Obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2007:
Veronica Parker, 41, and her daughter Charlotte, 10, were
on March 24, 2007 trampled by an elephant in musth in Hwange
National Park, Zimbabwe, after leaving their vehicle to try for a
closer look at the elephant from behind an anthill. Kelvin Parker,
husband of Veronica and father of Charlotte, was uninjured. Tour
guide Andy Trevillia, 38, was seriously injured after trying to stop
the elephant with a rifle shot. Noted Zimbabwe Conservation Task
Force founder Johanny Rodrieguez, “The elephants in Hwange have
become increasingly skittish around humans because they associate
them with gunfire due to subsistence poaching, commercial poaching
(for ivory) and the fact that Zimbabwe is the only country in Africa
where shooting game for weekly rations is legal. The recent removal
of 12 juveniles from their herds for use in the tourist industry and
elephants being trapped in wire snares doesn’t help their
mood either.”

C.N. Madanraj, 67, and his wife Tara Bai, 63, of
Hyderabad, India, on April 1, 2007 hanged themselves in grief,
three days after burying Poppy, their dog of 13 years.

Kathy Manuela Attardo Claflin, 54, a longtime resident of
New Orleans who had relocated to Franklinton, Louisiana, “died
suddenly overnight” on April 2, 2007, leaving 30 rescued cats,
reported Pinckney Wood of Humane Heart, who with other local
rescuers tried to find homes for the cats. “She was in poor health
and had been stressed for about a year and a half by a man who lives
nearby, his wife, and son,” Wood said. “A number of Kathy’s cats
were shot.”

Dirk Brink, 58, owner of the Krugersdorp Game Reserve near
Johannesburg, South Africa, was on April 20, 2007 fatally mauled
by as many as five lions. Reported Kashiefa Ajam of the Cape Town
Cape Argus, “Brink had been testing a new camera given to him by his
daughter when he was attacked, said family spokesman Peter Beeker. It
is unclear whether Brink knew the lions were in the vicinity.”

Dustin Otis, 21, of Hughes Springs, Texas, on April 15,
2007 drowned in Lake Wright Patman while trying to rescue Flash, his
8-week-old basset hound, who had jumped out of a boat that Otis was
sailing with his father Dwayne Otis.
Dorothy Bush, 87, died on one of the last days of March 2007 while
planting flowers near the doorway of her home in Lincoln, Nebraska.
“Bush was co-founder of the now-defunct Mickle-Bush Neuter-Spay
Foundation,” begun in 1983 with her longtime friend Loretta Mickle,
“and more recently was instrumental in forming Break the Link, which
neuters, spays and helps animals from domestic violence situations,”
recalled Maureen Hutfless of the Lincoln Journal Star. Added Cindy
Lange-Kubick, also of the Journal Star, “She served on the board of
the Capital Humane Society, the Coalition for Pet Protection, and
PALS. She donated seed money to start a spay /neuter program at
Hearts United for Animals, a no-kill shelter near Auburn. When
Dorothy’s husband Gene died, she buried his ashes at Rolling Acres,
a pet cemetery,” where she also buried at least 10 of her favorite
pets. An energetic lobbyist for animal welfare bills, Bush
approached a young attorney named Mike Johanns for help in forming
the Mickle-Bush Neuter-Spay Foundation, and remained in touch with
him as he became mayor of Lincoln, Governor of Nebraska, and U.S.
Secretary of Agriculture. “She and Loretta were so committed,”
Johanns told Lange-Kubick. “They gave literally everything they had
to the welfare of animals.”

Virginia Knouse, 82, died on April 5, 2007 at her home in
Edmonds, Washington. Knouse and her husband of 45 years, Fred
Knouse, in 1967 founded the Progressive Animal Welfare Society, of
Lynnwood. Virginia Knouse continued as board president until 1997,
by which time PAWS was among the most prominent humane societies in
the U.S., active in animal advocacy as well as sheltering, with an
annual budget of $1.7 million and assets of $4.2 million.

Melisa Casco, 19, died on April 12, 2007, after
undergoing surgery to amputate one of her legs due to injuries
inflicted by a giant anteater. Her other leg had also been clawed
and her abdomen opened. “Casco worked at the Florencio Varela zoo
outside Buenos Aires as part of a conservation and reproduction
project involving endangered giant anteaters,” said Reuters. There
were no witnesses to the unprecedented attack. Casco was apparently
already in critical condition when found.