What does leadership transition mean for WSPA?

[Guest guest]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2008:

 

 

What does leadership transition mean for WSPA?

 

LONDON, MONTREAL--Whatever future

direction the World Society for the Protection of

Animals takes, it will not be for much longer

under Peter Davies, the WSPA director general

since September 2002.

ANIMAL PEOPLE on July 17, 2008 obtained

a copy of a WSPA document entitled " Chief

Executive Search, " which WSPA board members have

apparently distributed to prospective applicants.

Stating that " The current Director General is due

to retire from office in June 2009, " the

document outlines the qualifications that the

WSPA board hopes to find in potential successors.

Among 15 enumerated attributes of " an

ideal chief executive, " according to the " Chief

Executive Search " criteria, only two even

mention animal advocacy.

Point #9 is that the " ideal chief

executive " will " have a developed belief in

animal advocacy and citizen involvement in the

public arena as a force for change. "

Point #15 is that the " ideal chief

executive " will " genuinely believe in the cause

of animal welfare and the work of WSPA

(experience in animal welfare is not a

prerequisite, but would be an asset). "

" Expressions of interest should be in

English and forwarded by e-mail, " the document

stipulates, to WSPA board president Dominique

Bellemare and WSPA board secretary Peter Mason.

Bellemare, elected to the WSPA board

presidency on June 5, 2008, is a Montreal

attorney and Conservative Party of Canada

candidate for Parliament. His campaign web site

when ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press appeared to make

no mention of his involvement with WSPA, but

endorsed pro-sealing and pro-fur Conservative

prime minister Stephen Harper.

Mason heads the Royal New Zealand SPCA.

WSPA annual revenues approximately

doubled during Davies' tenure, from about $17

million per year to $34 million. Program

spending increased proportionately. The number

of WSPA member societies doubled, to more than

850, representing 144 nations. WSPA was

restructured during Davies' tenure to make London

the head office for the 10 WSPA subsidiaries and

two affiliates worldwide.

In addition, Davies in 2004 announced

the first major evolution in WSPA philosophy

since WSPA was formed in 1981 by merging the

World Federation for the Protection of Animals,

founded in 1953, and the International Society

for the Protection of Animals, founded in 1959.

Instead of advocating the traditional

catch-and-kill approach to dog and cat population

control, WSPA followed the direction of most

other major humane organizations to " advocate a

combination of extensive neutering/spaying,

rehoming, education into responsible pet

ownership, and compulsory registration. "

This change immediately preceded several

years of rapid acquisition of new member

societies whose leaders had perceived the old

WSPA position as obsolete.

Davies' successor as director general

will inherit a much stronger and more influential

organization--but whether it will uphold the same

values after the impending change of leadership

appears to be by no means assured.

The earliest World Society for Protection

of Animals campaign packet that ANIMAL PEOPLE has

on file, mailed more than 20 years ago, was

headlined " Fur: A Moral Issue. "

The WSPA position statements pertaining

to fur and sealing, then and now, were that

" WSPA is opposed to the taking from the wild of

animals for their fur or skins, and to the

farming of animals for the same purpose. It

considers it morally indefensible to subject

animals to suffering and death for fur or skin

products, which are non-essential luxury goods.

WSPA is opposed to the manufacture, sale,

possession and use of any snares and traps which

cause suffering or death....WSPA opposes, on

both ethical and humane grounds, the harassment,

capture or killing of marine mammals for

commercial and sport purposes. "

These were in essence also the policies

of the predecessor organizations. Their

opposition to the fur trade was incorporated into

several drafts of the proposed Universal

Declaration on Animal Welfare that were

circulated for decades before WSPA introduced the

less explicit present version in 2000, in hopes

of finally winning United Nations endorsement.

Yet neither Bellemare, Mason, nor any

other member of the present WSPA board except

Blue Cross of India chief executive Chinny

Krishna has been willing since Bellemare's

election, in response to repeated requests from

ANIMAL PEOPLE, to state support in an

individually accountable manner for the WSPA

positions against fur and sealing. In absence

of individually accountable positions from board

members, it is not possible to determine from a

head count the depth of support for the

traditional WSPA policies of opposition to

sealing and the fur trade, or to see which

members might accept weakening amendments.

Instead, Mason on July 9, 2008 stated

on behalf of the collective board that " All WSPA

Board members endorse the policies and programmes

of WSPA. "

ANIMAL PEOPLE pointed out that

Conservative Party of Canada has likewise issued

assurances that Conservative candidates endorse

the party platform, as did the predecessor

Progressive-Conservative Party, whose last

national secretary was Dominique Bellemare.

