Written by: Heather Clemenceau
Slaughterhouse Sue Wallis is busier than a one-armed paper hanger these days – asking for “donations” to be made to her for-profit company so that the hauling of horses can continue. Our favourite slaughterphile hopes to build her “war chest” by attempting to “crowdsource” funding from some of the cheapest people on the planet – people who would sell their horse to a slaughterhouse rather than providing humane euthanasia. Sue really throws her hyperbole engine into high gear when she says that “We take “bare bones” to a high art form.”
In a Constant Contact massmail designed to spam everyone with her tales of woe, Sue writes:
“As we edge towards a return of humane and regulated horse processing here in the United States, the hysterics and abusive bullying tactics–not to mention outright domestic terrorism in the destruction of property and threats to families–of the radical animal rights groups funded and driven by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) gets worse and worse.
Now much of the struggle has been hauled into the courts, litigation being a favored and especially lucrative activity of HSUS wherein they are able to fund their nefarious activities with deceptively raised dollars and way too much taxpayer money.
The cost of intervening in these lawsuits on behalf of the horse industry is shooting up astronomically!
Thank goodness, we are working with teams of dedicated attorneys who are providing more free and reduced services than most would ever expect. They have my undying respect and gratitude, and I’ll bet yours, too.
Nonetheless, we must fill up our war chest to have any hope of success. To do this the IEBA Board of Directors and I have developed a multi-pronged fundraising campaign that starts TODAY with your help.”
If you read the rest of this communication, you’ll see a lot of words and phrases not normally associated with Sue Wallis. Terms such as:
Innovative
Cutting Edge
Potential to add value
Convenience
Humane
Scientifically Sound
Rigorously Enforced
Highest Quality
Verified Safe
Pure Products
Wallis’ latest pitch is that she wants slaughterphiles to tick off some box at the sale barn, which will designate the proceeds of the sale of a horse to the International Equine Business Association (IEBA). So, true to form, she’s asking for blood money to seed a for-profit business to commercialize and exploit horses. We know she has at least $183 in the war chest pot, donated by a supporter who sent a perfectly healthy but arthritic horse to slaughter. So she plans to go up against HSUS with donations accumulated from the suffering of horses sent to slaughter. By soliciting gifts, Wallis’ is essentially panhandling, something she claims horse rescues do, except she is doing it without the actual rescue aspect. So many United Horsemen’s members are critical of any and all rescues simply because they ask for donations – how is this different?
I think Wallis recognizes that she’s not going to get the big donations via this stream, so she’s come up with some combo golf/clay pigeon shooting event she has named the “Rope, Stroke, and Poke.” I think there’s a “choke” option in there too, which makes me think that Sue missed her calling – instead of writing poetry she should be writing ad copy for the Shady Lady Ranch in Nevada. I’ve read her poetry, and I can honestly say she’s about as good at poetry as I am at pole-vaulting.
Unlike some of the other dubious, multiple versions of her grassroots horse slaughter enterprise, this one is a business, so whatever is donated must be declared as income, and sadly, no income tax receipts will be provided for any horses slaughtered for the IEBA. Indeed, the IRS would qualify the contributions of money gleaned from slaughtered horses as gifts rather than donations.
Following is the IRS publication 526 that discusses Charitable Contributions:
- There is certainly no law against a for-profit business owner asking anybody to provide a gift or grant to the business without the expectation of returning the item. A person can ask a relative to “donate” money to keep a business afloat, or attempt to raise supporting gifts of materials or cash in a variety of ways. Also, some private and public entities provide for-profits with taxable business grants that are, technically, donations.
- However, the word “donation” does have a common usage as a specialized term. Nonprofits ask for donations to support a cause and have special status with the IRS that makes those donations tax-deductible. A for-profit business that accepts a donation would not be able to provide the same tax-deductible benefit.
- While it is the case that a for-profit business can accept donations, it has to be careful not to run afoul of a state’s laws against soliciting the public for donations without registering with the state attorney general. If a for-profit business is asking for “donations,” it has to at least make it clear that the business is not a nonprofit.
As a for-profit business, the IEBA claims that it offers various services, including such services as legal resources for those “persecuted” by anti-slaughter advocates, otherwise known as “terrorists” in Wallis parlance. Along with the other “services” the IEBA will provide to members is “crisis mitigation and reputation management.” I might suggest to Sue Wallis that perhaps she should join people like Mel Gibson and Lindsay Lohan, and employ the services of a good reputation management firm, because she needs some real “black hat” techniques to clean herself up online – the Sue Wallis brand is a lightening rod for bad publicity….
When this organization flops, there’ll be another new organization all loaded with the requisite donate buttons. The deception here happens when you have all these different groups, such as United Horsemen, United Horsemen’s Front, Unified Equine, United Organizations of the Horse, and now the IEBA all producing the same drivel that is “substantiated” by each. It gives a false impression of credibility that does not exist except when you have multiple entities all supporting each other all over the interwebs.
Wallis has in fact made has made the commercial exploitation and slaughter of horses one of her number one goals in all she publishes, says and does. Horse slaughter is all she ever writes about, with the only exception being the selling of shares of cows for the purchase of unpasteurized milk. How is it that a politician, who seems to spend every waking moment lobbying to change laws that will benefit her financially, doesn’t incur and ethics investigation. Isn’t using one’s privileged position as an elected official for their own benefit, an ethical violation? Or does no one really care about ethics in Wyoming?
Wallis has always claimed that United Horsemen had no money. Apparently no one in the horse business or ranching business has any money. The official story about their infamous truck raffle was that it didn’t make any money either.
