People, awards, honors, and appointments

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1999:

PETsMART Inc. on January 4
announced the appointment of Joyce Briggs
as director of PETsMART Charities, which
contributed more than $2.5 million to animal
protection charities in 1998, and facilitated
the adoption of more than 175,000 dogs and
cats via the PETsMART Luv-A-Pet
Adoption Centers, located in each
PETsMART store. PETsMART does not sell
dogs and cats. Briggs previously was senior
director of marketing and public relations for
the American Humane Association, and
before that was director of The Spayed Club,
a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit neutering service.

She succeeds Ed Sayres, who succeeded
Richard Avanzino as president of the
San Francisco SPCA on January 2, when
Avanzino retired to become CEO of the
Duffield Family Foundation.
Pet overpopulation and abuses of
racehorses and racing greyhounds inspired
half a column by New York Times s p o r t swriter
Robert Lipsyte on February 7, after
Lipsyte asked Animal Medical Center publications
editor Christina MacMurray t o
comment on remarks made by recently retired
American SPCA president Roger Caras
while promoting the Westminster Dog
Show. Caras, Lipsyte wrote in the first half
of his column, asserted that “Cats are the
most economically insignificant of all domestic
animals,” whose “only function is companionship.”
Caras reportedly also told
Lipsyte that dogs are better mousers than
cats; claimed Ark Trust president Gretchen
Wyler has a horse as a dancing partner; conceded
that “There is nothing more macho
than an old tom cat”; and added that “They
don’t call a female dog a bitch for no reason.”
Continued Lipsyte, “There was a slight gasp
when I recounted this to MacMurray. ‘Roger
said that?’ she said.” MacMurray then took
the opportunity to gracefully but vividly
inform Lipsyte’s readers about a variety of
humane issues involving sports that are rarely
exposed on sports pages.
Bonney Brown, founder of the
seven-year-old Neponset Valley Humane
S o c i e t y in Canton, Massachusetts, in
January left to become director of national
networking services at the Best Friends
Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah.
Succeeding her at NVHS is Robyn Service.
Comic book artist Stuart
C h a i f e t z, 31, of Brick, New Jersey, in
January fasted one day in memory of each of
the 11 coyotes killed during the 1998 New
Jersey coyote hunting season, then continued
his fast throughout the 17-day 1999 coyote
season. He reportedly lost 35 pounds.
Utah State University p r o f e s s o r
Frank Ascione asks anyone involved in “any
domestic violence program’s efforts to shelter
battered women’s animals” to contact him to
participate in a survey of program techniques
and outcomes, c/o Dept. of Psychology,
USU, Logan, UT 84322; 435-797-1446; or
>>FrankA@fsl.ed.usu.edu<<.
Lindy Rodwell, of Johannesburg,
South Africa, has received the 1999 Whitley
Conservation Award for her work to prevent
farmers from killing cranes and to breed
endangered wattled cranes in captivity. The
award, worth about $64,000, is presented by
Edward Whitley, in admiration of the zoological
conservation initiatives of the late
British naturalist and author Gerald Durrell.
Newly elected Minnesota govern
o r Jesse Ventura, himself a hunter, on
January 13 named hunter Alan Horner t o
head the state Department of Fisheries and
Resources–– but Horner resigned on January
19 after a background check found that he
had been cited twice and warned once for
allegedly violating hunting and fishing permit
requirements. Ventura then appointed
Champlin police chief and retired FBI agent
Allen Garber, a nonhunter who told media
he only occasionally fishes.
Michigan Lawyer’s Weekly i n
January named Grand Rapids animal issue
specialist Ginny K. Mikita as one of several
Lawyers of the Year, in appreciation of her
work to strengthen anti-cruelty laws.
Karen P. Sheldon, now teaching
at the Vermont Law School in South
Royalton, Vermont, will become director of
the VLC Environmental Law Center effective
July 1, VLC announced on January 22. She
succeeds Frank Parenteau, director since
1993. A former “Nader’s Raider,” Sheldon
served as a staff attorney for the Sierra Club
Legal Defense Fund, 1980-1988, and from
1988 to 1994 was part of the senior administration
at The Wilderness Society.
Humane Society of Seminole
C o u n t y manager Betty Munoz u n d e r w e n t
eight hours of emergency surgery in late
January due to a hiatal hernia rupture complicated
by peritonitis. Credited with rebuilding
the no-kill organization after a fire razed the
original shelter, killing 74 dogs, and an officer
allegedly embezzled from the building
fund, Munoz is reportedly not expected to
recover enough to resume her duties, and
has no disability insurance. Friends have
formed an assistance fund c/o the Bank of
Central Florida, 1753 W. Broadway,
Oviedo, FL 32765; 407-365-9667.
Doug Raper, 48, the ninth fulltime
executive director of the perennially
embattled Spokane Humane Society in nine
years, resigned without stating a reason
effective on February 12.