From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2008:
(Actual publication date 11-5-08.)
Montreal SPCA sues SPCA International to try to get back web name
MONTREAL--Proceedings in a lawsuit filed
History of SPCA.com
The Montreal SPCA registered the domain
"Baghdad pups"
With the Montreal SPCA case pending,
by the Montreal SPCA to try to recover the use of
the domain name
International have been delayed because the
plaintiffs are having difficulty finding valid
legal addresses at which to serve notice on some
of the defendants, plaintiff's attorney Pierre
Lessard told ANIMAL PEOPLE on October 24, 2008.
Served as of the original scheduled court
date in October were Pierre Barnoti, who was
executive director of the Montreal SPCA from 1994
until July 2008 and is founder of SPCA
International; SPCA International itself,
incorporated in Delaware since 2006; Raouf
Dallala of Montreal, who according to the
lawsuit "acted as consultant for over 10 years"
to the Montreal SPCA during Barnoti's tenure,
and "was paid during that period fees of over
$500,000"; former Montreal SPCA board members
Howard Sholzberg and Michel Poulos; the Montreal
firm Magi Graph Concept Inc.; the New York City
firm Quadriga Art Inc., "currently acting as a
fundraising intermediary for the benefit of SPCA
International," according to the lawsuit; and
the Virginia firm Network Solutions, identified
as "registrar for the domain names
Not yet served, Lessard told ANIMAL
PEOPLE, was American Charities Group, with a
listed but apparently invalid address at 6300
Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 710, in Los Angeles.
This address has also been listed as the "West
Coast Office" of SPCA International. Like
Quadriga, "American Charities Group is currently
acting as a fundraising intermediary for the
benefit of SPCA International," the Montreal
SPCA lawsuit alleges.
"As owner of the domain names
and
lawsuit states, "the plaintiff is seeking from
the court an interlocutory and permanent
injunction requiring the defendants to cease
using the domain name
information regarding donations, revenues, and
income received by the defendant SPCA
International Inc. through the web site
<www.spca.com>, and to register the plaintiff as
the sole owner and registrant of both domain
names."
Filed by Lessard, of the Montreal law
firm Marchand, Melancon, Forget, the Montreal
SPCA case closely parallels a supporting
affidavit filed by Wendy Ann Adams. Adams, a
Montreal SPCA board member, is also an associate
professor and director of the Centre for
Intellectual Property Policy at McGill University
in Montreal.
"I am a special advisor to the board of
directors of the Canadian SPCA," avers Adams,
citing the original incorporated name of the
Montreal SPCA. Founded in 1869, the Montreal
SPCA is the oldest humane society in Canada. "I
am personally aware of all the facts alleged
hereinafter," Adams adds.
Lessard told ANIMAL PEOPLE that many of
the supporting exhibits attached to the lawsuit
were taken from the computer that Barnoti used at
the Montreal SPCA.
name
1996, the lawsuit states.
The events leading to the lawsuit gained
momentum in December 2004, according to the
Montreal SPCA lawsuit, when "Luke Montgomery was
hired by Barnoti on behalf of the plaintiff to
prepare and present to the plaintiff a branding
proposal for the website
Montgomery rose to transient prominence
as the gay rights and anti-AIDS activist "Luke
Sissyfag" in 1993-1994, disrupting a speech by
then-U.S. President Bill Clinton in December
1993, three speeches by Health Secretary Donna
Shalala in early 1994, and an Easter service
attended by the Clinton family in April 1994.
Hired in February 1997 by Last Chance for
Animals, Montgomery after some intial
controversy has remained involved in animal
advocacy, mostly quietly and behind the scenes.
Montgomery resurfaced in February 2005 as a
prominent source in an exposé of Montreal SPCA
fundraising practices--and of SPCA
International--aired by CTV, the largest
nongovernmental television network in Canada.
"Barnoti realized the potential of using
the domain name
fundraising in the U.S. and other countries,"
the Montreal SPCA lawsuit charges. "He then took
the initiative to find partners to create the
defendant SPCA International for fundraising
purposes and to use
address."
Barnoti in a July 2005 e-mail to a
Quadriga executive asserted that "Presently and
without any development or efforts,
is visited close to 30 million times a year. The
untapped potential of this site could translate
into a lot of donations directly made on the site
or by direct mailŠ"
During the next year, says the Montreal
SPCA lawsuit, "Barnoti informed only a few of
the members of the [Montreal SPCA] board, namely
the defendantsŠabout 'our international project.'"
However, the Montreal SPCA lawsuit
alleges the Montreal SPCA "financed over the
years maintenance and development costs and
expenses of the web site
reimbursed," including "all the travel expenses
of Barnoti to Europe and the U.S. to attend
conventions and meetings, including a meeting in
New York with Paul Irwin, a well known
fundraiser, to discuss fundraising opportunities
using the domain name and web site
Irwin & Gordon
As vice president of the Humane Society
of the U.S. 1975-1996, and president 1996-2004,
Paul Irwin became the highest-paid executive to
that point in the history of animal welfare,
collecting a peak of $570,325 in 1998, including
deferred compensation. Irwin even cofounded a
private bank.
After Irwin was ushered into retirement
from HSUS after the election of current HSUS
president Wayne Pacelle in April 2004, ANIMAL
PEOPLE heard from a variety of sources during the
next few months that Irwin appeared to be working
on a plan to create a rival to HSUS by merging
smaller charities whose programs when combined
could become magnets for donors. The rumors
stopped after Irwin became president of the
American Bible Society, a charity with at least
five times the assets of HSUS.
At both HSUS and the American Bible
Society, Irwin employed web developer Richard
Gordon. "Convicted in 1980 of mail fraud,
interstate transportation of a stolen check, and
making a false statement to a bank," Gordon,
62, "served more than two years of a seven-year
sentence in federal prison," reported New York
Times technology writer Brad Stone in a May 18,
2008 exposé entitled "An E-Commerce Empire, From
Porn to Puppies."
