OBITUARIES
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1999:
Garnet Monroe, 75, died of
pneumonic plague on May 27 in Fort Collins,
Colorado. Her husband Kenneth Monroe,
83, was hospitalized and treated for pneumonic
plague symptoms about two weeks
later, but recovered and resumed the activities
both had long enjoyed as volunteers for
wildlife-related programs of the Humane
Society of Larimer County, development
director Bonnie Baker told ANIMAL PEOPLE.
Health officials believe the Monroes
and a 44-year-old female from Williamsburg,
Colorado, who also recovered, somehow
came into contact with plague-carrying fleas
from infested wild rodents.
Valerie, 6, pet hen of Janet
Bonney at the Fur & Feather Farm in
Harpswell, Maine, died in early June on her
hatching day. In February 1995, Valerie––
then called “Chicken #7”––vanished during a
blizzard. Bonney’s dog found Valerie “under
the front porch near the foundation, lying on
her back with her feet in the air, stiff.
Literally stiff.” She was so stiff that Bonney
couldn’t fit her body into a shoebox for burial,
so Bonney left her to thaw, discovered
she had a pulse an hour later, and revived her
with CPR, a hot water bottle, and mouth-tobeak
resuscitation.
Betty, 18 months, the virgin
Holstein heifer who on June 10 gave
Caesarian birth to a calf cloned from the ear
cells of a 14-year-old cow named Aspen at
the University of Connecticut in Storrs, died
one day later from apparent surgical shock.
Her shared offspring, Amy, survives.
Ginny, 7, a rare eastern black
rhino imported from South Africa for captive
breeding in 1996, died unexpectedly in her
sleep on June 20 at the Kansas City Zoo,
along with a 12-month-old, two-thirds-term
male fetus. Zoo staff knew Ginny had mated
in 1998 with a captive-born eastern black
rhino named Tucker, but were unaware that
she had become pregnant.
Three Ring, a three-year-old
champion filly owned by Barry and Sheryl
Schwartz of Westchester, New York, reared
up for unknown cause after Sheryl kissed her
for a photo on June 25 at Belmont Park, fell
over backward, and fractured her skull so
severely that she was euthanized at the scene.
Alanis, a month-old pygmy hippo,
died suddenly at the Edinburgh Zoo in
Scotland on June 28, of apparent sunstroke.
Pygmy hippos reportedly dehydrate five
times faster than human beings.
Tanami, 10, a female koala at the
Toledo Zoo on loan from the San Diego Zoo,
on June 3 died of heart failure while anesthetized
for examination to find out why she
was losing weight.
Hercules, an 11-foot alligator who
lived in the New Orleans Swamp Tours parking
lot, was killed in mid-June at company
request by a nuisance wildlife hunter hired by
the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and
Fisheries. “New Orleans Swamp Tours has
an exclusive contract with the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service to operate a tour in Bayou
Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge,” reported
New Orleans Times-Picayune business writer
Stewart Yerton. “Federal wildlife officials
say they have documented New Orleans
Swamp Tours guides feeding alligators in the
refuge to entice them to tour boats.”
Reveille V, 14, an American collie
and former mascot of Texas A&M
University, was euthanized on June 24 due to
severe arthritis and loss of neurological function
in her rear legs. She became the Texas
A&M mascot in 1984, after beating out
2,000 other puppies at audition, and retired
in favor of the current mascot, Reveille VI,
in 1993. A military-style memorial for her is
to be held on September 11.
Fin, 16, bull California sea lion
born in 1983 at Marine World Africa USA,
resident at the San Francisco Zoo since 1985,
trained by keeper Deb Cano to grin thanks for
his food, died on June 25 after a seemingly
mild bout with seal pox, a seasonal illness.
Momi, 16, and Maikai, 10,
giraffes sedated and crated for transfer from
the defunct Molokai Ranch safari park at
Kaunakakai, Hawaii, to the Keiki Zoo in
Maui, died separately on June 24. “It was
totally unexpected, a mystery,” said
Molokai Ranch veterinarian Alan Kaufman.
