Obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
Hugh Holbrook Tebault II, 89, died on May 10, 2007 in
Alameda, California. Tebault was introduced to humane work by his
mother, a close associate of Edith Latham, who founded the Latham
Foundation for the Promotion of Humane Education in 1918. Tebault
headed the Latham Foundation from 1953 to 1998, and also served on
the American Humane Association board of directors for many years,
beginning in 1968. The Latham Foundation is now headed by his eldest
son, Hugh H. Tebault III. Early Latham projects included sponsoring
Kind Deeds Clubs, publishing a school newsletter called The Kindness
Messenger, and hosting essay contests and poster competitions.
Tebault II began exploring the use of electronic media to promote
humane education by hosting a radio program, then in the 1950s
produced the Brother Buzz television program on KPIX Channel 5, San
Francisco, which became The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz,
syndicated nationally in the 1960s. In the 1970s Tebault II produced
another nationally syndicated TV show called Withit, which in 1975
produced an influential episode about animal-assisted therapy. After
helping to organize two national conferences on animal-assisted
therapy, Tebault II in 1981 formed the Delta Committee as a project
of the Latham Foundation. A year later the committee evolved into
the Delta Society, an independent organization that promotes
animal-assisted therapy, now based in Renton, Washington.

James Richards, 58, employed by the Feline Health Center at
the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine since 1991 and director of
the center since 1997, on April 22, 2007 swerved his motorcycle in
a futile effort to avoid a cat who ran into the road near Marathon,
New York, killed the cat anyway, and suffered injuries from which
he died on April 24. Richards edited the monthly newsletter Cat
Watch, was author of the ASPCA Complete Guide to Cats, co-authored
the Cornell Book of Cats, and in the 1990s headed the
Vaccine-Associated Feline Sarcoma Task Force, which identified the
hazards of giving cats unnecessary injections and the advantages of
using long-lasting combination vaccines that prevent multiple
diseases with a single shot.

Cornelius Van Der Vies, 67, a homeless man known for his
fondness for his mixed breed dog Boo Boo, died on April 30, 2007 in
downtown San Jose, California, after scuffling with another
homeless man who threw objects at the dog. The other man, who
reportedly beat and kicked Der Vies until he collapsed, was held for
investigation of possible criminal charges. The San Jose Animal Care
Center pledged that Boo Boo would be placed in a suitable home.

Gretchen Wyler, 74, died of breast cancer on May 28, 2007,
at her California home. Wyler broke into theatre in 1950 as a dancer
at the St. Louis Muny Opera. She retired from the stage there in
1997, after starring in a revival of Hello Dolly. In between,
Wyler starred in eight Broadway shows, including Guys & Dolls, Silk
Stockings, Damn Yankees, Bye Bye Birdie and Sly Fox, and appeared
in many other theatrical shows, television programs, and films. In
1966 Wyler visited the town animal shelter in Warwick, New York.
Shocked by the conditions, Wyler raised the funds to build a new
shelter, opened in 1968, and combined the roles of actress and
shelter manager for the next 10 years. Influenced by that
experience, Wyler in 1971 joined the ASPCA Shelter Reform Committee,
founded to shift the emphasis of the American SPCA management of the
New York City pound contract toward promoting dog and cat
sterilization. Holding the pound contract from 1895 to 1994, the
ASPCA had begun a sterilization program in 1968, but was still
killing more than 250,000 animals per year: more than 10 times as
many as are now killed by all New York City shelters combined. In
1972 Wyler became the first woman ever elected to the ASPCA board,
but in 1975 she became the first board member to be dismissed, after
suing the rest of the board for alleged mismanagement. A 1977
settlement returned Wyler to the board and brought the late John
Kullberg to the ASPCA presidency. The 14-year Kullberg tenure was
noted for changing almost every aspect of the organization. Also in
1971, Wyler joined the Fund for Animals’ board at invitation of
founder Cleveland Amory, serving as vice chair until 1991.
Relocating to California in 1978, Wyler in 1979 helped state senator
Daniel Roberti to draft a “Resolution on Animal Rights” that won
passage by the state legislature. In 1981 Wyler helped to abolish
the sale of Los Angeles pound animals to laboratories. Wyler founded
the Genesis Awards program to honor screen productions that favorably
depict animals and animal issues in 1986, as a project of the Fund
for Animals. Backed by a bequest from her friend Dolly Green, Wyler
founded the Ark Trust in 1991, to host the Genesis Awards as an
independent project. In 2002 Wyler merged the Ark Trust into the
Humane Society of the U.S., where it is now the Hollywood Office of
HSUS. Broadcast by the Discovery Channel 1990-1996, the Genesis
Awards have been aired since 1997 on Animal Planet.

Michael Sutcliffe, 84, acting chair of the Japan Animal
Welfare Society, died on April 6, 2007 in England. Sutcliffe had
been involved with JAWS and vegan organizations for more than 25
years.

Joy A. Palmer, 85, died on May 15, 2007, after more than
a year of illness. As the Dublin representative of CIVIS, the
international antivivisection organization founded by author Hans
Reusch, Palmer in 1981 started the Irish group Stop Animal
Experiments, which in 1984 won resolutions favoring ban on animal
research from every borough council in Ireland. Moving to England,
where she taught education at the University of Durham, Palmer in
1990 cofounded Doctors in Britain Against Animal Experiments. This
in 1991 became Doctors & Lawyers for Responsible Medicine.

Tamar Asedo Sherman, 36, died of breast cancer on May 9,
2007, in Lafay-ette, California. A longtime representative of the
anti-dog chaining organization Dogs Deserve Better, Sherman was in
2005 sentenced to 75 hours of community service plus a year on
probation for entering former San Jose judge Ron Berki’s yard to
check on the condition of his son Steve’s dog Bailey, a black
Labrador. Sherman argued that Bailey was neglected; Berki said he
was not, and slept with Steve every night. “Tamar never wanted me
to know how sick she was,” recalled Dogs Deserve Better founder
Tammy Grimes. Grimes is facing charges in a similar case in
Pennsylvania, in which a veterinarian found that the dog was
neglected. “Tamar lobbied for the 2006 California anti-tethering
legislation, and was exuberant when it passed. Our reps voted
unanimously to give her our 2007 Remarkable Rep of the Year Award.
We will rename the award the Tamar Sherman Remarkable Rep Award,”
Grimes said.

Nicolas Vgambwera, a Democrat-ic Republic of the Congo park
ranger based at Mount Tshiaberimuin Virunga National Park, was
killed by rebel soldiers in a May 20, 2007 dawn attack on two patrol
posts. Kat-ungu Kayisumbirwa, wife of a Gorilla Org-anization
ranger, soon afterward died in premature labor brought on by the
stress of the attack, Gorilla Organization representative Abigail
Girling told ANIMAL PEOPLE.