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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: March 2008

Obituaries

 

Tom Lantos, 80, died on February 11, 2008. A longtime animal advocate, Lantos chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. For details of his life and deeds, see the ANIMAL PEOPLE editorial for March 2008, Tom Lantos: a Wilburforce for our time.

 

Fred Bergendorff, 63, died on January 27, 2008 in Brea, California, after a four-month struggle with a neurological illness. A longtime marketing director for radio KNX in Los Angeles, "Bergendorff created the TV show Pet Place in the early 1990s," recalled <www.thepetplace.org>, "first on the cable system in Long Beach and then on KDOC-TV, where it continues today with new host Mickey Laszlo. A radio version began in 2006 on KGIL. It continues with Marie Hulett as host." Pet Place showcases shelter animals available for adoption. Both versions are produced by Gary Lycan.

 

Galyani Vadhana, 84, Princess of Narathiwat, Thailand, elder sister of Thai king Bhumibol Adulyadej, died on January 2, 2008. Born in England, Princess Galyani studied in Switzerland, then returned to Thailand as a professor of French language, history and literature at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. Princess Galyani in 2002 became royal patron of the National Elephant Institute in Lampang, and adopted three elephants, Phang Phra Thida Juthanant, 14, Phang Wanalee, 10, and Phang Aleena, four, who shared her birthday. "With the Princess' support," recalled Lampai Intathep of the Bangkok Post, "the National Elephant Institute established Thailand's first elephant hospital, which provides free medical treatment for sick and injured jumbos," as well as operating a breeding program, and in April 2007 introduced "elephant therapy" to assist autistic children.

 

Janez Drnovsek, 57, the vegan former president of Slovenia, died on February 23, 2008 at his home in Ljubljana. As prime minister of Slovenia, 1991-2002, Drnovsek led an almost bloodless transition to national independence after the breakup of Yugoslavia, avoiding the warfare that engulfed Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, and Serbia. Developing cancer in 1999, Drnovsek became a vegan in his quest for a cure. He found that giving up meat soon increased his sensitivity toward animals. "If a person's conscience is highly developed, that person will not kill or be cruel to animals," Drnovsek told Damjan Likar of the Slovenian Society for the Rights & Liberation of Animals in December 2005. "Hunting, which is by definition chasing and killing animals, is of course, completely unethical," Drnovsek added. Of animal testing, Drnovsek said, "You have to ask yourself would you like it if you were the subject of such testing. During World War II my father was an inmate at the Dachau concentration camp, where he was subjected to medical experiments. He didn't like it one bit. Some people would say it is necessary for the progress of science, but I am sure that in most cases alternative methods can be used." Of Christmas feasts, Drnovsek said "Jesus would turn in his grave if he knew that mass slaughter of animals is carried out every year in his name. It is very difficult to imagine that he would accept millions of living creatures being killed in his honor." Reminded Drnovsek in April 2007, in one of his last public statements, "The Easter Holidays are near. Let's spend them in peace and good company. You can renounce the ham. Chocolate eggs should be sufficient for an Easter atmosphere."

 

Dale Hylton, 77, died on February 1, 2008 in Decatur, Illinois, shortly after relocating from Canby, Oregon. Hired in 1964 as first assistant to Frank McMahon, the first investigator for the Humane Society of the U.S., Hylton left a job in electric lighting sales to shed light on the traffic in dogs and cats to laboratories. His work led to the introduction of kennel licensing in Pennsylvania and contributed to the passage of the federal Laboratory Animal Welfare Act of 1966, which in 1971 was amended into the present Animal Welfare Act. Later in 1966, recounted HSUS historian Bernard Unti, a dog dealer who had been convicted of cruelty as result of Hylton's findings filed charges against Hylton under an obscure 1894 statute originally intended to prevent strikebreakers from misrepresenting their identities. The offense carried a maximum penalty of $1,000 and one year in jail. Although HSUS was prepared to defend him, Hylton pleaded guilty to save costs, in a country courthouse packed with dog dealers, some of whom made little effort to conceal the firearms they were carrying. After HSUS agreed to pay Hylton's fine of $250 plus $160 in court costs), the judge quickly ordered him and his supporting witnesses into private chambers, where he showed them an outside exit and told them to leave town immediately." Hylton next investigated rodeo abuse, but was frustrated by defendants fleeing the jurisdictions where he filed complaints. "Cowboys seem to be very brave when it comes to jerking an animal around on the end of a rope, but not when it comes to facing a magistrate," Hylton observed. Hylton later served as interim director of the HSUS office in New Jersey, then was founding director of the National Humane Education Center, built and operated by HSUS at Waterford, Virginia, on property acquired by Edith Goode, founder of the Edith J. Goode Residuary Trust for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. With Phyllis Wright, then heading Washington Animal Rescue League and later head of companion animal programs at HSUS until her death in 1992, Hylton campaigned to replace electrocution, decompression, and gassing of homeless animals with sodium pentobarbital injections. Hylton told Unti that a gas chamber and decompression chamber installed at the National Humane Education Center were never used. The center handled animal control for Loudoin County, Virginia, and was turned over to county operation in the mid-1970s. Working with children's book author Jean McClure Kelty and Unexpected Wildlife Refuge founder Hope Sawyer Buyukmihci, Hylton attempted to incorporate the programs of the Kindness Club into HSUS. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder Paul Watson credits the work of the Kindness Club and founder Aida Fleming, of New Brunswick, as important influences in his early life. While the Kindness Club eventually continued as an independent project, current HSUS West Coast regional director Eric Sakach became involved in humane work as a member during Hylton's tenure. The newsletters Hylton and colleagues created to address students of different age levels evolved into HSUS Kind News, distributed by subscription to classrooms throughout the U.S. Hylton, Wright, Franz Dantler, Pat Parkes, and HSUS board member Anna Fesmire went on to form the HSUS shelter accreditation program. Hylton retired in 1998.


