20 years ago back in 2005 Gary Michelson founded the nonprofit organization Found Animals Foundation. Gary Michelson stated his goal was to end pet overpopulation through spay and neuter. He offered a $75,000,000 Michelson prize to anyone who could give him a one shot permanent cat dog sterilant he could patent and profit from. Gary never ended pet overpopulation. He didn't develop the one shot sterilant. Pet overpopulation is even worse today. What went wrong?
Nothing went wrong. Gary never intended to keep his promise. Gary is clearly not capable of developing a one shot sterilant. He kept telling everyone his magnificent brain combined with his millions would invent the drug and end the cruel and inhumane euthanasia and death of unwanted pets. He never really even tried. He had someone else run the organization and they had their own agenda. First it was microchips which don't save lives. Then it was pet kiosks. Then it was adoption centers.
I was there at a meeting at Kathleen Riordan's house in December 2005. Gary had a movie crew who was filming this amazing life saving adventure. They were going to make a movie and release it once he ended pet overpopulation. I also took video of that first meeting which I still have. Gary got up and told everyone that he would end pet overpopulation and euthanasia. Everyone cheered including myself. I really truly believed he could do it.
At that time I thought he was an amazing inventor. I didn't realize that the only profitable and real invention he patented wasn't even his own. He took the idea from a horse vet and just patented it first. Gary is good at filing patents with patent attorneys. He's not actually good at inventing life saving devices or drugs.
I was so supportive of Gary and his goal that I ended up working for him. I wanted to make sure he ended pet overpopulation and animal suffering. Over time I came to realize that he didn't care about the goal or even animals. He didn't spay or neuter his own animals. He let his dog walk off leash in the street. He let his unneutered dog go to the dog park and hump other dogs.
After a year or so he made no progress on his goal. People started to hound me for progress reports. I told them his work takes time. Give him a break. After a few years I realized he wasn't even making any progress at all toward the goal. He then offered a lesser prize for grants in animal reproduction. He gave smaller amounts of money to groups who did small studies which were worthless and meaningless besides a waste of funds. He just wanted people to believe he was doing something so they'd stop hounding him.
Finally Gary tired of all of it and stopped doing anything. Now he just hands out a few bucks to an animal group here and there. Some of the recipients are very suspect and don't even help animals at all. Gary doesn't care. He's done with his Found Animals Foundation.
The below is the most recent summary of his IRS filing for 2023. Total assets $14,432,052 Total expenses $7,740,700 Total giving $1,403,552. He spends the nonprofit's money on parties, awards, events and grants to friends. There will be no one shot sterilant from Gary Michelson. There will be no end to pet overpopulation. There will be no end to animal suffering. Gary could have done it if he wanted to but he just doesn't care. The organization is now just a tax haven and fund to give money to friends.
