David Wills at arraignment; court stenographer in background.
by Merritt Clifton
David K. Wills, 62, charged in multiple Texas counties in 2015 for alleged felonious continuous sexual abuse of a child and continuous trafficking of a child, first came to my notice as an investigative subject in September 1989, through conduct which, unknown to him, I personally witnessed.
As news editor at the time for the now long defunct Animals’ Agenda magazine, I first tried in January 1990 to expose what I had learned about Wills’ activities during his then recently ended tenure as executive director of the Michigan Humane Society. My attempt was squelched by board level intervention, detailed in some of the links below.
I kept my investigative files and added much to them after becoming editor of the Animal People newspaper in 1992. Beginning in the July/August 1995 edition of Animal People, and continuing through November 1995, I was finally able to expose Wills’ record in depth and detail.
Below are links to the exposés as originally published:
HSUS vp Wills sued for alleged bad debts (July/August 1995)
Triple trouble for Humane Society of US (September 1995)
A whale of a tale from inside HSUS (October 1995)
HSUS isn’t talking (November 1995)
Humane Society of the U.S. settles affairs without a Wills (December 1995)
Wills bankrupt, Horse thief too?, HSUS vp Wills cops a plea (1997-1999)