May 12 2010
Meet HSUS’s Faux SWAT Team
There’s an important interview that’s been making its way around the blogosphere. Given our recent coverage of HSUS raids in Hawaii and South Dakota that have raised serious questions about HSUS's ethics, we think it’s time to talk about it.
This is a story that involves illegal searches, para-professional animal rescuers with no credentials, and even HSUS employees impersonating police officers. It's ugly stuff.
Carroll Cox is a Hawaii-based radio broadcaster. In October, after Norman Pang filed a lawsuit against HSUS following a raid by HSUS’s “emergency rescue team,” Cox invited two former HSUS rescue team members on to discuss their experiences. One is Ronnie Graves, president of the Sumter Disaster Animal Response Team in Florida. The second guest was Allan Schwartz, a horse expert.
You can listen to the full interview of Graves and Schwartz here. It’s well worth your time. But for those with time constraints (sadly, work doesn’t do itself), we’ll share the meatier parts here.
Allan Schwartz begins by noting that Hurricane Katrina was a turning point for HSUS in creating a formal disaster team. He was brought on as its second member in January 2006, later becoming a consultant. Graves, for his part, worked with (former) Director of Emergency Services Scotlund Haisley for 13 months on 8 to 10 deployments. (Graves resigned in January 2009.)
Haisley, you might remember, led the HSUS team in South Dakota that executed an illegal search warrant on a dog breeder. He's also named in a Hawaii lawsuit stemming from another HSUS raid.
Schwartz tells Cox that before Scotlund Haisley arrived, the HSUS rescue team “basically had a quasi-uniform” meaning “BDUs [blue dress uniforms], t-shirts, and HSUS-marked t-shirts” in order to give the appearance of a well-trained team. It wasn’t until after Haisley showed up that HSUS rescue team members got actual badges to wear. These badges (pictured above) look like law-enforcement credentials, and could easily be mistaken for them. (The picture at right shows HSUS rescuers Rowdy Shaw and Scotlund Haisley wearing them.)
Apparently, the whole idea was to be mistaken for actual police officers. Graves had concerns about this. Here’s how he relates Wayne Pacelle’s and Haisley’s reactions to his apprehension:
When Scotlund Haisley sent me the HSUS Jacket, there was a Badge and an ID card inside the pocket. An officer of the law was in my office that morning visiting with me as a friend. He stated that if I put that badge on, there was a good chance that it would be mistaken as an [sic] law enforcement badge and I could be arrested.
I called Scotlund and relayed my concerns. His statement to me on the phone was, “I want the scum to think we’re law enforcement”. I informed him I would never wear that badge. I work with a large number of law enforcement people and have the utmost respect for them. From viewing Scotlunds [sic] behavior for a year, it is apparent that he has nothing but contempt for them.
When I had my face to face meeting with Wayne Pacelle at my hotel room in January 2008, in rural Mississippi, I brought this comment up to Wayne. His comment back to me while smiling his famous smile, was “I like the Cowboy Ways that Scotlund brings to the team”. I told him those Cowboy Ways were going to net him a huge lawsuit one day. I had already informed Mr. Haisley that I would not be signing another contract with HSUS at the end of January when mine expired. This was about the 26th of January or thereabouts.
They weren’t the only HSUS rescuers who had issues with this. Only two of the original HSUS rescue team now remain, out of 14 full-time employees. The remaining two are office personnel. All of the original field workers have resigned.
And Graves says he’s not the only one who has talked to Wayne: “Mr. Pacelle has been told many, many times and almost every member of the team that has resigned in the past said to me that they sent in a resignation letter not just to Mr. Pacelle but to … some of the board of directors and to other supervisors.”
So how should an animal rescuer behave? Schwartz details the appropriate code of behavior:
There’s certain protocol that you have to follow and the first and foremost thing is that we are not cops. We’re not district attorneys, we’re not detectives. We’re not supposed to put ourselves off as such … Any deployment that I have gone on like that, we were not even there when the initial search warrant was issued. You let the officers with the SWAT team go in and get the situation under control.
Graves also points out that his training is listed on the back of his local county’s qualification cards, so that officials can check him out when he shows up at emergency operations. On HSUS’s card, however, no training is listed.
