Get thee to a shelter, Bill!
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1993:
BALTIMORE, Maryland– –
More than 600 participants in the American
Humane Association annual conference told
President Bill Clinton on October 13 to get
the golden retriever he covets from a shelter
rather a breeder. Syndicated columnist Mike
Capuzzo told the group that in May, Clinton
unsuccessfully bid $3,500 for a golden
retriever at an auction held at the Sidwell
Friends School, which his daughter Chelsea
attends. Later he bid unsuccessfully on a
golden retriever puppy owned by Robert
Wood Johnson IV, great-grandson of the
founder of Johnson & Johnson Inc. Capuzzo
urged Clinton to emulate the late Lyndon
Johnson, whose favorite dog was a mongrel
stray his daughter Lucy found at a Texas gas
station.
In other business, the AHA hon-
ored Colorado State University dean of vet-
erinary medicine and biomedical science Jim
Voss; animal control officer Mike Lucas of
Fairfax County, Virginia; and the Martin/
Williams advertising agency of Minneapolis.
Under Voss, the CSU veterinary
school was among the first in the U.S. to
abolish the practice of reviving animals used
in surgical practice for repeated operations;
to abolish all invasive animal use at the fresh-
man level; to create an alternative program
for students who are unwilling to harm ani-
mals in learning surgery; and to encourage
students to do neutering for a local humane
society in order to gain surgical experience.
Lucas was shot and abandoned as
he screamed for help on December 28, 1992,
after approaching two suspected deer poach-
ers. The shooter got just 10 days in jail for
reckless discharge of a weapon while hunt-
ing. Lucas is now back on the job.
Martin/Williams produced TV pub-
lic service messages to promote adopting
older dogs that in September won two C l i o
Awards for creative excellence.
