Obituaries
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2005:
Jan Moor-Jankowski, 81, died on August 27, 2005 in New
York City after a brief illness. Born in Poland, Moor-Jankowski
joined the Polish Army at age 15 to help fight the 1939 Nazi
invasion, then fought in the resistance. “Moor-Jankow-ski’s
underground exploits included impersonating a German officer in an
elaborate scheme to forge travel documents,” recalled Douglas Martin
of The New York Times. “After an explosive bullet burst in his knee,
he was shifted from hospital to hospital, speaking German even under
anesthesia. The last of his 27 escapes from German and Soviet
prisons was into Switzerland. He earned his medical degree there,
partly by writing his thesis on the leg brace he invented for
himself.” As a blood researcher, Martin added, “Moor-Jankowski
experimented on himself, but refused an offer to do medical tests on
American prisoners. He started working with apes,” eventually
developing ethical qualms about that, too. Moor-Jankowski emigrated
to the U.S. in 1963 to found the New York Primate Center at New York
University. In 1965 Moor-Jankowski formed the Laboratory for
Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates, LEMSIP for short,
which for the next 30 years was widely seen as the standard setter in
humane treatment of laboratory primates. “He was dismissed by NYU on
August 9, 1995,” Martin summarized, “the day after the USDA told
the university that he had reported violations” of the Animal Welfare
Act at another of its labs. ANIMAL PEOPLE reported the firing on
page one. Moor-Jankowski ensured before leaving that all of the
LEMSIP primates were retired to the Primarily Primates and Wildlife
Waystation sanctuaries. Moor-Jankowski may be best remembered,
however, for spending $2 million of his own money in a successful
defense against a libel suit brought against him in his capacity as
founding editor of the International Journal of Primatology.
Moor-Jankowski had published a letter from International Primate
Protection League founder Shirley McGreal, criticizing the Austrian
pharmaceutical firm Immuno AG for planning to capture wild
chimpanizees. McGreal’s insurer settled the case against her out of
court, against her opposition, but Moor-Jankowski fought on through
two rulings by the New York State Court of Appeals and the U.S.
Supreme Court, which together won greater protection for authors and
publishers of letters to the editor of publications.
Linda Lawson Clark, 65, Director of Animal Care and Control
for Rockdale County, Georgia, died after a brief illness on August
28, 2005. Clark helped to open the first Rockdale County animal
shelter in March 1978, and then helped to develop the Rockdale
Animal Care & Control Center to replace it. She held many leadership
posts over the years within the Georgia Animal Control Association
and the Southeastern Animal Control Association, and chaired the
Animal Advisory Committee for the Georgia Department of Agriculture.
“Her efforts also contributed to the development of a state license
plate to be sold to support county sterilization programs across
Georgia,” recalled the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Donna Strachan Pal, 41, died of breast cancer on October 1,
2005 in Columbia Township, Ohio, six months after giving birth to
her second child. Strachan Pal “rescued and found homes for hundreds
of animals over the last 15 years,” recalled Cleveland Plain Dealer
reporter Donna Iacoboni. She met her husband, veterinarian Denes
Pal, in 1990, while working as a veterinary receptionist. They
started their own clinic in 1997. “She was a stray animal’s best
friend,” North Coast Humane Society president Sue Gundich told
Iacaboni. Co-founding Spelko-Pal Chow Rescue in 1998, Stachan Pal
became a frequent guest of TV weatherman Dick Goddard. “Her most
recent television appearance was on September 12,” Iacoboni wrote,
“when she talked about taking in three dogs for a New Orleans family
who had driven here after Hurricane Katrina and needed temporary
homes for their dogs. She was among the founding members of the
Animal Disaster Teams of Medina, Lorain and Cuyahoga counties.”
Ann Plummer, 57, died on June 25, 2005 in Auroville,
India, her home for about 30 years after emigrating from New
Zealand. The longtime chief dog caretaker at the Auroville
experimental city, near Pondi-cherry, Plummer was noted for her
local anti-rabies and anti-distemper vaccination work.
Frantz Dantzler, 67, died on June 18, 2005, after a fall in his
home in South Bend, Indiana. Working in Colorado in 1962 as an
aerospace electronics technician, Dantzler was recruited by his
neighbor Belton Mouras to fill a post at the Boulder County Humane
Society, then a special branch of HSUS. In July 1964 Dantzler
became shelter supervisor for the Utah Humane Society, founded as an
HSUS special project. After HSUS dropped the former state affiliates
in 1970 in favor of operating regional branch offices, Dantzler
briefly headed the Rocky Mountains regional branch, then succeeded
Mouras as head of the HSUS west coast office, while Mouras founded
the Animal Protection Institute. Noted for his efforts to enforce
the 1971 Wild & Free Roaming Horse & Burro Protection Act, Dantzler
moved to Washington D.C. in 1975 to replace HSUS chief investigator
Frank McMahon, who had died on the job. In 1984 Dantzler opened the
HSUS Chicago office. “He would later assume the role of senior
investigator, operating from his home in Indiana,” wrote HSUS
obituarist Bernard Unti. “Dantzler continued to participate in HSUS
investigations into the mid-1990s,” Unti recalled. “He went several
times to Honduras to document the illegal trade in imperiled
wildlife. Dantzler was an award-winning photographer,” Unti added,
“whose photo credits were a fixture in HSUS publications.” Dantzler
also authored a monthly column for the South Bend Tribune.
Jimmy Thompson, husband of Animal Rescue Foundation director
Bobbie Thompson, of Milledgeville, Georgia, died suddenly on
September 1, 2005.