 

" Defence of the Fur Trade "

 

The positions on fur and sealing taken by

the Conservative Party of Canada, Conservative

prime minister Stephen Harper, the former

Progressive-Conservative Party of Canada, and

former Progressive-Conservative prime minister

Joe Clark have always been poles apart from those

of WSPA.

But there was once a partial exception.

In 1983 Brian Mulroney of Quebec wrested the

Progressive-Conservative leadership from Clark.

Elected prime minister with unprecedented Quebec

support for the Progressive-Conservative party,

Mulroney appears to have been the only Canadian

prime minister since Newfoundland became a

province in 1948 who held a secure majority even

if he lost Newfoundland support.

Mulroney in 1984 imposed a moratorium on

the offshore phases of the Atlantic Canadian seal

hunt. The moratorium held until 1995, a year

after Mulroney left office.

Mulroney made Clark his minister for

external affairs. Clark took over a ministry

that was bitterly blamed by sealers and furriers

for allegedly inadequately defending the seal

hunt, including in a 1986 Report of the Standing

Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern

Development.

The Canadian fur trapping, fur farming,

and fur garment manufacturing industries, whose

hub was Montreal, vehemently demanded--as the

Report of the Standing Com-mittee stated--that

" The Department of External Affairs undergo an

attitudinal change in favour of recognizing the

legitimacy of trapping as an economic activity,

and actively promote the fur industry in overseas

posts. "

The Report of the Standing Committee gave

Clark cover for work he had actually begun almost

as soon as Mulroney appointed him, as an ally of

hunters, trappers, sealers, and the fur trade

throughout his political career. Under Clark,

the Department of External Affairs commissioned

from the public relations firm Thomas Grey &

Company a strategic recommendation for defending

fur entitled Launching the Offensive. This

became the basis for a much more comprehensive

and detailed document called Defence of the Fur

Trade.

From completion in May 1985 forward,

Defence of the Fur Trade appears to have been the

master plan used by the Ministry for External

Affairs, not only to the end of Clark's tenure

in 1991, but to this day.

" There are also non-governmental

international organizations concerned with animal

welfare, " Defence of the Fur Trade noted.

" Examples would include the World Wildlife Fund,

the World Society for the Protection of Animals

and the International Wildlife Federation. Are

these organizations that can be influenced or

mobilized to foster our interests or must we

yield this ground to the anti-fur activists? If

we are to seek to work within these organizations

which Canadian groups would best be able to do

the job? "

Defence of the Fur Trade and Launching

the Offensive were obtained and distributed to

the global humane community by the Toronto Humane

Society in December 1988, more than three years

after they were distributed to key External

Affairs personnel. By then, the Department of

External Affairs had already codified its role in

promoting fur, summarized in an April 1987

response by External Affairs to the Report of the

Standing Committee:

" The Government of Canada recognizes the

legitimacy of trapping as an economic activity

and supports the taking of animals for fur,

based on humane and responsible trapping

practicesŠExternal Affairs shares the concern of

the industry that Canada's international fur

trade interests could be jeopardized by animal

rights activists...External Affairs is

contributing to the cost of attitudinal research

and professional guidance in the United Kingdom

and the United States. The Department will

continue to fund the development and

implementation of a coordinated international

communications strategy in defense of the fur

trade to the limit of available funding.

Canadian posts abroad will assist industry

representatives in the implementation of this

program. "

The Southam News syndicate in December

1990 learned from documents obtained through the

Canadian access to information act that the

Department of External Affairs had issued a

five-year grant of $1.8 million to the Fur

Institute of Canada, for pro-fur propaganda

efforts begun in 1988 and continuing through

1992--i.e., to the end of the last fiscal year

budgeted by Clark before he left office.

 

Bellemare & Joe Clark

 

Dominique Bellemare was national

secretary of the Progressive-Conservative Party

of Canada in 2003, when it merged with the

Reform Party headed by Stephen Harper to become

the present Conservative Party--whose leader,

Harper, is now prime minister.

Losing previous attempts to win a seat in

Parliament in 1997 and 1994, Bellemare is

currently trying again.

Bellemare began his involvement in

Canadian politics in 1983, according to his

resumé, as a teenaged supporter of Joe Clark in

Clark's unsuccessful effort to retain the

Progressive-Conservative leadership against Brian

Mulroney's challenge. In 1990-1991, Bellemare's

resumé states, he was " senior political adviser "

to the minister of external affairs--who was Joe

Clark.

" I cannot comment on my work with the

Deprtment, as I had a 'secret' clearance and an

oath of secrecy, " Bellemare e-mailed to ANIMAL

PEOPLE.

