(Beth Clifton collage)

Produces no substance for claim to be developing “spay/neuter cookies”

POMPANO BEACH, Florida––Alex Pacheco and his organization “600 Million Stray Dogs Need You” are apparently feeling the heat from recent exposés of aggressive fundraising tactics on purported behalf of research to develop a “spay/neuter cookie” which has no verifiable substance.

Pacheco on April 26, 2017 e-mailed to Colorado spay/neuter veterinarian Jeff Young, a former backer whom Pacheco has claimed is the “600 Million” science advisor, a statement that Pacheco said was “to send to those giving you [Young] heat.”

Jeff Young, DVM

Did “Dr. Neuter” cut him off?

Young has recently disassociated himself from Pacheco and “600 Million” in statements made directly to ANIMALS 24-7 and Showing Animals Respect & Kindness (SHARK).

The Pacheco statement was transmitted to Young about 48 hours after SHARK posted the video exposé Is Alex Pacheco Scamming Animal Rights Donors? , produced by Stu Chaifetz and Steve Hindi, and 24 hours after ANIMALS 24-7 posted our update SHARK circles Alex Pacheco & “600 Million Stray Dogs Need You.”

Both of those exposés followed up on the November 2016 ANIMALS 24-7 exposé “600 Million” reasons to toss Alex Pacheco’s alleged spay/neuter cookies, which in turn updated previous exposés of unverified and unlikely claims from “600 Million” published in 2010, 2011, and 2013.

(From the Cedar Rapids Gazette, June 22, 1980)

Hid behind 1979 stint with Sea Shepherds

Instead of directly responding to any of the matters of substance in his statement, subtitled “To My Foes and Friends, an Open Letter from Alex Pacheco,” Pacheco sidestepped by recounting how he was a crew member as part of “the Sea Shepherd’s first whale protection campaign,” in 1979.

Pacheco neglected to mention that he was no longer aboard the original Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel, named the Sea Shepherd, when on July 16, 1979 it rammed the Portuguese pirate whaling ship Sierra. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder Paul Watson described the circumstances under which Pacheco and 13 other crew members left the Sea Shepherd in the first two pages of his 1994 autobiography Ocean Warrior: My Battle to End the Illegal Slaughter on the High Seas

“Once at sea,” Pacheco claimed, “each day we’d stop to let the engines cool and pull out the guns and take firing practice in anticipation of the ramming.”

What guns?

What guns? The Sea Shepherd was seized by the Portuguese Navy soon after the ramming. No firearms were found aboard. None of the three people who actually were aboard––Watson, Peter Woof, and Jerry Doran––have ever published any account or given any interview mentioning that guns were aboard the Sea Shepherd at any time.

Indeed, the first reports published by international media after the ramming explicitly mentioned that the Sea Shepherd crew had no weapons other than their ship itself.

And Watson, on pages 210-211 of Ocean Warrior, recounts how guns were never even taken aboard Sea Shepherd vessels until after 1991––14 years after the mission against the Sierra.

Reiterated Watson on February 24, 2010, after Sea Shepherd Conservation Society donor Ady Gil remarked that whale poachers deserve to be shot, “The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has never used firearms and has no intention of using firearms against illegal whalers.”

(Merritt Clifton collage)

Pacheco “Open Letter” made no mention of PETA

Pacheco, who was a cofounder of PETA in 1981, and remained associated with PETA until 1998, oddly enough made no mention of PETA in his “Open Letter,” while summarizing some of his activities done under PETA auspices. Pacheco mentioned having been “arrested over 60 times,” but NewsLibrary.com appears to include no coverage of any arrests for animal advocacy activity since 1992.

While still with PETA, Pacheco was also associated from 1988 to 1996 with the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, but was ousted by legal action after claiming to have been elected president by a membership vote in which ballots believed to have favored an opponent mysteriously disappeared.

Pacheco parted company with PETA soon after litigation resulting from the NEAVS leadership dispute was settled.

(Beth Clifton collage)

Paraphrased ANIMALS 24-7 coverage

Going on to quote Watson at length, Pacheco segued into a discussion of animal contraceptive methods appearing to have been closely paraphrased from ANIMALS 24-7 coverage. None of those methods were described in any of the 29 “600 Million” direct mail appeals that ANIMALS 24-7 reviewed in SHARK circles Alex Pacheco & “600 Million Stray Dogs Need You.”

One of those methods, the use of testicular injectable products such as zinc arginine and/or calcium chloride, works by causing adhesions that block the sperm ducts in male animals, and could not be administered in any ingestible form, let alone as a “spay/neuter cookie.”

(Beth Clifton collage)

Contraceptive maker disassociated itself from Pacheco

Another of those methods, using vinylcyclohexene dioxide, has been developed by an Arizona company called SenesTech, but SenesTech disassociated itself from Pacheco in April 2011, advising Joyce Briggs, president of the Alliance for Contraception of Cats & Dogs, that “neither ‘600 Million’ nor Mr. Pacheco have any claim, right, title, license or interest in our ChemSpay product or any other [SenesTech] product.”

Pacheco went on to claim that “For starters, we have identified over 100 formulas, compounds, and ingredients ranging from zinc to calcium chloride to vinylcyclohexene dioxide, all the way to the gentle papaya seed, that are effective when used for birth control in humans and/or animals…Birth control dog food has existed for over 30 years…It was produced by the billion dollar Carnation Corporation…”

(Beth Clifton collage)

Meat tenderizer

This information, never before mentioned in anything by Pacheco, has previously appeared in several articles by ANIMALS 24-7 editor Merritt Clifton, including “Alternatives to sterilization surgery still delayed,” published in June 2002, and “Papaya product and calcium chloride emerge as rivals to zinc sterilants,” published in September 2010.

The papaya product, developed by three Brazilian researchers in 1999, originated as a method of chemically castrating pigs before slaughter, essentially by injecting a meat tenderizer into their testicles to prevent “boar taint” from contaminating pork products. It does not appear to have advanced beyond the theoretical state as a dog and cat contraceptive.

Still no documentation

Pacheco continued to claim, without offering any documentation, “Studies also show that multiple doses of a formula that we are working with (the name of which we are not disclosing at this time) cause sterilization and when used as intended it is safe, it will not sterilize humans, and it will not harm the environment.”

Pacheco concluded by mentioning purported “teams in the U.S., Mexico, India,” of whom there is no trace of existence in the “600 Million” filings of IRS Form 990, including the statements of foreign transactions––except possibly an unidentified recipient of $40,000 in “Central America,” in 2011.

Merritt & Beth Clifton

Pacheco has yet to answer inquiries from SHARK as to who exactly this lone individual was, what this person did with the money, and “If you were doing actual clinical trials in Central America, why did you stop and what happened to any/all the data collected?”