He also notes this: “At the time when I left, which was last January, and that’s all I can speak about, Mr. Haisley had openly admitted to me that at that time he had absolutely no ICS [Incident Command System] training and no DART [Disaster Animal Response Team] training….That’s a minimum amount of training required by [HSUS] to be a volunteer for them.”
In other words, Haisley didn’t have the basic training that brand new ride-alongs needed, even though he had authority over the rescue team.
But Graves relates one occasion in Texas following Hurricane Ike in September 2008, in which Haisley left a swiftwater boat team behind while he and HSUS's film crew went ahead to an emergency site to do a rescue. (Priorities, priorities…)
Haisley was let go by HSUS in February of this year. It’s a small wonder he lasted that long.
So we have phony badges and an illegal search. Are HSUS team members the cops or the robbers? We can't tell anymore.
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Posted on 05/12/2010 at 11:09 AM by the HumaneWatch Team
Courtroom Drama • Disasters • Pets • (14) CommentsComments
It is not just HSUS that engages in masquerades. The Virginia Animal Fighting Task Force (an HSUS surrogate) whose leadership includes HSUS John Goodwin, various VA animal control officers, and attorneys from the Attorney General’s office and the commonwealth also does these sorts of things.
Since the core members are animal control officers it was put to one of them—What happens when you get called on a raid (they do a lot more than animal fighting) while you are working and wearing your county uniform? A member said – We have separate uniforms that say VAFTF so the REAL law enforcement on the scene will know we do not have any authority. Do you think JQPublic is going to know THOSE uniforms mean no authority?
Not on your life and that is just the way VAFTF and HSUS like it—abusing animal owners under the color of law.
Files from VA Secretary of State Office showing VAFTF directors:
2009 - http://scc-internet.scc.state.va.us/corporate/imaging/10068530.pdf
2008 - http://scc-internet.scc.state.va.us/corporate/imaging/9840983.pdf
Stay alert!
When I was a kid, we used to wear “badges” pretending to be the police. With our new found “authority” granted to us by by nothing more than wearing our plastic badges, we went after the bad guys (my friends down the street) and saved the day. I think this article shows how the HSUS faux “SWAT Team” is pretending, just like we did when we were kids, to be something they are not. There seems to be a real want for the HSUS animal rescue team to have people believe they are an authority figure. This need to be perceived as an “authority” seems be a common theme throughout the entire HSUS organization. No one has, that I am aware of, ever granted any authoirty to the HSUS. It seems the only ones that believe HSUS is an “authority” on any animal welfare issue is when Mr Pacelle and or other members of his organization look at themselves in the mirror in the morning.
Didn’t Haisley also state that they were “collecting evidence” in the South Dakota raid? Guess when you have no knowledge or care for helping animals, you have to masquerade as something.
Reminds me of the Rescue Wranglers horse trailers that I saw in a video. The Rescue Wranglers were a part of the attack on Denisa Malott in Arkansas, their horse trailers have sheriff’s stars painted on them and give the impression of law enforcement. Also, HSUS did not correct Sheriff Hudspeth’s mistaken belief that that HSUS personal were a government agency.
How can they get away with this? They can do anything that they like as long as we will allow it.
So much for the federal and state constitutions!!!!
The terrorists of the H$U$ need to be officially charged with impersonating police personnel in every jurisdiction in which they’ve pulled off one of their illegal “raids” while wearing their fake uniforms and flashing their fake badges.
One is given pause to wonder why some DA hasn’t done so yet. Could these craven political pussies be afraid of getting bad press in an election year?
It is absolutely true that HSUS goes in without authority but wants everyone to think they have it. What is also true is that most local law enforcement knows all about it and welcomes them. HSUS is doing things - taking animals - that most law enforcement agencies are not capable of or willing to do so they are glad to have someone do these seizures for them. Everybody gets to share the press and kudos for the raids.
HSUS is well aware of the line they walk as they try to get themselves under the umbrella of the State Attorney General, if at all possible, so they will have standing and protection from lawsuits. For example, in 2009 the Virginia General Assembly (Senate) considered bill SB931.