Wallis claimed that only 302 tickets had been sold. Then, about a year after the original tickets had been sold, a truck had yet to be awarded and an announcement from Sue Wallis stated that (still) only 302 tickets had been sold, that the drawing would be in January (2011) and that tickets were still available. The description of the truck, however, was given as a plain vehicle having a retail price of $11,000 less than the original ticket purchasers had been told would be awarded. According to the prosecutor, Campbell County Attorney Jeani Stone, money from the raffle was turned over to “organizers,” that Wallis did not personally benefit, and that the truck was given away. But Wallis was the primary organizer, and she was the Vice President of United Horsemen, the organization holding the raffle. Is Stone suggesting that Wallis did receive the money from the raffle? Stone also announced there were 147 raffle tickets sold. But Wallis said 302 were sold. What happened to the other 155 tickets? That is at least $15,500 unaccounted for. Anyway, it seems that the fiasco that ensued from the truck raffle was totally swept under the carpet.
I’ve seen agricultural sites asking their readers to send Wallis cheques, and she has reportedly received donations from Big Ag as well as cattlemen’s organizations. But you have to wonder how many large donations she would have received from these groups, since she doesn’t have any investors or a business plan. But all of this is artfully dodged whenever she describes the achievements of any of her organizations. We read online as she described renovations being done on the Rockville Missouri meat plant to convert it to a horse slaughter facility. This was a plant that she didn’t even have title to and could not even purchase if she had the money, as ownership was tied up in litigation.
Obviously, the Wyoming State Rep is spending too much time downwind of cattle farts….
It’s highly doubtful that Chevideco is interested in investing in her business schemes, since they’ve always said they wanted a turnkey operation, and they made this evident at Mountain Grove Missouri, which they toured with Wallis. Beyond the ethical question, the townspeople definitely didn’t like the idea of a foreign company coming into their town to kill 400 horses a day and send butt roasts and briskets back to Europe or wherever.
Dave Duquette’s proposed $3 million “restoration” facility, that would apparently employ 30-40 college students and an indoor, equine-assisted therapy centre for handicapped individuals is suspect as well. If it actually happened, they’d basically be doing what rescues accomplish, which in theory is great, but the idea of a rehab and slaughter facility on the same site? “Sorry dear, you won’t be able to ride Sassy anymore. We processed him into burgers yesterday.” Very therapeutic.
Wallis and Dave Duquette’s “restoration” program for horses entering the slaughterhouse stream is, IMO, more likely to be a way for them to claim that horses that are already slaughtered are alive on their tax returns and itemized as expenses. Think about it – who is going to be auditing them at any time to determine that all these horses that they are supposedly rehabbing are actually alive? It’s rather like claiming an income tax deduction or exemption for dependents that you don’t actually possess!
And according to the company’s own literature, the plant would not be for old or sick horses. “Abused, abandoned, neglected and starving horses will be made healthy prior to processing,” So that phrase puts the lie to the claim that slaughter is needed for old and sick horses. It’s been a while since we’ve heard about the “Do Not Slaughter” registry. But Wallis has said herself that If your horse did turn up at one of their proposed plants (and they can find the entry in their Excel spreadsheet) you have two or three days to pick the horse up, AND pay their costs. Nowhere have I ever heard of someone having to pay to retrieve stolen property.
Ever wonder why you can’t find Wallis’ charities on Guidestar? I’ve looked for them. As a non-profit, they must provide full public disclosure…… And since a 503(c) is not allowed to conduct political
Sue Wallis and Dave Duquette used this pic of a dead Spanish horse in their printed propaganda claiming it was a horse that American Advocates had starved?
lobbying, perhaps a review with the IRS should be undertaken. Having said all that, you must have the same impression that I do – that even Wallis’ non-profits are intended to be a profit centre for her.
Horse meat is the only meat product (and I use that term loosely) that is being produced by non-farmers collecting salvage animals from questionable/undocumented environments with untraceable histories. Nevertheless, it seems that Sue Wallis conducted a marketing survey and found a whole 350 people in the entire United States who were interested in eating horsemeat from undocumented animals:
“Awhile back we did a marketing survey and about 350 of you from all walks of life and all across the country responded to say that you were interested in purchasing cheval (horse meat)” She found a whole 350 people upon whom to base her entire business model. Oh and If you would be willing to sign an affidavit that says you would like to buy and use “cheval,” please email her so that she can send you the paperwork to include your name on a joint statement.
Sue gets a geography lesson here from a Facebook follower.
Really odd approach. Sounds like something you would be doing in order to qualify to become a medical marijuana recipient. She needn’t bother – finding only 350 people who might eat your product is hardly worth the effort. That’s not even a niche market, Sue.
In fact, instead of panhandling online, I think Wallis should “crowdsource” a little business acumen and perhaps turn her eyes to becoming a medical marijuana farm rather than spamming everyone with her tales of woe, and trying to sell shares of horses and cows. I’m sure medical marijuana would grow quite well in Wyoming. People will actually want to give you money for that, Sue.
John Holland, of the Equine Welfare Alliance wrote that “One survival strategy of prey animals is to synchronize their birthing so as to overwhelm their predators. Sue has adopted this strategy with her spontaneously created facts. She spews so many at one time that at least a few have a good chance to get past us unchallenged.”
And shame on anyone who sends a horse to slaughter and donates the money to this unscrupulous organization. If you can afford to donate a few hundred bucks to Sue Wallis, you can afford humane euthanasia for your horse. That’s all.