Animal obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2001:

Ralf, 17, resident porcupine at the Science North center at
the University of Guelph, Ontario, since 1984, except for a stint
at the 1990 World’s Fair in Osaka, Japan, died on August 6. As
many as three million visitors had petted Ralf, including the Prince
and Princess of Wales in 1991.

Haida, 21, the oldest of the five orcas at Sea World San
Antonio, captured from the wild in 1980, died suddenly of an
unknown cause on August 2.

Dohani, 11-day-old son of Oakland Zoo elephant Lisa, 24,
was accidentally gored by his mother on the night of September 9.
The incident was inferred from the wounds and Lisa’s devoted
behavior, but was not seen.

Mossdale Nuggett, 6, a Swaledale stud ram, cost British
taxpayers a record $70,000 in compensation after he was recently
among more than four million animals killed in a thus far futile
effort to eradicate hoof-and-mouth disease from the U.K. The disease
reached Britain from India, possibly via China or South Africa,
coincidental with the return of pilgrims from Mecca earlier in 2001.
Experts even speculate that it might have blown in with dust from
Morocco.

Hsubao, Chinese for “Livestock Treasure,” died on September
6 from heart and lung failure associated with a fever, five days
after her birth as first bovine cloned in Taiwan. She died two weeks
after the unnamed three-day-old first calf born from cloning at U.C.
Davis, in California.

Liberty, 12, a performing sea lion who lived his whole life
at Ocean Park in Hong Kong, died on August 20 from complications of
anesthesia while getting dental care.

Spike, 17, comedienne Joan Rivers’ Yorkshire terrier and
frequent companion on the Johnny Carson show during the 1980s, died
from heart failure on September 8 while Rivers was in Europe for a
week, leaving him with an assistant. Spike had a bit role on
Broadway in Sally Marr & Her Escorts (1995), was Mr. February in a
Ralston Purina calendar, and had his own page at Rivers’ web site.