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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: October 2007

Obituaries

 

Janet Regina Hyland, 73, died on October 9, 2007 from breast cancer in Sarasota Florida, 50 years after the start of a successful six-year struggle against ovarian cancer. Hyland married Glen Edward on July 2, 1954. Hit by a drunk driver just 37 days later, he died after eight years in a "persistant vegetative state," recalled longtime friend Vasudev Murti, of Oakland, California. Originally Catholic, Hyland became an evangelical Protestant because Catholicism does not ordain women. Beginning seminary studies in 1955-1958, she completed a masters degree in theology more than 25 years later. Ordained by the Assembly of God in 1984, she worked in prison ministry and with migrant farmworkers. Hyland became an ethical vegetarian in 1973. Her first book, The Slaughter Of Terrified Beasts: A Biblical Basis for the Humane Treatment of Animals, appeared in 1988. It was revised and reissued in 2000 as God's Covenant With Animals. Her second book, Sexism is a Sin: The Biblical Basis of Female Equality, appeared in 1995. Also in 1995 Hyland founded a periodical, Humane Religion, which she continued until 1998.

Helen Freeman, 75, died of a lung disease on September 20, 2007 in Seattle. Born Helen Maniotas, she married Coast Guard officer Stanley Freeman in 1958, and became a volunteer docent at the Woodland Park Zoo when their two sons entered school. Earning a degree in animal behavior from the University of Washington, she helped the zoo to build a snow leopard captive breeding program, beginning in 1972. The original pair produced 29 cubs in 29 years. Freeman founded the International Snow Leopard Trust in 1981, to help protect the species in the wild, and in 1984 became chair of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association's Snow Leopard Species Survival Plan.

Lindsey Stahl, 14, of Crandon, Wisconsin, a vegetarian animal rights advocate, was the youngest of six victims killed on October 7, 2007 by rampage shooter Tyler Peterson, 20. Peterson, an off-duty sheriff's deputy, was later shot by police.

Prudy Wood, 81, died of lymphoma on September 19, 2007 in San Diego. "Prudy was a very active member of San Diego Animal Advocates in our early days, involved heavily in the fight against pound seizure and vivisection," remembered longtime friend Jane Cartmill. "She opened her home many times to visiting activists and hosted the first of our vegetarian/vegan Thanks-giving holidays. Into her late seventies Prudy could be found at protest rallies, holding a sign or handing out literature. She attended virtually every circus demo ever arranged by SDAA. Her short stories about animals were published widely and her letters to the editor on behalf of animal rights issues were legion." Wood was once married to Gene Wentz, the former U.S. Navy SEAL whose 1992 book Men In Green Faces is considered the definitive history of SEAL activity in Vietnam. Dolphin Project founder Ric O'Barry recalled that Wood lived near the San Diego Navy base, and "provided me with a safe house while campaigning against the U.S. Navy dolphins of war program. She was the best," O'Barry said, "the real deal."

Aleykutty, who for 30 years kept goats and rescued dogs at the cemetery in Pathanamthitta, India, near the Ayyappa temple, was found strangled on October 8, 2007, two days after the similar murder of Prabha-karan, who helped her. "Aleykutty and her vigilant army of dogs were apparently a threat to anti-social elements who were trying to make the cemetery a haven for their operations," reported Radhakrishnan Kuttoor of The Hindu. "She complained to the authorities about some people trying to attack her and steal her goats a few days before her body was found." Of her 59 goats, only 37 were found after the murders. "According to reliable sources, the lady was murdered by butchers who had been eyeing her goats," wrote Idduki SPCA chief executive A.G. Babu. Babu, Rachel Varghese of the recently reorganized Pathanamthitta SPCA, and People for Ani-mals founder Maneka Gandhi were reportedly arranging sanctuary care for Aleykutty's surviving animals.

 


Laurel Burch, 61, died on September 13, 2007 at her home in Novato, California, from complications of osteopetrosis. Born Laurel Anne Harte, she left her highly unstable family at age 14, surviving by cleaning houses and looking after children. Becoming a guitar-playing street musician, she married jazz artist Robert Burch at age 19. Divorced at 20, with a son and daughter to support, and a police record for stealing a piece of meat, Laurel Burch began making jewelry from scrap metal, selling it on the street in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. Her favorite themes included cats, birds, horses, and tigers. Indian trader Shashi Singapuri took examples of her work to China. In 1971, when few Americans visited China, Laurel Burch accepted an invitation to go, and learned cloisonné there, an enamel work method that resembles stained glass. Singapuri funded her first manufacturing venture, producing earrings and cloisonné patterns in other media, including fabric. She founded Laurel Burch Inc. in 1979. As her art business rose to commercial success, she began sharing her output with humane societies, donating some items to benefit sales, providing others at discounts. By the mid-1990s Laurel Burch art objects were ubiquitous in humane society boutiques. Her most noted contributions were the murals ornamenting the lobby at the Oakland SPCA shelter in California. Opened in 1992, this was the first shelter funded by PeopleSoft founders David and Cheryl Duffield, who funded Maddie's Adoption Center in San Francisco in 1996, and created Maddie's Fund in 1998. The Oakland SPCA is now the East Bay SPCA, operating two shelters and three clinics.

Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, 76, a vegetarian spiritual leader known to more than 7,000 followers as Sri Chinmoy, died on October 11, 2007, from a sudden heart attack at his home in New York City. Born in Bangladesh, then part of India, Chinmoy lived in ashrams from age 12 on. His boyhood hero, he recalled, was 1936 Olympic medalist Jesse Owens, whom he emulated as a track-and-field athlete. Emigrating to New York in 1964, as a clerk for the Indian consulate, Chinmoy opened a meditation center in Queens, which grew into a global string of ashrams, exercise centers, and vegetarian restaurants. Early followers included guitarist John McLaughlin, bandleader Carlos Santana, singer Roberta Flack, and saxaphonist Clarence Clemons. Chinmoy promoted vegetarianism, celibacy, and meditation through exercise with demonstrations of strength and endurance, hosting marathons and ultramarathons of up to 3,100 miles in length. A knee injury ended Chinmoy's own running when he was more than 60 years old, but he continued to perform weight lifting feats, using pulley devices, until his death. Because pulleys have the same effect in weight lifting as gearing on a bicycle, Chinmoy's feats are mostly not recognized by keepers of serious athletic records, but Chinmoy and followers came to dominate the Guinness Book of World Records with stunts also including prolific production of short poems of dubious literary value. Though animals were not among Chinmoy's usual lecture topics, he spoke fondly of animals, especially dogs. The Sri Chinmoy restaurant near McGill University in Montreal often hosted pro-animal gatherings from 1982 to 1989, when it closed. Though not a Sri Chinmoy disciple, ANIMAL PEOPLE editor Merritt Clifton frequently competed in Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team events in Quebec and New Hampshire, 1983-1988. Ethical vegetarian and animal advocate Cindy New debuted as a marathoner in the 1983 Sri Chinmoy Marathon in Montreal. She went on to become a two-time winner of the Montreal International Marathon and silver medalist in the 1989 Francophone Games marathon.