Charitable Activities
Volunteer Service for The Humane Society of the United States
The May 1996 edition of Sacramento Magazine published a Q & A story about Joe Ramsey’s service for The HSUS. It is reprinted here.
In March of 1970, Joe Ramsey was a junior partner in a small Sacramento law firm which did pro bono work for the Sacramento SPCA. In that capacity, he was asked to advance a claim that the Sacramento SPCA should be awarded funds from the Estate of George Whittell, a multi-millionaire whose primary residence was a several acre wooded estate in Woodside California, in San Mateo County, where proceedings involving his estate were pending. The total estimated value of the Whittell Estate was in the mid-eight figure range at that time. Mister Ramsey was one of approximately fifty lawyers representing approximately 900 animal protection entities from all over the United States, all of which sought to be included in the Whittell Estate.
In that proceeding, Joe Ramsey met Murdaugh Madden, then General Counsel for The Humane Society of the United States, headquartered in Washington DC. In the next several years, he was asked to perform legal services for The HSUS on several occasions, in all but one instance, pro bono. In October 1977, he accepted an appointment to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of The HSUS. Thereafter, he was elected to successive three year terms until he resigned in October of 2005 after 28 years. During those years, he served as Vice Chair of the Board between 1987 and 1994 and as Chair between 1994 and 1999. Between 1999 and his resignation in October of 2005, he served as Chair of an Executive Succession Committee of the Board charged with finding and hiring a new President and Chief Executive Officer. He holds the honorary title Chair of the Board Emeritus and remains an active participant in the mission of The HSUS.
As one example of legal work done for The HSUS, in the early seventies Joe Ramsey was asked to seek an injunction prohibiting the annual running of a “Wild Burro Race” sponsored by the Old Miner’s Association of Big Bear California. Surveillance moving pictures had been taken the previous year documenting the injuries and deaths of several burros, including at least one pregnant jenny who had lost her fetus and died herself from having a backpack cinched around her back and abdomen by wranglers unaware of her pregnancy. In a major victory, the Superior Court of San Bernardino County enjoined the event as it had been conducted in the past and instead adopted a humane protocol specified by veterinarian experts retained and paid by The HSUS. The annual event continued but without the cruelty.
As another example, Joe Ramsey joined with general counsel for The HSUS to represent a high school sophomore who had been failed by her high school because she declined to dissect frogs as part of the course work required for her biology class. The HSUS first tried to convince the Trustees that computer modeling and other studies were available to teach whatever the student would learn by dissection - indeed, to teach it more effectively. The Trustees refused and stood by their decision to fail the student.
Jennifer Graham v. Board of Trustees of the Victor Valley Union High School District was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California in 1987 and continued for the next couple of years. Mister Ramsey and Roger Kindler of the office of General Counsel for The HSUS worked together to represent Graham. The case was important nationally because of issues about the use of animals not only in education but also in medical research. All of the various national media covered the litigation. Jennifer Graham made multiple media appearances, and she was also asked to testify before the California Legislature in support of a bill introduced to require schools to provide an alternative to dissection for students ethically opposed to it. In the end, the passage of that legislation mooted the issue, but the defendant was required to pay Graham’s fees and costs. The outcome was a major victory for the animal protection movement. PBS produced and broadcast a documentary about the case.
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