Animal Obits

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2004:

Stumpy, age 40+, an 80-ton pregnant North Atlantic right
whale, familiar to New England Aquarium, Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institute, and Center for Coastal Studies researchers since 1975,
was found dead from a ship strike off Virginia in early February.
Wrote Cape Cod Times staff writer Emily C. Dooley, “From 1975
through 2002 there were 292 documented cases of ships striking large
whales across the globe. Of these, 38 strikes involved North
Atlantic right whales, according to the Large Whale ship Strike
Database compiled by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric
Administration.” North Atlantic right whales are the rarest of the
great whales, with only about 325 surviving.

Wolf #42, alpha female of the Druid Peak Pack in Yellowstone
National Park, was found dead on February 3 atop Specimen Ridge
after a fight with Mollie’s Pack, also called the Crystal Creek
Pack. #42 became the Druid Peak Pack alpha after killing her
tyrannical sister, #40, who may have earlier killed one of #42’s
first litters. Her more benign sister, #41, left the Druid Peak
Pack in 1998 to become founding alpha female of the Sunlight Basin
Pack. Suffering from mange and a broken foot, #41 and another wolf
recently left the pack. Seen feeding on a freshly killed calf on
private land on February 6, #41 was shot by a U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service agent on February 15. #42 and #41 were the last of the 31
wolves brought to Yellowstone as part of the 1995-1996 species
reintroduction.

Dogs Pongo, Tina, Cleo, Danny, Willow, Gallagher,
Gaston, Lacota, and Amadeus, and cats Lucinda, Danube, Tawny,
and Tara, rescued pets of activist writer Jim Willis, died in a
January housefire that razed Willis’ home in Avella, Pennsylvania.
Willis was away for the evening when the fire started.

Chance, a severely injured pit bull terrier seized in a late
January drug raid in Port St. Lucie, Florida, believed to have been
used as a “bait dog” to train fighting pit bulls, died from his
injuries on February 3, 2004, despite the efforts of local rescuers
to save him.

Ruth, 26, and Kisii, 10, the last two reticulated
giraffes at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, died during the first
weekend in February. Ruth was euthanized due to an irreparable
compound fracture, cause unknown. Kisii was euthanized the next
day after collapsing with symptoms of cancer . The zoo spent $50,000
to improve the giraffe exhibit after Sandile, 7, a male, died from
getting his neck tangled in a fence in January 2002. Two other
giraffes died in 1993 and 1994 after suffering disabling falls.