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?091+ful+SB931+hil
It would have given sovereign immunity to any animal control officer, humane investigator or State Veterinarian’s representative. That means regardless of their actions, they could not be sued or held responsible and if they were sued they would be defended by Virginia’s Attorney General’s office. Fortunately it did not pass.
HSUS actually got such protection for some of its activities in New Mexico. People in other states should dig around and see what they find.
Just to be clear - law enforcement is frequently in cahoots with HSUS. (For example, HSUS has retired FBI special agents on their payroll.) In Virginia HSUS has infiltrated the State Vets office, many county animal control offices, commonwealth attorneys, and the Attorney General’s office. They have similar influence in other states. So… law enforcement is probably not interested in going after HSUS.
that black dog being snared is my dog Trinidad when the HSUS took him in Tucson, Feb 19,2008. Notice there are three men handling him and he is terrified. the other photo on the Pang issue is a female named Monada, a loving, spayed female that was known for her hugs. Just in case this is forgotten, the link here is http://humanewatch.org/index.php/site/post/meet_HSUSs_faux_swat_team/
Has anyone noticed yet that Scotlund Haisley has lost another job?
It’s been said that he resigned. He was allowed to “resign” to try to keep any sense of reputation he thinks he may have left.
This type of behavior will follow wherever he winds up. He is not a hero and should be prosecuted by every law enforcement agency he has created prosecution blunders for. Gestapo tactics don’t work.
Finally! I have been posting this all over the web since the raid on my property on Feb 19, 2008. They killed over 100 innocent dogs and forfeited both my homes. I was acquitted. Its double jeoprady. I need someone to help me file a federal law suit against these people and the Pima County Sheriffs who facilitated this bogus raid to target us for having a lot of APBT, not for fighting. All dogs, when we sold one, went with a contract and you could not register the dog without it. they tore my place apart for 3 days, 24 hours a day and dug it up with a backhoe loader. I was evicted from my home and told it now belongs to the county. This all to garner a public relations coup and try to turn me into a M Vick. I am a woman in her 60’s, hardly the dog fighter type. I am also disabled and they took me and my 93 year old wheelchair bound mother and our helper, also over 60, into their care and custody, for nothing. I have trying to get help with this ever since.Linda Merck the forensic fake vet and John Goodwin and Kumpf all were part of this fiasco.They took my homes to try to pay for their lack of good judgement and greed.This is a classic case of policing for profit and stealing under the color of law. All dogs were dead months before any trial.
We have actively worked with Canterbury Arabians and their incredible group of lawyers. The abuse the horses suffered during the illegal seizure is beyond belief. Falsification of pictures with instructions to drop the weight score. The ILLEGAL USE of the Heneke score which was developed with only 32 mares as a test and they were Quarter Horses observed to find the ideal BREEDING weight. NOT rescue weight. DEFHR has positioned itself as a major authority within the equine circles and they are manipulating and using University of Davis (see their minimum care standards for equines)..they present it AS LAW on their website however it is an underground law and has no validity.
Emily Dennis- glad you found this site to profess your innocence- NOT
Anyone who is involved in dog fighting should lathered up with dog sent and thrown in the ring- disgusting at any age.
No different than the Neffrey Dahlmers to bring such pain and suffering to innocents.
Interesting enough you cannot have a private investigation firm that could confuse people you are with a government agency. The Humane Society of the United States name allows people to believe they are a part of the Federal Government, or a government agency.
I have worked on scene in disaster rescue work where their work was incedible. However, I worked a hoarding situation where over 150 dogs were voluntarily given up to HSUS by the hoarder. Of course, they filmed it to be part of an animal hoarding show. All but 10 dogs were put down in two months later. The local shelters could not accomodate the high number of dogs, and HSUS doesn’t share its massive ‘donations’ nor take responsiblity for the lives of these dogs. They have great trailers, trucks, gear, but other groups provide crates, bowls, leashes, and other actual animal supplies. Give to local shelters and rescues. These national groups become more about the funding and making their founders rich than actual animal care.
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I am not surprised that HSUS is approving of badges that look official…they manage to “look official” while calling for donations to save animals…when they don’t really plan on using their money for that purpose.
These HSUS folks are quite dangerous IMO and it is a shame that more people do not realize that fact.