From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2002:

Bubba, the last known Alabama sturgeon, died in August at
the Alabama state fish hatchery in Marion. Bubba was one of two
males who were captured for an attempted breeding program that failed
from lack of females. The Alabama sturgeon was added to the U.S.
endangered species list in 2000, the same year it was last seen in
the wild.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2002:

Eugene Underwood, 71, who died on February 27, was honored
in August when the Asociacion Humanitaria Para La Proteccion Animal
de Costa Rica dedicated in his honor a new humane education video
produced by Tom Rorstad, Richard Whitten, and Diana Fernandez.
Formerly senior vice president and general counsel for the American
SPCA in New York City, Under-wood retired to Ciudad Cariari, Costa
Rica, in 1995. An active member of the AHPPA, Underwood led
opposition to recreational bowhunting of feral pigs on Cocos Island.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

Bird, a three-year-old cockatoo who lived in Dallas, Texas,
with Christmas Eve 2001 murder victim Kevin Butler, 48, and three
dogs, was killed in defending Butler from alleged knife-wielding
assailants Daniel Torrez and his half-brother, Johnny Serna, but
injured Torrez sufficiently that police made a DNA match with blood
found at the scene and arresed both Torrez and Serna seven months
later. Torrez reportedly confessed. Both men were charged with
capital murder.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

Chris Byrne, 52, manager of the Fund for Animals’ Black
Beauty Ranch sanctuary since 1990, was killed near dusk on September
2 when his off-road vehicle rolled over on rough terrain while he was
doing his evening check of the animals and fences. Born in
Wimbledon, England, Byrne previously handled animals in Hollywood
films, tended horses for the DuPont family, fought forest fires in
California, started an eco-tourism business on Kawai, Hawaii, and
lived for a time in the Australian Outback. During his tenure,
Black Beauty grew from 600 acres and 400 animals to 1,480 acres and
more than 1,000 animals. “Chris knew and loved every animal at the
ranch,” said Fund president Marian Probst. “He was respected and
admired by the local community, as well as the international animal
protection community, and is very close to irreplaceable.”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2002:

Jayne Paulette, 84, died on June 5 from cardiac arrest in
St. Louis, Missouri, where she was born and lived for most of her
life. “Jayne served for many years as secretary of the Simian
Society of America and was among the first to advocate that Simian
Society members should not acquire individual monkeys as pets, while
still helping primates in private hands,” recalled Primarily
Primates president Wally Swett. “She was a staunch supporter of
Primarily Primates,” Swett added, “for all of its existence, and
served as Primarily Primates vice president for several years
preceding her death.”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2002:

Qi Qi, 25, a male Yangtze River dolphin who was the only
member of his species ever kept successfully in captivity, died from
conditions of age on July 14 at the Wuhan Institute of Hydrology in
China, his home for 22 years. Three attempts to provide a mate for
him failed, when all three females died soon after capture. Fewer
than 100 Yangtze River dolphins are believed to remain in the wild.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2002:
 
Buddy, 4, a black Labrador retriever who spent 12 days
waiting beside the remains of his master Bill Hitchcock in February
2002 on Knight Island in Prince William Sound, Alaska, and then led
rescuers to the body, was killed in April 2002 by Anchorage Animal
Control at request of Chignik mayor Jim Brewer. Brewer was chosen to
adopt Buddy by Hitchcock’s employers, Rober and Marilyn Stowell of
Spokane, Washington, from among an estimated 1,000 applicants–but
Brewer had Buddy killed after Buddy bit his hand, inflicting a wound
that required 14 stitches, soon after Buddy was neutered. Buddy was
nominated for the Lewyt Award for Heroic and Compassionate Animals,
though he did not win, and is remembered by the Friends of Buddy
Memorial Fund created by the Gastineau Humane Society to assist other
orphaned pets.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2002:

William George, M.D., in his early eighties, died at the
Hamad General Hospital, Qatar, on June 1. George was a longtime
member of the International Primate Protection League advisory board.
“I first heard of him when I read his devastating critique of the
gruesome cat experiments at the American Museum of Natural History
back in the 1970s,” recalled IPPL founder Shirley McGreal. “I could
not believe that a medical doctor could be so compassionate, and
suspected that the critique was a fake. I checked with the coalition
formed by late Henry Spira to protest against the cat experiments,
and was told that Dr. George practised in Miami. I was in Miami soon
afterward and called him. His pro-animal actions were too many to
list, but two stand out. First, in the 1980s he posed as a Middle
Eastern medical researcher seeking endangered primates for research.
He successfully exposed a Belgian animal dealer for ape smuggling.
Second, as late as September 2001, long after he was diagnosed with
the cancer that took his life, he joined in a campaign to return to
Africa two chimpanzees who were confiscated in Qatar. He got up from
his sickbed to see the animals off as they were flown to new homes at
the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia. Dr. George always
supported generously overseas rescue centers,” McGreal continued,
“including Limbe in Cameroon,” which is a special project of IPPL.
“Dr. George was a dermatologist,” McGreal added. “During one visit
to IPPL, he removed a small growth from the finger of an adult
female gibbon who was not anesthetized–no mean feat. He attended
several biennial IPPL Members’ Meetings, the most recent being in
March 2002. He was very, very ill, but decided that he just had to
be with his primate and human friends here in Summerville one last
time.”

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