Ed Sayres Will Do Anything For a Dollar

Back in 2015 I wrote:

The former president of the ASPCA is now a lobbyist for the puppy mill industry.

Yes, that's right: Ed Sayres, the former President of the ASPCA, is now the head of the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC), the Washington, D.C.-based lobby group representing pet stores, pet products, pet dealers, and pet breeders.

Sayres resigned from the ASPCA last year amid questions about his $500,000 a year salary and just after the organization was forced to pay $9.3 million to settle a RICO (racketeering) violation over their direct mail operations.

As I have noted in the past, ALL of the major national humane groups are scams of one sort or another.

In the case of the ASPCA, the entire focus of the organization became direct mail.

As former ASPCA investigator Bob Baker told The New York Times:

... show one picture of a mistreated dog and the funds would pour in... [I]t got to the point where animal welfare was not the priority, fund-raising was. It felt as though the animals were being used for fundraising, rather than using funds raised to help the animals.

As Amy Worden over at The Philadelphia Inquirer notes, some of the leaders of the puppy mill industry seem to think hiring Ed Sayles might take the stink of death and systematic abuse off of their industry:

PIJAC regularly fights against humane animal legislation in Congress and in the states. Most recently the group has been engaged in trying to block efforts to ban the sale of commercially-bred dogs in pet stores. In a letter to members Andrew Hunte, president of the Hunte Corporation, in a letter implored dog breeders to ‘set their doubts about Sayres behind and unite around PIJAC’ to face the threats from ‘over-regulation’ endangering their industry.

Good luck with that!

Ed Sayres's departure from the corrupt money-chasing ASPCA, and re-emergence over at the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, simply underscores how morally bankrupt and money-grubbing the world of dogs, cats, and pets has become, and how desperate both the PIJAC and Ed Sayres have become.

Sayres is, no doubt, desperate for the kind of ridiculously high-paying job he had at the ASPCA, while the PIJAC is desperate for someone to ‘save’ the business of pet store puppy sales and puppy mill commercial breeders.

The main person pushing for Ed Sayres to head PIJAC was none other than the Hunte puppy mill corporation which sits on the board of directors of the PIJAC, as does Petland which markets Hunte puppy mill dogs (now registered by the AKC)

Liars for hire?  Yep, and at every turn.  Look for more corruption ahead.

So what’s the latest?

Why more sock puppetry!

An organization called the “Center for the Environment and Welfare” put out a press release saying they have hired Sayres as an “advisor”.  See >>   

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/former-ceo-of-aspca-national-groups-should-do-more-for-local-pet-shelters-302080208.html

Who or what is the  “Center for the Environment and Welfare”?

The short story is that it’s one of Rick Berman’s many “astro-turf” organizations, so-called because it’s a fake grass roots outfit. 

Berman creates sock puppet organizations that seem to represent public interests when they are actually corporate public relations shops gaslighting lazy reporters and serving as a stalking horse for industries that want no rules or regulation when it comes to food, animals, or the environment.

For a run down, see this post, entitled “Toxic Sludge is Good for You!” >> https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2010/08/toxic-sludge-is-good-for-you.html

Back in 2015, one of Rick Berman’s spear carriers decided that since I had written quite a lot about the chicanery at the Humane Society of the US, PETA, and the ASPCA, as well as the RSPCA, I might be a good person to meet and lunch with.

It was interesting to see how quickly the Berman curtain collapsed in person when asked simple direct question.  You can read how that lunch went here >> https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-liars-for-hire-of-washington.html

So what is the “Center for the Environment and Welfare” trotting out Ed Sayres to say?  

Believe it or not, Sayres is saying the ASPCA has “lost its way” because it raises $390 million a year and gives only $5 million a year to pet shelters.

But guess what?  

Those kind of numbers were true when Ed Sayres ran the ASPCA!

And when Ed Sayres was head of the ASPCA the organization was so lost and corrupt, it had to pay $9.3 million to settle a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) lawsuit over their direct mail chicanery.  You can read about that here >> https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2012/12/aspca-to-pay-93-million-to-settle-fraud.html

So what’s the take away message?

Simple:  Be careful of who you support and be skeptical of what you read.  Assume *every* piece of direct mail you get from a national “humane” organizations is a fraud and a scam.  And assume any organization calling itself the Center for the Environment and Welfare wants to poison the environment and scuttle all the welfare.  

Caveat emptor in all things!