Obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

Shannon Hartwick Moore, 36, of
Metairie, Louisiana, committed suicide on May
30, 2006. A New Orleans certified public
accountant, Moore was displaced herself by
Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, but focused
on animal rescue, volunteering with Alley Cat
Allies, Animal Rescue New Orleans, and Kinship
Circle, forming the organizations Supporters of
Save Our Pets and Hay There to assist household
pets and farm animals. Later she organized a
“People & Pets March” in Baton Rouge in support
of a bill to facilitate pet evacuation after
disasters.

Jim Brooks, 83, died on May 19 at his
home near Juneau, Alaska. A high school dropout
from Erie, Pennsylvania, Brooks drifted to
Alaska, where he fished, trapped, and mushed
dogs. A World War II bomber pilot, Brooks
afterward enrolled in the just-formed Department
of Wildlife Management at the University of
Alaska. “He began the first scientific studies
on walruses,” recalled Craig Medred of the
Anchorage Daily News, “but it was his work with
seals and sea lions that generated serious change
in how Alaskan wildlife was viewed.” Former
Alaska magazine editor Jim Rearden recalled that
the Alaska Department of Fisheries killed seals
“with rifles and shotguns, and at rookeries
killed hundreds at a time with underwater blasts
of dynamite. Brooks was put in charge of this
program, which he despised. He managed to see
it stopped.” Added Medred, “Brooks later headed
off a similar program to slaughter beluga
whales,” who were blamed for a crash in the
Bristol Bay red salmon population. Explained
Rearden, “Brooks spent the summer of 1955 in
Bristol Bay collecting belugas to examine their
stomach contents. He concluded that the impact
of belugas on the salmon was insignificant. In
later years, he expressed regret at having to
kill several dozen of the gentle, harmless little
whales,” to prove the point. From 1959 until
fired by then newly elected Governor Walter
Hickel in 1966, Brooks served as first director
of the Alaska Division of Game. He went on to
document the destructive impact of oil field
development at Prudhoe Bay–and won a
commendation from Hickel, who had become U.S.
Secretary of the Interior. Appointed Alaska Fish
& Game Commissioner in 1972, “One of Brooks’
first acts was to end uncontrolled aerial wolf
hunting,” wrote Medred. Brooks ended his career
with the National Marine Fisheries Service from
1977 to 1991, trying to control overfishing
along the Alaskan coast.

Maxine McCloskey, 78, died on April 16,
2006. As editor for the Federation of Western
Outdoors Clubs, 1973-1975, McCloskey became
“active very early on whale issues,”
memorialized Earth Island Institute, “helping
Joan McIntyre set up Project Jonah (in 1975).
McCloskey later joined with Ronn Storo-Patterson,
Tom Johnson, and others to establish the Whale
Center in Oakland, California, which she ran
for many years in a former candy shop. The
Whalebus started by the Whale Center to educate
school children is a project now of the Marine
Mammal Center in Marin County. McCloskey and the
Whale Center were an active presence at
International Whaling Commission meetings,
helping to establish the international moratorium
on commercial whaling approved in 1982.
McCloskey also helped to establish the Point
Reyes/Farallones National Marine Sanctuary off
the coast of San Francisco,” and in 1994 founded
the High Seas Project for the International Union
for the Conservation of Nature. Added Tom Valtin
of the Sierra Club, “Active in planning Sierra
Club Wilderness Conferences and the Club
centennial in 1992, McCloskey also promoted our
oral history program. In 1995 she was awarded the
William E. Colby Award, the highest award for
service to the Club.”

