Obituaries
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2006:
Elora Petrasek, 6, remembered by acquaintances as a very
gentle child who loved animals, was fatally mauled by a bear on
April 13 in Cherokee National Forest, near Benton, Tennessee. The
bear also bit her brother Luke Cenkus, 2, puncturing his skull,
and mauled their mother, Susan Cenkus, 45. The attack, 10 miles
from the nearest highway, occurred as adults tried to drive the bear
off of a hiking trail. A bear in the vicinity was later shot by
rangers, but was not positively identified as the killer. Petrasek
was the 56th person verifiably killed by a black bear in North
America within the past 100 years, according to Lynn Rogers of the
North American Bear Center in Ely, Minnesota, and only the second
person killed by a bear in the Great Smokies. The first was Glenda
Ann Bradley, 50, of Cosby, Tennessee, who was killed in an
un-witnessed attack in May 2000 near Gaitlinburg.
Richard Meza, 52, was fatally shot by an unknown assailant
at about 11 p.m. on April 8, 2006, while feeding a feral cat colony
he attended near Anaheim and Walnut Avenues in Long Beach,
California. No motive was evident; Meza was not robbed. A 30-year
lineman and repairman for GTE and Verizon, Meza and his wife of 24
years, LoAnn, 48, planned to retire in June 2006 to a home they
were building in Virginia. LoAnn, who was losing her sight,
received a cornea transplant from her late husband.
Barbara Osborne, 84, died on April 8 from kidney failure at
home in Bellevue, Washington. Osborne was known for performing open
heart surgery on rats and mice at the University of Washington,
1971-1979, “but she treated her rats like human subjects. She
didn’t like to see them suffer. She was always worried about her
rats,” her son Richard Osborne told Seattle Times medical reporter
Warren King. Richard Osborne is director of the Whale Museum in
Friday Harbor, Washington, an institution which has often provided
a speaking venue to anti-whaling and anti-cetacean captivity
activists.
Janet Ennis, 76, died on April 9, 2006, at her home in
Akron, Ohio. “Jan contributed to numerous animal charities in the
U.S. and abroad, including CHAI, ” CHAI founder Nina Natelson told
ANIMAL PEOPLE, “and was a tireless activist for the cause. An art
expert, she compiled a huge collection of animal folk art from all
over the world.” Ennis in 1960 was among the cofounders of Animal
Aid, a local humane society that later merged into the Animal
Protective League of Greater Akron.
Pete Thomashay, 66, longtime animal control officer for
Bellingham, Massa-chusetts, died on April 23, two weeks to the day
after Country Gazette staff writer Rick Holland profiled his long
career.
Richard “Baba” Looey, 57, of Chicago, whose surname was
changed from Bogulewski, drowned on April 16 while trying to rescue
a dog from Lake Michigan. Looey was criticized by some animal
advocates because his own dogs had produced two litters of puppies in
recent years.
Joan Haggard, of Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, England,
remembered by World Society for the Protection of Animals director
general and former Royal SPCA chief executive Peter Davies as “well
into her eighties,” died in the third week of April 2006. “Joan
was a prolific writer to British newspapers on animal issues,”
recalled Davies. “She campaigned particularly on live transport of
farm animals. She took a great interest in spreading animal welfare
messages into developing countries.”
Chrystal Ann Lloyd, 19, of Norfolk, Virginia, stopped her
car along U.S. I-58 near Virginia Route 272 at about 10:30 p.m. on
April 22 to help a dog who had been hit by a preceding car. Both
Lloyd and the dog were killed when another driver swung wide to avoid
Lloyd’s car, not seeing her in the road. [The safe way to remove an
animal from a road is to use your car as a shield, with four-way
flashers on, and ideally with flares placed at an adequate stopping
distance back.]
