Animal obituaries

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  July/August 2003:

Pakko,  the German shepherd who was first Dr. Dog in the
Philippines,  died on July 8 from stomach cancer. “Yasmin Jadwani,
Pakko’s adoptive ‘parent,’  tells us that he was the largest dog in
her house,  but he was the gentlest of her more than 30 rescued dogs
and  50 rescued cats,”  recalled Glorianne P. Fernandez of the
Environments Collaborative.   “When a 13-year old ‘special child’
climbed on his back during one Dr. Dog session,  he buckled under the
weight and some of his fur was pulled out before teachers could rush
to his rescue,  but Pakko did not growl at the child,  hid any pain
and regained his composure immediately.”  Begun in Hong Kong by the
Animals Asia Foundation to elevate the image of dogs in nations where
they are eaten,  Dr. Dog is sponsored in the Philippines by the
Philippine Animal Welfare Society.

Piermont,  Philanthrop,  and Supreme Heights,  a trio of
steeplechase horses,  suffered fatal injuries on June 21 at the
Moonee Valley course near Melbourne,  Australia.  Philanthrop died on
the track.  Piermont was euthanized on the track as the second
circuit of the race ran around him.    Rusik the “sniffer cat,”  a
one-year-old Siamese who was adopted as a stray by police in
Stavropol,  Russia,   was crushed by a car at the Stepnovsky
checkpoint on July 13 just after signalling that the driver–whom
Rusik had nabbed before–was smuggling sturgeon.  Police said the
killing appeared deliberate.  Daily Telegraph Moscow correspondent
Daniel McLaughlin wrote that Rusik had become “the scourge of the
caviar mafia,”  helping to intercept illegal traffic worth an
estimated $1.5 million a year,  after spontaneously demonstrating his
skill.  Eventually trained to replace a sniffer dog,  Rusik was
officially added to the checkpoint staff on July 7.  Before the
publicity his appointment received,  his work was apparently
unnoticed by the caviar traffickers,  but another cat at the
checkpoint,  Barsik,  was recently killed by eating a poisoned mouse.

Macho,  a three-legged horse rescued from a road accident at
Dahisar,  India,  in April by Bhavin Gathani of the Animal Welfare
Board of India,  died on July 4 at the Ahimsa hospital in Malad after
contracting tetanus from a donkey.  Not expected to live when Gathani
brought him in,  Macho earned his name by walking two weeks later.
On June 26 he received an artificial replacement for his lost limb,
courtesy of the Jain hospital staff.

Cupid,  49,  a hippopotamus captured in the wild as a calf
and brought to the Toledo Zoo in 1955,   was euthanized after an
age-related collapse on July 1.  Cupid sired 14 offspring,  13 with
Bubbles,  also 49,  and one with Emma,  7.  Seven of his descendants
survive,  six at other zoos,  while three-year-old Herbie remains
with Bubbles and Emma.

Pat the Nut,  17,  a San Francisco Zoo koala who was stolen
with her daughter Leanne in December 2000,  but was returned 24 hours
later,  was euthanized on June 11 due to conditions of age.

Meme,  32,   an elephant resident at the Brookfield Zoo in
Chicago since coming from Tanzania in 1972,  was euthanized on June
18 due to severe injuries apparently received in a fight with another
elephant.