OBITUARIES
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:
Isabelle Gronert, 79, died
September 21 in New York City. Gronert
worked tirelessly for the rights of animals,
from demonstrating against the infamous cat
experiments at the American Museum of
Natural History in 1976 right up to her death.
She wrote letters, worked the telephone,
marched, raised funds, and found homes for
abandoned animals at her own expense. The
British-born World War II D-Day veteran
sought no recognition, only justice for ani-
mals. And she had the perfect answer to the
accusatory, “Well, what do you do for
humans?” often hurled at her while tabling:
she was a longtime volunteer at Roosevelt
Hospital, working with AIDS patients.
Gronert’s love extended to other living things,
including flowers, trees, and plants. She was
a popular member of the New York
Horticultural Society, and often lectured on
the care of African violets. Her own collection
of those beautiful plants in the window of her
home reminded visitors of an English cottage,
complete with a friendly offering of a cup of
tea. Her three feline companions, Max,
Jasmin, and Topsy, will be cared for by a
close friend. Gronert’s kindness, strength, and
determination were an inspiration to all those
lucky enough to know and love her. She will
be missed by many, but her spirit will always
be with us.
––Linda Petrie
Trevor Smith, 33, a Siberian tiger
keeper at the Howletts Zoo Park in
Bekesbourne, England, was fatally mauled on
November 13––the third keeper killed by tigers
at the private zoo since 1980. Zoo owner John
Aspinall said the tiger was not killed afterward
because Smith and the other keepers had
signed a pact that no tiger should ever be killed
for demonstrating normal tiger behavior.
Azita Zadeh, 24, of Sunnyvale,
California, was killed by a car circa 2:30 a.m.
on the Central Expressway in nearby Mountain
View, after she stopped her BMW and ran into
the road to help a dog who’d been hit by the
car ahead of her. Having dark hair and wear-
ing black clothing, Zadeh had just knelt down
over the dog, with her back to oncoming traf-
fic, when she herself was hit by a driver who
saw her too late to stop. The driver who hit the
dog had also stopped, some distance beyond,
and was unable to shout a warning.
