Awards & Honors
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2010:
(Actual press date November 3.)
ANIMAL PEOPLE editor Merritt Clifton on October 10, 2010
received the 15th annual ProMED-mail Award for Excellence in Outbreak
Reporting on the Internet, presented by the International Society
for Infectious Diseases for contributions to the identification and
control of emerging disease. Past winners include leading members of
the teams who identified mad cow disease in humans, the H5N1 avian
influenza, Nipah virus, and Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
Clifton was honored for contributions that led to identifying fruit
bats as the host species for Nipah virus in April 1999; helping to
identify the roles of cockfighting and falconing in the migration of
H5N1; identifying aspects of halal slaughter as the probable source
of outbreaks of the tick-borne Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever among
Central Asian meat industry workers in 2009-2010; and especially,
said ProMed-mail editor Larry Madoff, for contributions to
epidemiological understanding of the cultural factors involved in the
spread and control of canine rabies in India, China, Indonesia,
and Vietnam.
The American SPCA on October 11, 2010 announced seven
honorees. Pearl, the Dog-of-the-Year, is a four-year-old black
Labrador retriever. Rescued from a shelter and trained by the
National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, Pearl was sent to Haiti
with Los Angeles County Task Force II in January 2010, where she
discovered 12 survivors buried in earthquake rubble as far as four
stories below ground. Henry, the Cat-of-the-Year, lost a leg as a
kitten. His resilience inspired Cathy Conheim of Julian,
California, to produce a three-volume series of workbooks for
children about coping with disabilities and understanding the
disabled. “One of Henry’s books has been translated into Creole to
help a children’s amputee project in Haiti,” said the ASPCA media
release. “To date, Henry’s books have generated more than $50,000
for local animal welfare groups to help other animals in need.” The
Tommy P. Monahan Award, presented in memory of a Staten Island
9-year-old who died while trying to save a pet from a fire in 2007,
went to 11-year-old Olivia Bouler, of Islip, New York, who raised
more than $180,000 to help wildlife harmed by the Deepwater Horizon
oil spill. Bouler sent more than 500 original watercolors to thank
donors who were attracted by her Facebook page. America OnLine then
published one of her works as a limited edition print, sent to
another 29,000 donors. Days End Farm Horse Rescue founder Kathleen
Schwartz-Howe, of Woodbine, Maryland, received the Henry Bergh
Award, partly for rescue work and partly for training animal control
officers, police, firefighters, and other first responders in
emergency horse care. The ASPCA Public Service Award went to Ladder
Company 116, of Queens, New York, for rescuing 30 dogs and cats
from a Memorial Day pet store fire. The ASPCA Presidential Awards
went to the Sam Simon Foundation, of Sherman Oaks, California, for
performing more than 35,000 free sterilization surgeries for the pets
of low-income residents of Los Angeles and operating an assistance
dog training program, and to Animal Rescue Flights cofounders Julia
Ryan and Clark Burgard, of Norwalk, Connecticut.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare on October 19,
2010 honored Queen guitarist Brian May at the House of Lords in
London, England, for years of public opposition to blood sports,
including organizing a campaign called Save Me to try to preserve the
Hunting Act against an attempted repeal pledged by the recently
elected Conservative government. Passed in 2004, the Hunting Act
outlawed five forms of hunting with dogs, including fox hunting,
hounding deer, lamping, lurching, and hare coursing. Fox hunting
has continued through legal loopholes that allow the use of dogs to
flush out foxes in connection with falconing or predator control by
gunshot.
Go Vegan Radio on October 17, 2010 presented International
Heroes awards to Vietnamese vegan spiritual leader Ching Hai,
Haitian vegan musician King Wawa, International Fund for Africa
founders Anteneh Roba, M.D., and Seble Nebiyeloul for work on
behalf of animals in Ethiopia.
