‘Dr. Evil’ fuels dogfight between AKC, Humane Society
In recent weeks, riders of Washington, D.C.’s metro system have seen a parade of posters inside trains that make shocking allegations about the nation’s best-known animal rights group, the Humane Society of the United States.
Featuring a baleful-looking caged dog, the ads accuse the Humane Society of giving only a tiny portion of its revenue to animal shelters and using donor money to pay employee pensions and the cost of settling a racketeering case.
“That’s interesting, because you often hear about seemingly worthwhile organizations that are not,” said one rider on his morning commute, asked about the poster by a reporter. “I wonder who is putting up the ads and how factual they are?”
Good question — and a complicated answer. The ads direct readers to a website called “Humanewatch.org,” one of dozens connected to local public relations executive Rick Berman, once dubbed “Dr. Evil” in a segment of 60 Minutes. The site is the product of the Center for Consumer Freedom, managed by Berman and Co. and supported — according to the firm — by restaurants and food companies, who are sometimes targets of the Humane Society.
Humanewatch.org is vintage Berman. He pays his public relations firm with revenue from the various nonprofits he runs. He creates online “watchdogs” that attack enemies of business, like the Humane Society, health advocates, unions and even Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.
Berman doesn’t publicize his customers, but a Center for Public Integrity search of nonprofit files revealed a few. Clients include the International Dairy Foods Association, another Humane Society target; the Corn Refiners Association; and the Institute for Humane Studies, a think tank headed by activist billionaire Charles Koch.
There’s more to this story. Click here to read the rest at the Center for Public Integrity.
This story is part of Consider the Source. Seeking to ‘out’ shadowy political organizations flourishing in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. Click here to read more stories in this investigation.
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Copyright 2014 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