On June 9, 2008, Bellemare stated

through WSPA director general Peter Davies, " I

have been involved with WSPA since 1988. "

However, Bellemare told ANIMAL PEOPLE,

" During my tenure at External, I was not

involved with WSPA. This situation was known to

WSPA, and Mr Clark as well. For that reason, I

did [not?] work on any files regarding WSPA's

campaigns or lobby to the federal Government, in

order to avoid a potential conflict of interest. "

Bellemare, by both his own account and

the account of his former law partner Harry

Bloomfield, became involved with WSPA through

Bloomfield. Bloomfield was a WSPA board member

before Bellemare, and was a past member of the

Montreal SPCA board, Bloomfield told ANIMAL

PEOPLE.

Bloomfield said that Bellemare became a

WSPA board member by serving first as

Bloomfield's alternate.

" I worked in Mr Bloomfield firm as a

lawyer from 1988 to 1990, " Bellemare e-mailed.

" I worked on some legal files for WSPA (I cannot

tell you which ones due to professionnal

confidentiality, got acquainted with WSPA staff,

and got to know them and delat with them

directly. I also did my articling as a solicitor

for a London firm in 1988, visited then the WSPA

office and got acquainted with staff there. I

never sat on any Board meeting with Mr Bloomfield

from 1992 on. He was not present at Board

meetings after 1991. I was invited to join WSPA

not by Mr Bloomffield, but by Mr Bob Cummings,

head of the Nominating Committe, who was

impressed by my work and commitment to WSPA, and

the vlolunteering I did. "

Cummings, a longtime Massachusetts SPCA

executive and board member, did not respond to

an ANIMAL PEOPLE request for comment.

ANIMAL PEOPLE asked Joe Clark " what

policy areas former Progressive-Conservative

Party national secretary Dominique Bellemare

advised you about in 1990-1991, when you

employed him as a 'policy advisor' to the

Ministry for External Affairs? "

Responded Clark on June 9, 2008, " A

useful response would require some digging back

into files, by busy people, on a volunteer

basis. Could you give me a more precise idea of

why you are seeking this information? "

ANIMAL PEOPLE explained that the question

is whether Bellemare pays first allegiance to the

policies of WSPA or to the policies of his

political party, both of which he purports to

represent.

" Thanks, " e-mailed Clark on June 13,

2008. " Your clarification helps, and obviates

the need for extensive research. When Mr.

Bellemare worked with me, I had known of his

commitment to animal welfare, because he had

taken the initiative to request that he not be

involved in issues which might be seen to be

related to animal rights, to avoid a potential

conflict of interest. Naturally, I appreciated

his frankness, and respected it, so he would not

have been involved in the decisions to which you

refer. "

Clark did not answer the next question:

" Why would you have hired a person with a

" commitment to animal welfare " to work in your

office as a 'policy advisor' at a time when the

Ministry for External Affairs had already been

troubled by leaks of confidential documents

pertaining to animal issues-- most notably the

1985 strategic outline Defence of the Fur Trade,

which reached animal welfare groups and mass

media in 1988? "

Clark's assertion that he had known of

Bellemare's " commitment to animal welfare " raised

a further question: if Bellemare had such a

commitment, already known to at least one of the

senior and most influential leaders of his party,

why has Bellemare apparently never expressed his

feelings on the record to Canadian news media,

other members of his political party, global

news media, or even to pro-animal news media?

Bellemare's public record on behalf of

animals, other than his roles with WSPA,

includes service on the board of the Humane

Society of Canada, an advocacy organization

founded by former WSPA representative Michael

O'Sullivan.

ANIMAL PEOPLE president Kim Bartlett

learned that Bellemare is believed by some

persons long familiar with WSPA to have

influenced the Canadian government to assist the

WSPA mission to Kuwait following the Persian Gulf

war of 1990, and to have helped to obtain

funding for research on the effects of pesticides

and heavy metals on beluga whales.

Never once, however, does Bellemare

appear to have issued any public statements of

opposition to the Canadian fur trade or the seal

hunt, or even in support of updating the 1893

Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, a cause

championed at times by other members of the

Progressive-Conservative and Conservative parties.

