When we tell people that only 1% of the money raised by the so-called “Humane Society” of the United States goes to pet shelters, predictably people want to know where the rest of the money goes. A lot of it is spent on overhead, pension plans, and staff salaries—including a hefty pay package for CEO Wayne Pacelle. Pacelle has taken in about $4 million through HSUS, and the payout appears to have afforded him an elegant $1.1 million Tudor-style home in the uber-wealthy community of Chevy Chase, Md., just outside our nation’s capital.
According to records, the house was purchased last fall, apparently with all cash. More intriguingly, it was purchased through a legal scheme that intentionally hides the name of the buyer. It’s a system used by the rich and famous to hide the purchasers in a real-estate transaction. Pacelle’s new digs is owned by a legal entity without his name attached. The transaction was handled by David A. Deckelbaum, a Washington lawyer who specializes in this concealment system for wealthy clients.
And this $1.1 million property is on top of the $800,000 apartment Pacelle owns in Washington, D.C. For all of the complaints about pork farming that Pacelle makes, he sure knows how to live high on the hog.
To be clear: We don’t begrudge anyone who is financially successful–provided that the money isn’t generated through scams or other unethical activity.
And we can’t be sure that HSUS donors may not have totally funded the Pacelle’s million-dollar mansion. It’s quite possible that his wife, who works for Al Jazeera America, could have chipped in. And who’s bankrolling her paycheck? Al Jazeera is funded by the government of Qatar—a country that funds or accommodates terrorist groups including Hamas and al Qaeda. To get an idea of what Al Jazeera thinks of America, look no further than its nasty Fourth of July video mocking Americans. And we won’t even get into HSUS’s development officer who once offered to conceal money from shady Middle Eastern interests including the Muslim Brotherhood, which is at the center of much terrorism in the world.
Wayne Pacelle’s mansion may have been funded by little old ladies who thought they were helping pets. Or maybe the upstream source of the cash is Middle Eastern terrorism backers. Hard to say. One way or the other, the head of HSUS doesn’t want you to know.
