OBITUARIES
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:
George Huebner, 51, died
of cancer on May 26 at
home in Houston.
Huebner became aware of
humane issues as curator of
laboratory animals from
1961 until 1977 at the now
defunct Texas Research
Institute for Mental
Sciences. That job over-
lapped 22 years as head of
the veterinary paramedic program at Houston
Community College. In 1973 Huebner
cofounded Citizens for Animal Protection,
serving on the board from 1977 on as it grew to
run three Houston-area shelters.
“He was an inspirational force and
practical guide in helping CAP plan and open
our Pet Adoption Center in 1981,” CAP officer
Kappy Muenzer recalled. In 1983 Huebner
began a weekly column for the Houston
Chronicle, “Pet Place,” which ran until his
death. Since 1980, Huebner also managed the
Animal Rescue League Humane Ranch in
Arcola, Texas, a sanctuary for horses.
Huebner’s most dramatic work, how-
ever, came as director of the CAP animal cruel-
ty investigative program and cofounder, with
deputy constable Guy Clark, of the all-volun-
teer Harris County Animal Cruelty Enforcement
Unit. “On his own time,” recounted Muenzer,
“he went to night law enforcement classes and
became the first Harris County constable to spe-
cialize in cruelty investigation.” From 1980
until 1985, Huebner and Clark led the unit in a
series of headline-making raids on cockfights,
dogfights, and other abusive situations.
“Humans were put on earth as shep-
herds in charge of animals, and George was one
of the best shepherds,” said Clark.
“I’ll tell you what humane work
does,” Huebner once wrote. “It hooks you. It’s
like an addiction. Once you go out there and
help a dog, a cat, or a horse who’s tied up,
who’s starving, who has blisters on her neck,
you go back. You feel as if you’ve done some-
thing to help that no one else was going to do.
And you realize how much more work needs to
be done. Yeah, I’m really hooked.”
Jared Tamler Schottland, 13, son
of activist Julie Tamler and New England Anti-
Vivisection Society executive director Jon
Schottland, died April 8. Born severely brain-
damaged, Jared was confined to a wheelchair
and unable to speak, but in various ways
demonstrated empathy for animals and became
a familiar figure at protests, including the anti-
greyhound racing vigils that helped to close the
track at Pownal, Vermont, and the 1991 mass
demonstration against the annual Labor Day
pigeon shoot in Hegins, Pennsylvania.
Jeffrey Jerome, perhaps the most
famous pig in the world, was killed by light-
ning on May 31 at San Marcos, Texas. The
son of Priscilla, a pet pig who saved a drown-
ing child in 1984, Jeffrey Jerome helped Ada
Davis of Houston raise funds to help the home-
less until 1988, when he was banished for vio-
lating the city animal control ordinance. The
Texas legislature rejected an attempt to override
the ordinance on his behalf. Jeffrey Jerome
would have been seven in July.
