OBITUARIES
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:
Actor Bill Travers, 72, who played
Kenyan game warden George Adamson in the 1966
film Born Free, died March 31 in Dorking,
England. Travers and Virginia McKenna, his wife of
37 years, endowed the Born Free Foundation, which
works to improve the care of captive wildlife.
Travers and McKenna also served as celebrity board
members for the Elsa Wild Animal Appeal, named
after the lioness featured in Born Free. “The animals
have lost a true friend,” said Elsa-USA president
Don Rolla.
Bull, age 10+, died April 11 of an appar-
ent sudden heart attack. Afflicted with feline AIDS,
Bull came to ANIMAL PEOPLE in early 1992
when rescuer Mary Ann Finer responded to a report
that a battlescarred old tom had led two kittens to a
feeder’s porch, and found him living in a junked car
in Shelton, Connecticut. Ferocious twoard humans,
he proved immensely popular with other cats, who
vied to sit next to him, and after adoption into the
ANIMAL PEOPLE household became the “consta-
ble,” helping the king cat, Buddha-like Voltaire
(whom he followed and groomed) to keep domestic
peace. Only once, on New Year’s Eve 1993, did
Bull let Kim pet him; he never allowed anyone else
to. Yet when Kim was sad over the loss of other cats,
he made a point of remaining beside her, leaning
against her for as long as he wasn’t touched. “He was
truly a noble soul,” she said. Bull waited his turn for
food, tried to intervene whenever he thought any per-
son or animal needed help (even dogs), always tried
to get to the litterbox before tossing hairballs, never
picked fights though he did back down one bully who
was half again his size, and generally, “would have
been moral by human standards.” He is missed by all
the people and animals of ANIMAL PEOPLE.
