PetPAC's Bill Hemby sued by California in "Operation False Charity"

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August, 2009

PetPAC's "star witness" against spay and neuter legislation is in trouble.

Bill Hemby, Chairman of PetPAC and a chief opponent of SB 250, has been named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by the California Department of Justice, as part of a nationwide sweep called "Operation False Charity."

The complaint alleges that Mr. Hemby, serving as Director and in various positions of authority in the charity organization LEAP (Law Enforcement Apprenticeship Program Foundation) from 2004 to the present, along with the program's other directors, falsely promised contributors that their donations would be used to operate an apprenticeship program for at-risk youth.

According to the complaint, the program was never operated and no students were ever enrolled in it. The donations were instead used to pay for non-charity related purposes, including the personal expenses of the charity's directors.

The lawsuit against Mr. Hemby and LEAP is one of eight lawsuits filed by Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. against "charities that 'shamelessly exploited' people's generosity and squandered millions of dollars of donations intended to help police, firefighters and veterans", according to the news release from the Attorney General's office.

Among the charges that the State of California makes directly against Mr. Hemby:

FILING AND DISTRIBUTING FALSE AND INCOMPLETE RECORDS
This cause of action claims that non-program expenditures were not properly disclosed, including one year where out of $372,623 in revenue, only $5,615 was spent on program services (less than 2%).

BREACH OF CHARITABLE TRUST
This cause of action claims that money was solicited for charitable programs that were never even put in place.

UNLAWFUL BUSINESS ACTS OR PRACTICES
This cause of action claims the defendents (Mr. Hemby and LEAP), from 2001 to 2008, were "making false, deceptive, and misleading statements to donors to induce them to make charitable contributions" and "misrepresented how charitable donations would be used."

Bill Hemby and the COPS connection.

In the same Operation False Charity sweep, the State of California has sued the charity group COPS, where Mr. Hemby is currently the Director of Governmental Affairs. Ironically, the COPS website still contains a link to an interview described as "in this podcast, one of COPS founding members, Bill Hemby, discusses how LEAP, the Law Enforcement Apprenticeship Program, helps at-risk youth seek careers in law enforcement." The actual podcast has been taken off the site.

SCIL has been warning about the fundraising tricks used by the COPS group since 2007, when COPS first came out against our spay and neuter legislation. The COPS area on our website www.PetPACNonsense.com details some of the tricks that the group uses to bring in donations. According to the DOJ lawsuit, donations to COPS in 2006 totaled $11.4 million.

What does this mean for Bill Hemby and PetPAC?

The State of California is requesting judgment against Mr. Hemby and the other LEAP defendants in the form of numerous damages and civil penalties, and a permanent injunction prohibiting Mr. Hemby from controlling or directing the operations of any California nonprofit public benefit corporation.

If the State is successful in their lawsuit, Mr. Hemby will presumably be required to either dissolve PetPAC or remove himself from association with the group, since he is currently Chairman of the group, and their sole lobbyist according to the California Secretary of State website. According to the DOJ website, donations to PetPAC in the 2007 fiscal year totaled $424,648.00.

What does this mean for spay and neuter legislation?

For years, we have been warning about the dangers of sending money to, or receiving information from, the special interest groups and individuals opposed to spay and neuter legislation. They consistently misrepresent the spay and neuter issue for their own personal or financial gain, while misrepresenting themselves as "responsible pet owners" instead of revealing who they really are. The fact that the primary mouthpiece for the opposition, Bill Hemby, is now being sued by the State of California is not a surprise. In hearing after hearing, we have seen Mr. Hemby misrepresent SB 250, and have come to expect that any information from PetPAC is not to be trusted.

In fact, we have come to expect that information from any breeder or animal industry group opposed to SB 250 is not to be trusted.

It is ironic that, at the same time Mr. Hemby and these groups have been increasing their distribution of phony charts and spreadsheets pretending that spay and neuter legislation does not work, the actual communities where these laws are in effect keep telling just the opposite story.

In fact, take a look at the following:

Mr. Hemby and breeder groups have been distributing information and misleading graphs that claim spay and neuter legislation does not work in Santa Cruz. But according to Santa Cruz, the law has "resulted in a 64% drop in shelter impounds"! You can read the story directly from the Santa Cruz SPCA here.
Mr. Hemby and breeder groups have been distributing information that claims spay and neuter legislation does not work in Lake County, CA. But, according to the Director of Lake County Animal Care & Control, "Since enacting the ordinance our numbers have gone down steadily each year. Our spay & neuter ordinance works! We have no increased cost related to the ordinance, in fact it has saved us money..."
Mr. Hemby and breeder groups have been distributing false information that claims spay and neuter legislation does not work anywhere it is implemented. But in New York City, where a law nearly identical to SB 250 was passed in 2000, the results have been stellar. A recent letter from the Mayor's Alliance for NYC Animals states "we have experienced a steady decrease in the euthanasia rate over the past five years due to this legislation." You can read their letter here.