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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: June 2006

O B I T U A R I E S

 

NON-HUMAN ANIMALS

 


Squeak, 14, the Jack Russell terrier who on March 18, 2002 defended Zim-babwean farmer Terry Ford from land invaders, and refused to leave Ford’s side after Ford was killed, died on May 9, 2006 at the home of Ford’s son Mark. The North Shore Animal League America and ANIMAL PEOPLE honored Squeak with the July/August 2002 Lewyt Award for Heroic & Compassionate Animals.

 

Lynn, Marty, and Arthur, three ex-laboratory chimpanzees who were longtime residents of Primarily Primates, all in their mid-thirties, died in May from causes respectively identified as osteomyelitis, a neurological disorder, and acute peritonitis. Their deaths followed the deaths soon after arrival of former Ohio State University chimps Kermit, 35, and Bobby, 16. “Chimps have been known to live to 50,” Prmarily Primates president Wally Swett told Susan Pagani of the San Antonio Current, “but even though that is quoted a lot, it’s very rare. “Chimps who have been used in research are much more susceptible to disease than those that have not, because of the stress and isolation they have endured.”

 

Stella, 62, one of 1,400 Kenyan elephants named by the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, died due to effects of drought in February 2006 while struggling to follow her family from the Kajiado District in Kenya to greener pastures in Tanzania.

 

Luna, 6, a male orca whale who had lived alone in the Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island since 2001, was killed on March 9 when he swam too close to the idling propeller of a tugboat that was waiting out a storm near Bligh Island, and was sucked into the blades. “For the Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation, he had a spiritual significance,” recalled Jonathan Woodward of the Toronto Globe & Mail. “Their chief, Ambrose Maquinna, expected to return after death as a killer whale. Just days after Mr. Maquinna died, Luna surfaced. Scientists tried to reunite the whale with his family in 2004, but were thwarted when the natives took to the waters, luring him far from the pen they set up.”


Andrew, the first bile farm bear rescued by Animals Asia Foundation founder Jill Robinson, died on February 9, 2006 from liver cancer, “possibly originating from damage caused on the farms,” Robinson said. He was rescued in February 2000.

 

Hal, a young male coyote who was captured in Central Park, New York City, on March 22, 2006, died on March 30 from secondary poisoning apparently caused by eating poisoned rodents, en route to be released upstate. Some activists and wildlife rescuers had attributed his death to alleged rough handling and excessive restraint. Whatever the cause, New York City parks commissioner Adrian Benepe said a second coyote seen in Central Park would be left alone. The second coyote was named Jacobus Van Cortlandt, after an 18th century mayor who helped to found Central Park.

 

Jackie, a male duck who waited beside the pen of his injured mate Heckle at the Bell Trace retirement community in Bloomington, Indiana, while Heckle recovered from a broken leg, was beheaded on May 20 by an unknown assailant. [May this bastard burn in hell!] Heckle, whose leg was treated by WildCare Inc., was returned to WildCare for safe release.

 

Rufus, a wild turkey who for six months was “unofficial greeter, pet and tourist attraction at the Jacques Spur Junction Cafe” in Culdesac, Idaho, according to Associated Press, was grabbed on April 15, the opening day of turkey hunting season, by an older man who threw him alive through the open hatch of an older model Chevy Blazer with Idaho plates and raced away.

 

Boris, at least 20, a bull bison who migrated more than 200 miles annually between Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, was found dead from probable starvation in March 2006. “No other bison has been recorded migrating 200-plus miles since the park icon was nearly exterminated a century ago,” wrote Rebecca Hunt-ington of the Jackson Hole News & Guide. Initially Boris migrated with two other bulls, then in 1997 led a herd of 10. Neither of the other bulls survived 1997, but Boris and the cows were “a tremendous conservation asset in terms of introducing Yellowstone genes into the Jackson herd,” said Grand Teton National Park biologist Steve Cain.

 

 

HUMAN ANIMALS

 

Trina Bellak, 47, died on May 28, 2006, from complications arising from cancer. “I have been involved with horses for over 35 years,” Bellak told California radio station KWMR in July 2005. “My interest was sparked at the age of two when I was read Black Beauty,” by 19th century horse advocate Anna Sewell, “and insisted on being read the story weekly for years. At age nine, I began riding classes, which led to participation in many different types of competitions and shows. At age twelve, I was horrified to learn that the federal government was rounding up and killing our wild horses. With several close friends I held bake sales and used book sales to raise money to help pass the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Protection Act. This experience developed my interest in horse and animal welfare, and taught me that animals can suffer at the hands of the government.” Bellak was associate director of federal affairs for the Humane Society of the U.S. for six years in the 1990s, then formed the American Horse Defense Fund in 2000. She counted as her most distinguished achievement winning passage of the Humane Transport of Horses to Slaughter Act, which took effect in February 2002. Bellak relocated to Captain Cook, Hawaii, in 2003.


Vicky O. Armel, 40, a detective employed for nine years by the Fairfax County Police Department, was fatally shot on May 8, 2006 outside the Sully Police Station in Chantilly, Virginia, by Michael W. Kennedy, 18, of Centerville, Virginia. Armel left two young children and her husband, a fellow Fairfax County police officer. In the attack, Kennedy wounded two other officers, who rushed outside after hearing that an armed man had hijacked a van in the parking lot. “Dressed in camouflage and a black face mask, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, five handguns, and a high-powered hunting rifle, Kennedy fired at least 70 rounds before he was shot and killed,” reported Ian Urbina of The New York Times. “Though the authorities said they did not believe that Mr. Kennedy had intended to hit specific officers, this was not the first time he and Detective Armel had met,” Urbina added. “In February, Detective Armel served a criminal warrant on Kennedy resulting from an argument in which a dog was killed, county officials said.” Washington Post staff writer Tom Jackman described the incident as “the nonfatal shooting of the family dog. Sources close to the investigation said Kennedy told officers he had been holding a gun because he was suicidal,” Jackman added, “but decided against killing himself, then accidentally fired it.” Police were not allowed to see the family gun collection then, Jackman wrote. In addition to the seven guns Kennedy used in the police station attack, nine more guns were found in the family home afterward. Kennedy voluntarily committed himself to the Potomac Ridge Behavioral Health Center in April 2006, but fled soon afterward, hijacked a truck, and held the driver at gunpoint. Surrendering to police on April 19, he was released on bail three days later. The son of a butcher, Kennedy “used to joke about wanting to kill animals,” high school friend Peter Kirschner, 18, told Urbina.

 

Colin Watson, 63, of Selby, Britain, fell to his death from a 40-foot larch tree circa May 25, 2006, near Campsall, Doncaster. Described by Alan Hamilton of the London Times as “Britain’s most notorious illegal collector of rare birds’ eggs,” Watson was a retired power station worker who was “believed to have specialised in the eggs of birds of prey and rare crows,” Hamilton wrote. “The height of his infamy was when he travelled to Loch Garten in Scotland and took a chainsaw to a tree that contained the nest–– and probably the eggs––of an osprey. After a raid on his home in 1985, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds found more than 2,200 eggs in his house and in that of his disabled son. Specimens included golden eagle, osprey, sparrowhawk, and red kite.” Convicted six times of related offenses during the past 20 years, Watson was fined the cumulative equivalent of more than $10,000.