Gordon recovered his fortunes through a
series of partnerships involving Japanese web
commerce billionaire Wataru Takahashi. Takahashi
founded Dial Talk International. "DTI is based
on the Caribbean island of Curaçao and runs,
from Los Angeles, a vast and profitable network
of explicit web sites for the Japanese market,"
summarized Stone.
Gordon, Stone found, owns a credit card
payment processing empire with "roots in the
world of sexual entertainment," which
"facilitates credit card transactions for DTI."
The American Bible Society severed
relations with Gordon within days after The New
York Times published Stone's exposé, and did
not renew Irwin's contract, which expired on
June 30, 2008.
Meanwhile, Barnoti acknowledged to
ANIMAL PEOPLE in 2007, Irwin had introduced him
to Gordon. "Gordon is not representing SPCA
International," Barnoti told ANIMAL PEOPLE,
just five days after the date of a letter in
which Gordon proposed to the president of a
smaller charity that it should merge with SPCA
International, "but has undertaken contractually
the creation and maintenance of SPCA
International's website."
Irwin may also have introduced Barnoti to
Quadriga, another firm that HSUS worked with
during Irwin's tenure as HSUS president.
"On April 24, 2006, Barnoti sent the
final version of an agreement between SPCA
International and Quadriga to the defendants
Scholzberg and Poulos for comment," says the
Montreal SPCA lawsuit. "This agreement states
that Barnoti is the sole owner of
licenses it to Quadriga to handle and coordinate
all the fundraising and marketing activities for
SPCA International and the web site
This agreement provides that Quadriga will
support the financial start-up costs of SPCA
International and be reimbursed from the proceeds
of the funds generated by the web site
International was formally incorporated, with
Barnoti, Sholzberg and Poulos as the officers.
"To date," the Montreal SPCA lawsuit
says, "the Plaintiff does not know how much SPCA
International has received in donations and/or in
revenues or income through the
name."
The Montreal SPCA has asked for damages of more than $1.9 million.
Responded Barnoti to the Montreal SPCA,
via attorney Julius H. Grey of Montreal, after
receiving the Montreal SPCA's demand letter on
July 22, 2008, "Our client has valid legal
explanations to justify or explain any and all
events or decisions you claim caused significant
damages, which are strongly deniedŠBe advised
that he will not forward any amounts to your
office," and may "pursue a slander and damage
action against SPCA and its current board of
directors."
Barnoti took an indefinite sick leave
from the Montreal SPCA in March 2008, and
defendants Poulos and Scholzberg left the board
after then recently resigned former board member
Neil Halsey and three other Canadian SPCA members
on March 19, 2008 called a special board meeting
to address issues including Barnoti's failure to
produce an annual report for the 2006-2007 fiscal
year in a timely manner.
Acting president Nancy Breitman told CTV
that the Canadian SPCA was $4 million in debt,
and was in danger of bankruptcy.
Among other issues of concern during
Barnoti's tenure, CTV reported, "Confidential
documentsŠshowed that for a time, the Montreal
SPCA intentionally killed dogs to fill an order
for the veterinary school in St. Hyacinthe. The
practice has since been discontinued. SPCA
veterinarian Lech Leskie-wicz was fired a day
after telling CTV news about a discrepancy
between the SPCA's actual euthanasia rates at the
Laval shelter and the numbers it provided to the
city of Laval. The Laval shelter has since
closed and Laval police opened an investigation."
SPCA International scored a global media and web
traffic hit in October 2008 after a dog named
Ratchet was not cleared for transportation from
Iraq to the U.S. with six others who were flown
stateside by "Operation Baghdad Pups," one of
the few visible SPCA International programs.
"More than 45,000 people have signed an
online petition urging the Army to let the puppy
come to the U.S.," Associated Press writer
Fredderic J. Frommer reported, providing a web
link to SPCA International, but omitting any
mention of the many other issues associated with
the organization.
"Operation Baghdad Pups" through the end
of October 2008 had reportedly brought to the
U.S. 64 animals who had been adopted by U.S.
military personnel stationed in Iraq. Earlier
promoted as "Baghdad Buddies," "Operation
Baghdad Pups" emulates the work of Military
Mascots, of Massachusetts, a much older and
lower-profile organization.
Military Mascots founder Bonnie Buckley
worried to ANIMAL PEOPLE after "Baghdad Buddies"
made a splashy debut in 2007 that lack of caution
in moving the Iraq animals could jeopardize her
work.
In June 2008 one of 26 animals whom
"Baghdad Buddies" imported from Iraq to the U.S.
was found to be rabid.
"Operation Baghdad Pups" is directed by
Terri Crisp, identified as "SPCA International's
Animal Resource and Rescue Consultant." Disaster
relief coordinator for United Animal Nations
1991-2001, Crisp formed her own organization,
Noah's Wish, after controversies surfaced about
her work during Hurricane Floyd and following the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Reportedly receiving $8.4 million in
donations after Hurricane Katrina in 2005,
Noah's Wish came under investigation by the
California Attorney General over how the funds
were allocated. Terminated by the Noah's Wish
board in March 2007, Crisp founded an
organization called Animal Resources later in
2007, and began working with SPCA International
soon afterward.
In April 2008, observed Brad Stone,
"Stickam, the live video social network operated
by Mr. Takahashi's DTI, sent out a press release
proclaiming a new partnership: the social
network had been selected, the release said, as
the exclusive provider of live web video for
'Operation Baghdad Pups'Š Richard Gordon and
Wataru Takahashi were still looking for new ways
to work together." --Merritt
Clifton