Human Obituaries
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:
Edward J. Blotzer Jr., 78, died on November 28, 2002 in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A retired locomotive engineer and local
newspaper editor, Blotzer served on the board of the animal rescue
group Animal Friends from 1960 until 1997. In 1970 Blotzer and his
late wife Katherine, who owned a printing business, founded the
Animal Care & Welfare SPCA. Claiming an 85% conviction rate in
prosecuting cruelty cases, Blotzer was among the first humane
officers licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture after
it gained authority to regulate who could be a humane officer in
1994. He was also a founding member of Mobilization for Animals,
and an active supporter of many other animal advocacy groups, as
well as a frequent news source for ANIMAL PEOPLE.
Jay D. Hair, 56, died from bone cancer on November 15,
2002 in Seattle. A wildlife biologist, Hair studied and taught at
Clemson University, the University of Alberta, and North Carolina
State University, 1967-1995, was a research consultant for the
South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resources Department, and was a
special assistant to the U.S. Department of the Interior. Joining
the National Wildlife Federation in 1974, Hair was elected president
of the NWF in 1981. De-emphasizing the role of the NWF as the
national umbrella for 48 state hunting clubs, and promoting a
mainstream environmentalist image instead, Hair boosted the NWF
membership to six million. It fell back to 4.5 million after he left
in 1995. Hair also headed the World Conservation Union, 1994-1996.
Bill Moyer, 69, died on October 21, 2002 in San Francisco
from cancer. A key strategist for Martin Luther King’s 1966 open
housing campaign in Chicago, Moyer founded the Social Movement
Empowerment Project in 1972 and spent the rest of his life studying
and teaching advocacy tactics. At invitation of ANIMAL PEOPLE
publisher Kim Bartlett (then editor of Animals’ Agenda) and Friends
of Animals president Priscilla Feral, Moyer in September 1989
presented one of his Movement Action Planning workshops to about 40
leaders of national animal rights groups. His projection of the
future trajectory of the cause and the choices and opportunities
ahead was both accurate and eventually influential. His most recent
book, Doing Democracy, was favorably reviewed in the
January/February 2002 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE by Julie Lewin,
founder of the National Institute for Animal Advocacy.
Dale “Pelican Man” Shields, 75, died on January 2 in
Sarasota, Florida. A car salesman for 25 years in Flint, Michigan,
Shields moved to Sarasota in 1975 and started a produce business. He
rescued and rehabilitated his first injured pelican in 1980. “Soon
after that, he had a massive heart attack,” recalled longtime
friend Regina Hyland. “He said he had a near-death experience,
during which he made a commitment to devote himself to caring for
sick and injured animals. When he recovered he began the work that
became the Pelican Man’s Sanctuary, now the largest wildlife
rehabilitation center and sanctuary in Florida. His longtime
associate and close friend Mona Schonbrun will take over as director
of the sanctuary,” Hyland said, “for which she and Dale had
prepared through the years.” The sanctuary now treats 4,000 to 7,000
birds per year, with a staff of 24 plus 300 volunteers.
Frank Simoes, 68, died on August 25 from a heart attack in
Mumbai, India. A legendary ad designer, Simoes from 1979 until his
death donated his services to Beauty Without Cruelty/India, and
raised funds from friends to place the ads he produced for BWC/India
in leading periodicals. Simoes also designed the BWC/India logo and
scripted the BWC/India documentary Beauty Without Cruelty.
Kristen Ann Mason, 21, of Amarillo, Texas, was killed in
an early-morning housefire when after escaping she went back inside
to rescue her cats and alert other residents.
Joyce Milkie, 81, a newspaper reporter and columnist for
more than 30 years, and cofounder of the Orangeburg SPCA in
Orangeburg, South Carolina, died on December 7, 2002, from a
stroke.
Mike Gatti, 46, a Pittsburgh Zoo elephant handler since
1996, and previously an elephant handler for the Bronx Zoo, was
crushed on November 18 while walking a female elephant named M and
her three-year-old calf, apparently after urging M to move more
forcefully than she appreciated. Born at the San Diego Wild Animal
Park in 1982, M was the first African elephant born in captivity to
give birth in captivity. She came to the Pittsburgh Zoo in 1994
after spending several years at the Miami Metro Zoo. She had no
history of prior violent behavior.
DeAndre Bailey, 25, and Kimberly Nelson, 36, both of
Warren, Michigan, companions since 1997, drowned in the Detroit
River on November 25 while trying to save their pit bull terrier
Caesar, who drowned with them.
Glen Doherty, 49, drowned on January 11 in Mint Hill,
North Carolina, while trying to rescue a stray dog. His wife
Barbara Doherty, 52, was hospitalized for hypothermia suffered in a
failed rescue attempt. Firefighters rescued the stray and the
Dohertys’ own two dogs, who had followed them into the water and
were likewise unable to get back up the steeply sloping plastic-lined
banks.
Liu Jinling, a security guard at the Changbai Mountain
Siberian Tiger Park in Changchun, China, missing since November 18,
2002, was declared dead on December 7, after clothing and body
parts were discovered on the grounds. The 12 park tigers were rented
from a similar park in Harbin, Heilong-jiang province, where they
reportedly killed and ate a worker on October 3.
John V. Dennis, 86, died on December 1 at home in Princess
Anne, Maryland. After World War II military service, Dennis worked
for the Massachusetts Audubon Society as a sanctuary directory,
managed the Nantucket Ornithological Station, and did field research
for The Nature Conservancy. His opus, A Complete Guide to Bird
Feeding, was first published in 1975 and reissued in an updated
edition in 1994.
Teresa Randall, a cofoundier of the Rocky Mountain Alley Cat
alliance, died from cancer on October 2, 2002.
Mohammed al-Fassi, 50, died from, am infected hernia on
December 24 in Egypt. Born in Morocco, raised in Saudi Arabia,
al-Fassi came into money after his sister Hend married the Saudi
Prince Turki bin Abdul Aziz in the mid-1970s. Noted for extravagant
manic behavior, al-Fazzi in 1989 announced that he was contributing
$2.5 million to convert his Miami Beach home into a cat shelter. He
later pledged a similar sum to several North Dakota and Minnesota
humane societies. Neither pledge was ever fulfilled, but in January
1990 the Humane Society of Greater Miami charged al-Fassi with
cruelty for allegedly neglecting 32 cats.
