OBITUARIES
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:
Aida Fleming, founder of the
Kindness Club, died on January 25 at age 97.
A longtime animal rescuer, inspired by the
example of Albert Schweitzer, Fleming began
the Kindness Club in 1959 with an essay contest
for school children. The pledge children take to
join has for many become a lifelong creed: “I
promise to be kind to animals, as well as peo-
ple, and to speak and act in defense of all help-
less living creatures.” Eulogized Paul Watson
of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, “My
brothers, sisters, and I were greatly influenced
by the Kindness Club. I attribute what I do,
and the fact that my brothers and sisters are also
anti-hunting, anti-fur coats, and very pro-ani-
mals, to the fact that we were all members of
the Kindness Club.” [The Kindness Club oper-
ates from 65 Brunswick Street, Frederickton,
New Brunswick, Canada E3B 1G5.]
Alice Herrington, 75, founder of
Friends of Animals and the Committee for
Humane Legislation, died on April 26 of can-
cer at the DeKalb Medical Center in Decatur,
Georgia. Formerly active in the Gotham Cat
Club, Herrington commenced FoA in 1957 as
the first national group to promote low-cost
neutering of dogs and cats. Neutering clinics
were established in Neptune, New Jersey, and
Miami, Florida, along with FoA’s still active
coupon program. Herrington began CHL a few
years later to lobby against slaughterhouse abus-
es, hunting, and the fur trade.. Retiring from
FoA in 1986, she devoted much of the rest of
her life to unsuccessful lawsuits, seeking to
regain control of the organization.
New York animal protection attor-
ney Jolene Marion died on May 22. In the
mid-1970s, Marion, Joyce Tischler, and
Esther Dukes rescued cats while attending
Queens College. In 1984 they cofounded
Attorneys for Animal Rights, which in 1985
became the Animal Legal Defense Fund.
Marion left ALDF in 1987 to form Legal Action
for Animals, sharing offices until her illness
with United Action for Animals. “After a three-
and-a-half-year battle with cancer, she passed
away, still working on a laptop computer in her
hospital room,” said fellow attorney David
Stein. “Her life was dedicated to the legal pro-
tection of animals and activists.”
