From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
Dietrich von Haugwitz, 79, died on June 26, 2007 at his
home in Durham, North Carolina. Von Haugwitz, credited by Peter
Muller of Wildlife Watch as “the originator of computer-based animal
rights e-mail lists,” was “born into a German aristocratic family in
Silesia,” Muller wrote, “a region that became part of Poland after
the shift of borders at the end of World War II.” Drafted into the
Germany army at age 17, near the end of World War II, von Haugwitz
“saw little action, but once almost got killed” by a British air
attack, recalled Muller. Post-war, von Haugwitz studied music. A
church in Minnesota sponsored his emigration to the U.S. in 1956.
Moving to Hollywood, Calif-ornia, in 1957, he worked as a pianist,
gave piano lessons, and met his wife Eva while acting in a German
theater. They married in 1960. Turning from piano-playing to
computer programming, they relocated to North Carolina in 1971.
Witnessing a bullfight in Mexico and attending a lecture by The Case
for Animal Rights author Tom Regan led von Haugwitz to join the North
Carolina Network for Animals in 1983, and to found a Durham chapter,
which he headed for about seven years. Recalled von Haugwitz to
Eternal Trebinka author Charles Patterson, “I have always been upset
about so many Germans I knew who, at the end of the war, said, in
effect, ‘But we had no idea! We really didn’t know anything about
Auschwitz and what happened to the Jews.'” Von Haugwitz paralleled
their denial to the denial that allows people to eat meat. His last
campaign was against dog-chaining, and included winning custody of
Bessie, a neglected dog who had lived her whole life on a six-foot
chain until von Haughwitz adopted her. Eva von Haugwitz died in
2003. Von Haugwitz is survived by their daughter Joanne Erznoznik,
of North Carolina. As she works for much of the year abroad, In
Defense of Animals was at the ANIMAL PEOPLE deadline trying to help
her find a new home for Bessie.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
Fat Paws, dachshund companion of Blue
Cross of India chair Chinny Krishna and C.P.
Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation director Nanditha
Krishna, died on May 1, 2007 in Chennai. Known
for sitting upright on his hind legs and flapping
his forepaws like a penguin’s wings, Fat Paws
was among the first participants in the Blue
Cross of India’s “Dr. Dog” program.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2007:
Hugh Holbrook Tebault II, 89, died on May 10, 2007 in
Alameda, California. Tebault was introduced to humane work by his
mother, a close associate of Edith Latham, who founded the Latham
Foundation for the Promotion of Humane Education in 1918. Tebault
headed the Latham Foundation from 1953 to 1998, and also served on
the American Humane Association board of directors for many years,
beginning in 1968. The Latham Foundation is now headed by his eldest
son, Hugh H. Tebault III. Early Latham projects included sponsoring
Kind Deeds Clubs, publishing a school newsletter called The Kindness
Messenger, and hosting essay contests and poster competitions.
Tebault II began exploring the use of electronic media to promote
humane education by hosting a radio program, then in the 1950s
produced the Brother Buzz television program on KPIX Channel 5, San
Francisco, which became The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz,
syndicated nationally in the 1960s. In the 1970s Tebault II produced
another nationally syndicated TV show called Withit, which in 1975
produced an influential episode about animal-assisted therapy. After
helping to organize two national conferences on animal-assisted
therapy, Tebault II in 1981 formed the Delta Committee as a project
of the Latham Foundation. A year later the committee evolved into
the Delta Society, an independent organization that promotes
animal-assisted therapy, now based in Renton, Washington.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2007:
Hugh Holbrook Tebault II, 89, died on May 10, 2007 in
Alameda, California. Tebault was introduced to humane work by his
mother, a close associate of Edith Latham, who founded the Latham
Foundation for the Promotion of Humane Education in 1918. Tebault
headed the Latham Foundation from 1953 to 1998, and also served on the
American Humane Association board of directors for many years,
beginning in 1968. The Latham Foundation is now headed by his eldest
son, Hugh H. Tebault III. Early Latham projects included sponsoring
Kind Deeds Clubs, publishing a school newsletter called The Kindness
Messenger, and hosting essay contests and poster competitions. Tebault
II began exploring the use of electronic media to promote humane
education by hosting a radio program, then in the 1950s produced the
Brother Buzz television program on KPIX Channel 5, San Francisco,
which became The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz, syndicated nationally
in the 1960s. In the 1970s Tebault II produced another nationally
syndicated TV show called Withit, which in 1975 produced an influential
episode about animal-assisted therapy. After helping to organize two
national conferences on animal-assisted therapy, Tebault II in 1981
formed the Delta Committee as a project of the Latham Foundation. A
year later the committee evolved into the Delta Society, an independent
organization that promotes animal-assisted therapy, now based in
Renton, Washington.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2007:
Veronica Parker, 41, and her daughter Charlotte, 10, were
on March 24, 2007 trampled by an elephant in musth in Hwange
National Park, Zimbabwe, after leaving their vehicle to try for a
closer look at the elephant from behind an anthill. Kelvin Parker,
husband of Veronica and father of Charlotte, was uninjured. Tour
guide Andy Trevillia, 38, was seriously injured after trying to stop
the elephant with a rifle shot. Noted Zimbabwe Conservation Task
Force founder Johanny Rodrieguez, “The elephants in Hwange have
become increasingly skittish around humans because they associate
them with gunfire due to subsistence poaching, commercial poaching
(for ivory) and the fact that Zimbabwe is the only country in Africa
where shooting game for weekly rations is legal. The recent removal
of 12 juveniles from their herds for use in the tourist industry and
elephants being trapped in wire snares doesn’t help their
mood either.”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2007:

