "Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty Campaign" – SHAC. The UK newspaper, The Telegraph, infiltrated SHAC's ranks to expose its secret funding network. A Telegraph reporter approached British SHAC leaders Greg Avery and Natasha Dellemagne and asked how he could contribute money. Mr. Avery and Ms. Dellemagne told him to pay a donation to the American charity Animal Rights America (ARA), which would be fed through its bank account and returned to Britain in cash for use by SHAC. Our undercover reporter was told that donating to the ARA was the perfect cover as the transaction would appear on banking records only as a contribution to a registered charity and could even qualify as a tax-deductible expense.

Ms. Dellemagne, 33, later telephoned him with the account number, bank code and charity tax identification for ARA. The money was transferred to the ARA account in Reading, Pennsylvania. (At one time the ARA had “offices” in quite a few states across the nation.)

Animal Rights America published “No Compromise”, a self-described "militant, direct-action newspaper" that "supports the A.L.F." And that group funneled money to SHAC, an organization whose members blew up cars, made death threats, beat people with baseball bats, and otherwise terrorized their "targets." And a major portion of that money trail began with the Alexanders.

It should be no surpise then that Nanci Alexander was also deeply involved with Operation Bite Back – a campaign carried out by ALF terrorists against farmers and researchers and anyone raising animals. Attacks were encouraged upon anyone making a living from animal ownership as part of their anti-capitalism campaign. Bite Back’s website was registered by Nicolas Atwood at a West Palm Beach, Florida address. The site promoted criminal actions against all kinds of targets. Photos and videos of animal enterprise terrorists were featured – acts of property destruction as well as interviews with convicted terrorists. Viewers were encouraged to write letters in support of these prisoners. Atwood was the Director of Communications at ARFF and also the Communications Coordinator for the Palm Beach County Cultural Council.

See Also:
http://foundationcenter.org/findfunders/

Alexander Foundation, Inc.
EIN 69-2789197
2006 $2,135,483
2005 $2,255,875
2004 $2,361,547
2003 $2,435,080
2002 $2,628,405
2001 $2,992,096

Nanci's Animal Rights Foundation, Inc.
EIN 65-1174489
2006 $73,032,658
2005 $55,487,486
2004 $39,364,682
During the past decade, Nanci Alexander has donated thousands of dollars to the Humane USA PAC, Robert Wexler (D) - FL; Alcee Hastings (D) - FL; Howard Dean (D), President of Dean for Amreica; Maria Cantwell (D) WA Senate; Peter Deutsch (D) - FL Senate; John Kerry for President Inc.; Robert C. Smith (R) NH Senate; Mario Diaz-Balart (R) FL House; the 20th District of Florida Federal PAC; Carol A. Roberts (D) FL House; Joseph Maxwell Cleland (D) GA Senate; Thomas Richard Harkin (D) IA Senate; ZACKPAC - Ben Wexter, Treasurer - Boca Raton; Charles S. Robb (D) VA Senate; DNC Services Corp/Demo National Committee; Patsy Ann Kurth (D) FL House; Ed Whitfeld (R) KY House; Peter A. Defazio (D) OR House; Elaine D. Bloom (D) FL House; Democratic Exec Committee of FL: Sam Farr (D) CA House; John C. Rayson (D) FL House; Barbara Boxer (D), CA Senate; Ronald Lee Wyden (D) OR Senate; Elect! for Animals; Patty Murray (D) WA Senate; Richard A. Gephardt (D) MO House; James A. Stuber (D) FL House; John Bryant (D) TX Senate; Robert G. Torricelli (D) NJ Senate; Peter M. Weinstein (D) FL House; John Forbes Kerry (D) MA Senate; Ronald Cordell Sims (D) FL Senate; Jack Mudd (D) MT Senate; Thomas H. Andrews (D) ME Senate; George J. Mitchell (D) WA Senate; Michael Allen Andrews (D) TX Senate; Joseph P. Kennedy II (D) MA House; Lois Jane Frankel (D) FL House; Nicki Grossman for Congress; Bob Graham (D) FL Senate & Paul E. Tsongas (D)
Former Board of Advisors for the ARFF - Animal Rights Foundation of Florida included Peter Deutsch, Alice Hastings, Robert Wexler, Cathleen Anderson (City Commissioner-Hollywood and President of Animal Birth Control), Ted Stedman Carr, DVM, Doris Day, Jay Ferber DVM, Scott Fuerst, Esq., Pam Huizenga (daughter of Waste Management mogul) and Ingrid Newkirk.