E-mailed Bellemare, " I have limited my

involvment with WSPA, helping mostly with

political advice, political contact, free legal

work and so on. I am taking most of my vacation

allowance for this, considerable sums of my own

money, fre preofessional time, and so on. I was

involved strictly with WSPA. I was rarely asked

to be a spokeperson for WSPA. I did so on some

occasions, such as the campaign to stop the

Granby Zoo to have a dolphin show/exhibit. I was

quoted in several medias for this. it remained on

the web for quite a few years, but it seems it is

not there any more. [ANIMAL PEOPLE editor

Merritt] Clifton has accused me of doing nothing

regarding the Montreal Biodome's attempts to have

belugas. He is wrong. I did visit them with

WSPA staff during those years (1993-1995). "

It is possible that Bellemare might have

visited the Biodome with Michael O'Sullivan while

O'Sullivan still represented WSPA; O'Sullivan

did not respond to an ANIMAL PEOPLE inquiry. But

other leaders of the Granby Zoo and Biodome

campaigns have no recollection of Bellemare's

participation, including Ric O'Barry, whom WSPA

hired to lead protest activities in Granby in

2001.

" I can't recall the name. He was not

involved in the campaign to my knowledge, "

O'Barry said

Longtime Montreal activist Anne Streeter

was involved in both the Granby Zoo and Biodome

campaigns. She had no recollection of Bellemare

either.

This became a familiar refrain.

" I am sorry I can't be of more assistance

to you as far as Dominique Bellemare is

concerned, " said Canadian Farm Animal Care Trust

founder Tom Hughes, who was also a founding

board member of WSPA, and has headed humane

organizations in Canada since 1956. " In fact I

can't even remember him, which means that he

certainly wasn't active, in any way, in

Canadian animal welfare. "

" I've never heard of Bellemare, " said

George Clements, who cofounded the Association

for Protection of Fur Bearing Animals in 1952.

" The Bellemare family name is familiar to

me only in the political arena, " said Animal

Defence League of Canada founder Esther Klein.

" I have no knowledge of Bellemare, " said

Animal Alliance of Canada cofounder Liz White.

" I wish I could help, but I've never

heard of him and know nothing about him, "

responded wildlife artist Barry Kent MacKay, a

longtime board member of many Canadian and

international humane organizations.

" Today's e-mail traffic is the first time

I've heard the name Dominique Bellemare. " said

film maker Stephen Best, whose work was

instrumental in building the International Fund

for Animal Welfare anti-sealing campaign in the

1970s, and who cofounded the International

Wildlife Coalition in 1985.

" I can't say the name Dominique Bellemare

is familiar to me, " said Paul Seigel, a former

IFAW campaign director who now manages direct

mail campaigns for pro-animal organizations at

Direct Mail Systems Inc.

 

Bellemare & Stephen Harper

 

While Bellemare has no evident prior

history of opposition to sealing and the fur

trade, he does have considerable history of

alignment with Stephen Harper, including

helping to arrange the merger of the Reform and

Progressive-Conservative parties that led to

Harper's rise to prime minister.

Bellemare's campaign web site,

<www.dominiquebellemare.com>, throughout the

late spring and early summer of 2008 praised

Harper as, " A strong leader who knows where he

stands and knows where he is going. "

Where Stephen Harper is going in response

to anti-sealing activity has been clear for

years. In April 2006, for example, Harper

alleged to BBC News that sealers are victims of

an " international propaganda campaign. "

In September 2007, Harper told Canadian

Press that, " The seal population is exploding in

CanadaŠWe will not be bullied or blackmailed into

forcing people out of that industry who depend on

the livelihood based on things that are simply

stories and on allegations that are simply not

true. "

In July 2008, Harper told European

Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso that

" public pressure within the European Union to

curb the sale of seal products is based on

misinformation from anti-sealing organizations

and extremist groups. "

ANIMAL PEOPLE asked Bellemare if he was

willing, as president of WSPA, to allow Harper

to define WSPA as a purveyor of " misinformation "

and as an " extremist group. "

Two days later, Newfoundland and

Labrador fisheries minister Trevor Taylor, also

a member of the Conservative Party of Canada,

asked the Harper government to complain to the

World Trade Organization if the European Union

proceeds with a ban on the import of seal

products.

Asked ANIMAL PEOPLE, " Will Bellemare now

stand up on behalf of WSPA, against Taylor and

Harper, and tell the Conservative Party of

Canada and the Harper government that sealing and

selling seal pelts are morally and ethically

wrong, as WSPA policy holds, and that Canada

instead of complaining to the WTO, should end

the seal hunt?

To date, Bellemare's only subsequent

reponse to ANIMAL PEOPLE was an e-mail sent to

ANIMAL PEOPLE president Kim Bartlett on July 14,

2008 in which he repeated a previous threat [see

page 18] to " file a lawsuit against Animal

People, yourself and Merritt Clifton for libel

and diffamation. Since you rag is distributed in

Canada and more particularly in the Province of

Québec, " Bellemare said, " I will file my action

here, in the official language of Québec,

french. "

--Merritt Clifton

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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