AWARDS & HONORS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1998:

The Texas Department of Health has honored
Primarily Primates for having “the best-landscaped
facility” under TDH jurisdiction. Primarily
Primates is recognized as a TDH facility because it
houses some retired laboratory primates under contract
from TDH.
The San Francisco Zoo has recognized the
late Carroll Soo-Hoo, who died in June at age 84,
with a plaque at the zoo’s gorilla exhibit. Beginning in
1958, Soo-Hoo and his wife Violet donated more than
40 animals to the zoo, including the founding members
of the gorilla colony.

Cat rescuer and environmental activist
Susan Parris, 46, of Savannah, Tennessee, not to be
confused with Susan Paris of Americans for Medical
Progress, has been named 1998 Tennessee Worker of
the Year by Dickies Workwear, of Fort Worth.
The Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, South
Carolina, has received the Edward H. Bean Award
from the American Zoo Association for producing 71
baby toucans since beginning a toucan breeding program
in 1977––including 13 just this year.
John Craighead, 82, founder and president
of the Missoula-based Wildlife-Wildlands Institute,
was on September 15 feted by the Rocky Mountain
Elk Foundation for winning the Wildlife Society’s
Aldo Leopold Memorial Award, in recognition of his
studies of grizzly bears and raptors, chiefly at
Yellowstone National Park. Credited with helping to
save grizzlies from extinction in the Lower 48,
Craighead was also among the chief authors of the federal
Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
Two dogs named Murphy, a golden
retriever trained by Mary Demastes of Selville, Ohio,
and a mixed breed trained by Lynn Malayter, of
Verona, Wisconsin, shared the 1998 Delta Society
“Beyond Limits” therapy animal awards. The Delta
Society service dog honorees were P a t r a, a mixed
breed who warns Donna M. Jacobs of Lohman,
Missouri, of impending neurological seizures, and
G r e k o, a golden retriever who assists 1997 “Special
Educator of the Year” award winner Jeanne Esch, of
Dewitt, Michigan. Greko enabled Esch to continue
teaching speech-and-language-impaired childen despite
a serious neuromuscular ailment. Patra began alerting
Jacobs to the seizures as a puppy, with no prior training.
With his help, she has resumed an interrupted
career in the computer industry.
The Westchester Feline Club, sponsor of
the Westchester Cat Show, has named Ginny, 10, the
husky/schnauzer mix who finds cats for Long Island
rescuer Philip Gonzalez, “Cat of the Year” for 1998.
Operation Kindness, of Dallas, raised
$46,000 at an October 25 gala in honor of Sarah M.
and Charles E. Seay, who have contributed $1.1 million
to the no-kill organization since adopting a dog
from it in 1990. Their gifts have helped fund the new
Operation Kindness shelter, due to open in spring 1999.
The American Humane Association has recognized
Laura Thompson of the Hawaiian Humane
Society for Lifetime Achievement; epidemiologist Mo
S a l m a n for advancing the ideals of the AHA; L o s
Angeles Division of Animal Services v e t e r i n a r i a n
Dena Mangiamele as Shelter Vet of the Year; and
behaviorist Suzanne Hetts as outstanding AHA training
faculty member of the year. Thompson is a fourth generation
humane worker: her great grandmother was first
president of Hawaiian Humane, her grandmother was a
longtime board member, and her mother was for a time
the executive director, a post Thompson herself later
held. She has also served on the boards of AHA and the
Latham Society.
Chris Ofili, who paints with elephant dung
from the London Zoo, on December 1 became the first
painter since 1985 to win the Turner Prize, presented
by the Tate Gallery for best art exhibition of the year.