Human obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2005:

Frank Perdue, 84, died on March 31 at
home in Salisbury, Maryland. His father,
Arthur Perdue, started an egg farm in the year
that Frank Perdue was born. After leukosis
killed their 2,000 leghorns in the early 1940s,
they switched to raising broiler hens, began
developing factory-style protection methods, and
prospered during the World War II meat shortage.
Frank Perdue took over the $6 million a year
business in 1952. Annual revenues were up to $56
million in 1970, when Perdue introduced the
Perdue Farms brand name to supermarkets,
appearing in approximately 200 TV commercials
during the next 24 years to promote it. By 1991
Perdue Farms was the third largest poultry firm
in the U.S., worth $1.2 billion a year. In
April 1997, Animal Rights International founder
Henry Spira asked Perdue to lead the way in
reducing the suffering to poultry that results
from factory farming. After Perdue ignored
repeated requests from Spira, Spira in October

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Animal obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2005:

Becky Louise, 14, among the last survivors of the 1991-1992
ANIMAL PEOPLE test of neuter/return feral cat control in northern
Fairfield County, Connecticut, died peacefully and unexpectedly on
March 26. She was one of two indistinguishable littermates who were
named after Alley Cat Allies cofounders Becky Robinson and Louise
Holton. As the owner of the apartment complex where the cats were
trapped did not want them returned, and they were not adoptable
because they could not be handled, Becky and Louise were among 21
cats from the neuter/ return test who were evacuated in July 1992 to
the first ANIMAL PEOPLE headquarters near Shushan, New York, along
with 10 previously rescued cats. In August 1992 a female coyote who
had lost a front paw, probably in escaping from a leghold trap, ate
nine of the feral cats, in as many days. As either Becky or Louise
was among the coyote victims, but we did not know which, the
survivor became Becky Louise. Becky Louise then moved, by her
choice, into the house from the basement with outdoor access that
had been been adapted into a habitat for the ferals. Relocated with
ANIMAL PEOPLE and all the other surviving cats in 1996 to Clinton,
Washington, Becky Louise never tamed, never groomed herself, and
required heavy sedation before her squirrel-sized mats could be
shaved off. Probably because of her poor hygiene, Becky Louise had
low status among the cats, though she was tolerated by all. Since
the death of her twin sister, Becky Louise had only one close
friend, Miriam, another shy feral whom ANIMAL PEOPLE rescued in
2003. Among the 320 cats involved in the 1991-1992 Connecticut
project, the known survivors are Sombra and Punto, kept by ANIMAL
PEOPLE webmaster Patrice Greanville, and Rosalba, Peetee, and
Sylvie, still with ANIMAL PEOPLE. There may be other survivors
among the 45 cats who were adopted out. To our awareness, the last
of the 237 cats who were returned to their habitat either died or
were tamed and adopted by mid-1995.

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