Ralph, a young whale shark, died on January 11, 2007 at
the Georgia Aquarium. Aquarium executive director Jeff Swanagan and
Robert Heuter, director of shark research at the Mote Marine
Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, disclosed on March 28, 2007 that
Ralph had been force-fed for months, and apparently died from
peritonitis after the feeding tube punctured his stomach. “Only one
other aquarium, in Okinawa, keeps whale sharks, who may live as
long as 120 years in the wild,” reported Brenda Goodman of The New
York Times. A study of 16 whale sharks kept at the Okinawa Expo
Aquarium from 1980 to 1998 found they survived, on average, 502 days
in captivity. That facility has kept at least one whale shark for
more than 10 years.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:
Duke, reportedly 19, also called Jake, and called “Doogie”
by Dogs Deserve Better founder Tammy Grimes, died on March 1, 2007
at the home of a foster caretaker. Grimes on September 11, 2006
took Duke, who was seriously debilitated according to veterinary
reports, from the yard of Steve and Lori Arnold, of East Freedom,
Pennsylvania, after the Central Pennsylvania Humane Society failed
to return calls about his condition. Unknown to the callers, a
humane officer had been assigned to investigate the case. Grimes,
who is also a part-time assistant web site developer for ANIMAL
PEOPLE, was charged with theft, receiving stolen property, criminal
mischief, and criminal trespass. The case, which made national
headlines, has yet to be tried. “Video of Doogie’s condition at the
time of his rescue has been viewed over 43,000 times on You Tube,”
Grimes said.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2007:

Sara Whalen, 64, died of cancer on March 19, 2007 in
Horton, New York. “The Pets Alive founder broke her back trying to
move a pony she had rescued and brought to her Wallkill sanctuary,”
wrote Kristina Wells of the Middletown Times Herald-Record. “Doctors
using a rod to stabilize her back discovered a tumor had started in
her lungs and spread.” Recalled Debra West in a 1995 New York Times
feature, “Whalen’s mission to rescue stray animals began in 1972,
when she inherited a golden retriever from a dying neighbor. She
credited the dog with saving her son Adam as a toddler, when he
strayed into the woods near her home.” Remembered Wells, “Whalen
took in the throwaways–ill, injured, neglected and abused cats,
dogs, horses, even potbellied pigs,” and she took in homeless
people at times, too, including Maggie Cogan, featured in an
award-winning documentary about her life in New York City’s Central
Park with a collection of dogs. Cogan returned to Central Park five
weeks later. “Whalen’s love for animals began in her youth, growing
up in Binghamton,” recounted Wells. “Her brother Bill Seiden
recalled that as a teenager she tackled a state trooper who shot a
black Labrador who had been hit by a car.” Whalen’s ex-husband,
insurance executive Leo Whalen, bought the former Ravenwood Kennels
for her, their two sons, and 47 dogs as part of a 1986 divorce
settlement. Often financially struggling, and nearly foreclosed in
both 1989 and 1995, Whalen operated Pets Alive as a no-kill shelter
before the idea was popular. In recent years she often counseled and
encouraged others, worldwide, who were starting no-kill
organizations. “At Pets Alive, she found homes for some, but not
all,” Wells wrote. “The unwanted, unadoptable always lived out
their days in peace, with her. Bill Seiden spoke about his sister’s
work with the kind of admiration that led him to establish an animal
rescue of his own in Avon, Connecticut.” Often providing news tips
to ANIMAL PEOPLE, assisting with several investigations, Whalen in
April 2001 called to confirm that for half a day she had walked
around an employee who died on the job, while doing his work as well
as her own. Why? Because, Whalen admitted, even though he
appeared to be napping on paid time, she did not want to wake him.

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