Jelica Mrkusic died on January 20, 2008, in Belgrade, Serbia. "She fought selflessly for many years against cruelty to animals, was influential in introducing laws to protect domestic animals as well as pets, and was a founder of the monthly newsletter of the Belgrade SPCA," recalled her daughter, Marjanka Mrkusic Brown.

 

Molly Keane, 42, of Berkeley, California, drowned on February 16, 2008, at Gualala Point Regional Park in an unsuccessful effort to rescue her dog from a riptide. The dog also drowned."


Stella Brewer Marsden, 56, died on January 31, 2007. Born in the Seychelles, where her father Edward Brewer was a forest officer, she moved with her family to Gambia in 1957, then was educated at boarding school in Wales. Returning to Gambia, Stella Brewer in 1968 took over the care of an orphaned chimpanzee named William. More orphaned chimps soon followed. Founding the Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Trust in 1969, she initially kept the chimps at the Abuko Nature Reserve. Following a 1973 internship with Jane Goodall at her Gombe Stream research center in Tanzania, Stella Brewer in 1974 tried to reintroduce some of her chimps to the wild at Niokolo Koba National Park in Senegal. "Much of the time she was alone, and occasionally during the wet season, when streams became impassible torrents, she was cut off for weeks. It was an adventurous time: treed by buffalo, chased and stung by African bees, stalked by lions," recalls the Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Trust web site. "The move to Niokolo Koba was financed by the advance from the publishers of her book, The Forest Dwellers (1978). The book was on the (London) Times' best seller list for several weeks and was translated into 16 languages. Subsequent royalties sustained the project for some time," the web site adds. "The late Hugo van Lawick filmed and produced a documentary, Stella and the Chimps of Mt. Asserik," based on the book. After the reintroduction failed, Stella Brewer in 1979 settled at the present Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Trust location in the River Gambia National Park. The sanctuary now houses 86 chimps, including 19 of the original population, under direction of David Marsden, Stella Brewer's husband since 1977. The sanctuary also operates a village clinic and a school for 300 local children. Her sister, Heather Armstrong, formed the Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust in 2002. Both sisters, and Marsden, have contributed letters and guest columns to ANIMAL PEOPLE.

 

Stan Walker, 86, died at home on January 1, 2008 in Reno, Nevada, leaving $5 million to the SPCA of Northern Nevada and about $1 million to the Nevada Humane Society. Both bequests will fund improvements in facilities, said SPCA of Northern Nevada executive director Tom Jacobs and Nevada Humane Society executive director Bonney Brown. Born in San Mateo, Calif-ornia, Walker signed in 1941 with the San Francisco Seals professional baseball team, and played on option for Salt Lake City, Merced, and El Paso. World War II duty with the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific interrupted Walker's baseball ambitions, but he returned to pro ball with Jackson, Natchez and Thibodaux in 1947 and 1949 before starting a long career with United Parcel Service.

 

Markus Groh, 49, an Austrian attorney, was killed by a shark on February 24, 2008 while diving off Great Isaac Cay in the Bahamas with other members of an Austrian tour group. The group reached the Bahamas aboard the Shear Water, owned and operated by Abernethy's Scuba Adventures in Riviera Beach. "Jim Abernethy's peers had warned him that his practice of taking divers to open waters, dumping chum to bait the beasts and then sending in divers without a steel cage would prove deadly some day," reported Miami
Herald investigative team Adam H. Beasley, Alison Hollenbeck, Susan Cocking, and Evan S. Benn. "Abernethy's company has been cautioned by the Bahamas Diving Association to use more care," the Herald team continued. "The diving association, of which Abernethy is not a member, sent Scuba Adventures and other dive operators a 'cease-and-desist' letter last year, urging that cageless dives be done only around safer shark varieties such as Caribbean reef sharks, nurse sharks, black-tip sharks and silky sharks. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission banned shark-feeding dives in 2001." George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, told the Herald that Groh was the first known fatality associated with shark-watching. A different Markus Groh, a musician in New York City, has performed in benefits for shark conservation..