The ASPCA lawsuit drawing the most attention right now is a whistleblower complaint filed on May 15, 2025, by the organization’s former chief financial officer, Gordon Lavalette, who claims he was fired in retaliation for flagging roughly $340 million in no-bid vendor contracts, animal transport safety failures, and executive misconduct. The case names the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and its CEO, Matthew Bershadker, as defendants and is being litigated in Essex County Superior Court in New Jersey.1NJBIZ. ASPCA CFO Lawsuit Alleges Donor Fund Misuse, Whistleblower Retaliation
How Lavalette Says He Was Fired
Lavalette served as CFO until May 12, 2025, when he was terminated by phone while on vacation for his daughter’s wedding. Three days later, through the Montclair firm Smith Mullin, he sued under New Jersey’s whistleblower protections, alleging he was pushed out for refusing to sign off on what he considered a flawed audit and for raising concerns the organization did not want addressed.2New York Post. Top Exec at ASPCA Inhumanely Fired After Sounding Alarm About Dangerous Fraud at Animal Rights Group: Suit
The $340 Million No-Bid Contract Claim
The financial core of the complaint is the allegation that the ASPCA spent at least $340 million on vendor contracts without competitive bidding between 2016 and Lavalette’s departure. The suit describes that figure as roughly equal to the organization’s entire 2023 annual revenue and characterizes the practice as “common law fraud upon the donors.”2New York Post. Top Exec at ASPCA Inhumanely Fired After Sounding Alarm About Dangerous Fraud at Animal Rights Group: Suit Lavalette says the ASPCA “preferred to violate the law as well as overspend millions of dollars with friendly vendors than to competitively bid those contracts.”3Animals 24-7. Ex-CFO Files Lawsuit Charging ASPCA With Misuse of Funds, Wrongful Firing
One example in the complaint involves a September 2024 email in which an IT executive allegedly tried to steer a $2 million no-bid “critical infrastructure” contract to an unqualified vendor described as a personal friend. Lavalette blocked the deal and insisted on competitive bidding. The IT department kept recommending the same vendor. When the vendor was ultimately turned down, it threatened to sue, and the ASPCA settled with it for $50,000.2New York Post. Top Exec at ASPCA Inhumanely Fired After Sounding Alarm About Dangerous Fraud at Animal Rights Group: Suit
Animal Transport and Shelter Allegations
The suit ties Lavalette’s safety concerns back to a May 2019 incident in which at least 20 dogs and puppies died during a cross-country transport from Mississippi to Wisconsin. Reports at the time said the animals were packed into a cargo van without climate control and were not checked during roughly 11 hours on the road, with Mississippi temperatures near 90°F. The ASPCA announced an internal investigation but never publicly released its findings.4Animals 24-7. Why Is the ASPCA Stonewalling About the Deaths of 20 Dogs in Transport5HumaneWatch. ASPCA Stonewalls Over 20 Dog Deaths
According to the complaint, Lavalette pushed for two-person transport teams so drivers could alternate and check on animals. In July 2024, he says he discovered that ASPCA drivers in New Mexico were disconnecting mandatory electronic logging devices to drive beyond legal limits, and he separately flagged a brake failure on an untested trailer.1NJBIZ. ASPCA CFO Lawsuit Alleges Donor Fund Misuse, Whistleblower Retaliation He also alleges that the ASPCA’s Upper East Side animal shelter was plagued by black mold, a leaking roof, a failing heating system, and a faulty generator, and that Bershadker dismissed efforts to relocate it as a “waste of time.”6HumaneWatch. ASPCA Sued by Former Executive for Anti-Whistleblower Retaliation
The Retaliation Claims and Other Executives Named
Lavalette alleges a pattern of escalating pressure once he began raising concerns. He says Bershadker threatened to fire him in the fall of 2024 if he brought his concerns to the board, spread “false and negative performance criticisms” about him to board members, and eventually terminated him after he refused to certify an audit he considered flawed.2New York Post. Top Exec at ASPCA Inhumanely Fired After Sounding Alarm About Dangerous Fraud at Animal Rights Group: Suit
The complaint also names Senior Vice President Todd Hendricks and Chief Legal Officer Beverly Jones. It alleges the three excluded the finance team from reviewing fundraising agreements to bypass competitive bidding rules, and that staff were barred from discussing fundraising matters with the board. Jones is also accused of trying to retroactively amend the CEO expense policy to allow Bershadker to use limousine services beyond what the existing policy permitted, without formal board approval.6HumaneWatch. ASPCA Sued by Former Executive for Anti-Whistleblower Retaliation In a separate incident, Lavalette says an unnamed executive ordered him to read a “verbatim script” of negative feedback to another whistleblowing employee and then fire that person. He refused.2New York Post. Top Exec at ASPCA Inhumanely Fired After Sounding Alarm About Dangerous Fraud at Animal Rights Group: Suit
What the ASPCA Says
The ASPCA has called the allegations “baseless” and said it will “vigorously defend against them.” The organization says its board engaged independent outside counsel to review the matters Lavalette raised and concluded that its “policies and practices are appropriate, lawful, and consistent with our mission.”1NJBIZ. ASPCA CFO Lawsuit Alleges Donor Fund Misuse, Whistleblower Retaliation Bershadker remains listed as president and CEO on the ASPCA’s website, and Hendricks and Jones remain on the executive leadership team.7ASPCA. ASPCA Executive Leadership
Where the Case Stands
Lavalette filed in New Jersey state court. The case was briefly removed to federal court as Case No. 2:25-cv-11833, but on October 9, 2025, U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton granted Lavalette’s motion to remand, adopting a magistrate judge’s recommendation. The matter returned to Essex County Superior Court under state case number ESX L 3779 25, where it is proceeding.8PACER Monitor. Lavalette v. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, et al.
Lavalette is represented by Neil Mullin of Smith Mullin, whose past whistleblower work includes a $10 million jury verdict against Mobil Oil that was upheld by the New Jersey Supreme Court.9Smith Mullin. Smith Mullin Verdicts
Earlier ASPCA Litigation: The Feld Entertainment Settlement
The Lavalette case is not the ASPCA’s first major courtroom loss. In December 2012, the organization paid $9.3 million to settle claims brought by Feld Entertainment, owner of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Feld’s counter-suit followed a long-running Endangered Species Act case in which the ASPCA and other animal welfare groups had sued over the treatment of 43 Asian elephants. During discovery, Feld’s lawyers uncovered that the plaintiff groups and their attorneys had paid the lead witness, former Ringling employee Tom Rider, at least $190,000 over eight years. The court found the payments were Rider’s sole source of income and a “motivating factor” for his participation and that he had lied under oath. A federal judge called the underlying case “frivolous,” “vexatious,” and “groundless and unreasonable from its inception.”10PR Newswire. ASPCA Pays $9.3 Million in Landmark Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Settlement Feld’s total recovery from all defendants ultimately passed $25 million after a 2014 settlement with the Humane Society of the United States and remaining parties.11National Agricultural Law Center. Animal Welfare Groups to Pay Ringling Bros. $16 Million in Elephant Lawsuit
The Feld matter is closed. The Lavalette matter is not, and its allegations, if they survive discovery, could put the ASPCA’s contracting practices and internal governance in front of a jury.