Raymond D. Giraud, 85, died on June 17
of cancer. A World War II veteran whose wife
Lise was an Austrian refugee from the Nazis,
Giraud taught French literature at Stanford
University, 1958-1986, was an early opponent of
the Vietnam War, and in 2000 represented the
International Coalition of International
Observers in Jeremie, Haiti, monitoring 36
election polling stations. Giraud became active
on behalf of animals after learning of a
psychology experiment in which young monkeys were
caged beside a boa constrictor. “He challenged
the experiments as not relevant to human beings
and causing needless pain and suffering to the
monkeys,” recalled San Francisco Chronicle staff
writer Jason B. Johnson. In 1983 Giraud became
lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the Animal
Legal Defense Fund and the Peninsula Humane
Society on behalf of a dog named Snowball.
Publicized by Californians for Responsible
Research, which became In Defense of Animals,
the case became an antivivisection cause celebré.
Summarized New Zealand attorney Deidre Bourke at
the 2003 National Animal Rights Conference in
Wellington, “Snowball was found suffering from
starvation, emaciation and infected wounds,” at
a Veteran’s Administration hospital in Palo Alto,
where he was used for surgical practice by
Stanford University students. “The USDA
confirmed the seriousness of the injuries but
chose not lay charges. However, the case was
dismissed,” as the plaintiffs lacked
‘standing.'” The case helped to alert framers of
intended animal protection legislation to the
importance of including clauses enabling animal
advocates to bring cases on behalf of animals who
cannot represent themselves. Giraud subsequently
served on the Palo Alto Humane Society board of
directors, and was co-director of education for
In Defense of Animals from 1990 until his death.
The Marin County Humane Society honored Lise and
Raymond Giraud in 1999 as Humanitarians of the
Year. They were charter subscribers to ANIMAL
PEOPLE.

Julius Birdine, 26, of Chicago, was
shot dead in his front yard on June 23 after
refusing to allow his pit bull terrier to fight
a dog brought by two men who had reportedly tried
to involve Birdine in dogfighting before.
Birdine’s mother, Joyce Hunter, 43, told
Chicago Sun-Times crime reporter Annie Sweeney
that “Birdine’s wife contacted the city to have
the dog removed.”
Patricia Guiver, 76, died on June 13,
2006 in Newport Beach, California, from
complications of heart surgery. Born in Surrey,
England, Guiver was a longtime Fleet Street
journalist and U.S. correspondent for British
women’s magazines. She enjoyed late success with
six novels about a pet detective named Delilah
Doolittle. She also edited Animal Connections:
The Complete Directory of Pet & Wildlfe
Resources, but may be best remembered as founder
of the Orange County SPCA, co-founder of the
Animal Assistance League of Orange County, and a
longtime member of the Orange County Animal
Shelter Advisory Board.

David Siddle, 78, cofounder of the
Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia, died on
June 30 after a long illness. Siddle and his
wife, Sheila in 1983 accepted a gravely ill
chimpanzee from a game ranger and nursed the
infant back to health. That led to the creation
of the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage, now
housing 112 chimps in free-range enclosures that
cover more than 1,200 acres. “Siddle was a
successful contractor and cattle rancher
approaching retirement when the decision was
made to convert much of the family farm into a
chimp sanctuary,” recalled Pan African Sanctuary
Alliance secretariat Doug Cress. “The Siddles
battled poachers, political upheaval, civil wars,
and economic strife to ensure the welfare of
orphaned chimps. Chimfunshi serves as a model for
great ape sanctuaries across Africa.” Chimfunshi
was a charter member of the Pan African Sanctuary
Alliance. In 2001, the Siddles were awarded
Master and Mistress of the British Empire awards
from Queen Elizabeth II for their commitment to
wildlife.” Sheila Siddle told their story in her
autobiography, In My Family Tree: A Life With
Chimpanzees (2001).

Arthur J. Haggerty, 74, died of cancer
on July 3, 2006 in West Palm Beach, Florida. A
decorated Korean War veteran and longtime U.S.
Army scout dog training officer, Haggerty in
1961 founded Captain Haggerty’s School for Dogs
in New York City, attracting a celebrity
clientele as well as police and military
business. He later trained dogs for stage and
screen, formed an animal talent agency, and
played bit roles himself, beginning by chasing
Burt Reynolds through Central Park in Guiding
Light (1973). He wrote books including Dog
Tricks, How to Get Your Pet Into Show Business,
and How to Teach Your Dog to Talk.

Kelly Jo Chatfield Fay, 35, of Grand
Junction, Colorado, died on June 17 , 2006
from a pulmonary embolism. A supporter of the
Roice-Hurst Humane Society in Clifton, Colorado,
Fay “never met a stray animal she did not want to
take home or find a home for,” recalled Grand
Junction Free Press community news editor Tracy
Dvorak.