OBITUARIES

November 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

Edward Lowe, 75, inventor of
Kitty Litter, died October 4 in Sarasota,
Florida, from complications of surgery to
relieve pressure from a cerebral hemorrhage.
In January 1947, Lowe, a 27-year-old Navy
veteran, was working at his father’s sawdust
business in Cassopolis, Michigan. Their
customers were mostly factories and garages
that used sawdust to sop up oil and grease
spills. As oil-soaked sawdust could become a
fire hazard, they had also begun to sell kilndried
granulated clay as a more costly alternative.

Obituaries

OBITUARIES

October 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Howard Elliott Winn, 69, died August 13 while gardening at his home in North
Kingstown, Rhode Island. Best known for pioneering acoustic research on whale songs,
Winn was author of more than 120 scientific papers altogether, pertaining to birds and fish as
well as marine mammals. “He was scientific director of the Cetacean and Turtle Assessment
Program,” remembered colleague Robert Kenney, “which was a landmark study in 1978-
1982 of the whales, dolphins, and sea turtles off the northeastern United States. Much of his
whale research over the last 15 years focused on the right whale, the most endangered whale
species. He was the lead investigator of the South Channel Ocean Productivity Experiment, a
large program which significantly advanced our understanding of right whale habitat requirements,and served as a member of the national right whale recovery team. In recent years he was conducting a continuing study of the ecology and behavior of coral reef fish in Belize, Central America.” Earning a B.A. in biology at Bowdoin College in 1948, and an M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, 1950 and 1955, Winn taught for 10 years at the
University of Maryland before joining the University of Rhode Island as professor of
oceanography in 1965. Winn served as president of the Animal Behavior Society in 1966.
He is survived by his wife, Susan Hammen-Winn, and four sons.
Read more

Obituaries

OBITUARIES

July 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1995:

Ed Piukowsky, 52, died of a heart

attack on July 9, 2005, at home in Johnstown,

Pennsylvania. The son of a police dog han-

dler, Piukowsky and his wife Bonnie Lanzen-

dorfer Piukowsky founded the Jollyman

Animal Sanctuary in 2002. Blairsville

Dispatch reporter Jeff Himler in April 2005

listed the residents as “16 dogs, 50 cats, six

chickens, three goats, a dozen each of geese

and ducks, two peafowl, a rabbit and a par-

rot.” Recalled Dogs Deserve Better anti-

chaining group founder Tammy Grimes, “Ed

was very supportive of me and my work, and

had me speak at their fundraisers each of the

past three years. The first time was my first

time ever speaking, and I was so nervous I

thought I’d die. I spoke for a whole 30 sec-

onds, but it was enough to get me past the

point of trying. He told me each year, ‘See, I

knew you were going to go far, didn’t I tell

you that?’ He was so proud of me and the

progress we have made.”

Obituaries

OBITUARIES

June 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

Morarji Desai, 99, former prime minister of India, died April 9 in Bombay.

Current Indian prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao memorialized Desai in a joint session of the

Indian Parliament as “one of the most devoted disciples of Mahatma Gandhi, an able adminis-

trator and one of the finest human beings,” who often accompanied Gandhi to jail during the

struggle for Indian independence. Shirley McGreal of the International Primate Protection

League remembered Desai warmly for a different reason. “In 1977,” she recalled, “IPPL

amassed documents about the U.S. use or misuse of imported Indian rhesus monkey use in mili-

tary experiments,” in violation of the terms of a 20-year-old export agreement. Desai had been

elected prime minister in 1977, and McGreal knew that, like Gandhi, “Desai was a lifelong

vegetarian [in fact, a strict vegan] and animal lover.” She appealed to him. On December 3,

1977, Desai’s government barred monkey exports. “He saved a species and hundreds of thou-

sands of individual animals from suffering and death in foreign laboratories,” McGreal said.

“Powerful users exerted heavy pressure on Desai. He stood firm,” as have his successors. “In

an attempt at historical revisionism,” McGreal continued, “claims were made by U.S. scientists

that the Indian ban resulted from conservation concerns and the dwindling numbers of rhesuses.

IPPL contacted Desai, by then retired, for clarification. In a handwritten letter dated April 16,

1985, Desai stated, ‘You are quite correct in saying that I banned the export of monkeys on a

humanitarian basis and not because the number was lessening. I believe in preventing cruelty to

all living beings in any form.'” But the monkeys had become scarce. “Later,” McGreal con-

firmed, “a survey by the Zoological Survey of India determined that there were only 200,000

rhesus monkeys left in India. The trade had taken a heavy toll. The teeming millions of former

days had disappeared. Those monkeys left owe their lives and freedom to Morarji Desai. They

are his living monument.”

Obituaries

OBITUARIES

May 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:

Choi Hui-bok, 23, of Pusan,

South Korea, allegedly killed herself on April

12 when her husband Chung Hae-soo came

home drunk after eating dog meat, which

many Koreans believe to be a sexual tonic.

She had tried repeatedly to get him to give it

up. “We fought over the matter and I went to

another room to sleep,” Chung told police.

“When I woke up she was dead, dangling

from a window frame by a necktie.”

Obituaries

OBITUARIES

April 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:

Veterinarian James Alfred

Wright, 78, known to the world as author

James Herriot, died of prostate cancer on

February 23 in Thirsk, Yorkshire. Deciding

to become a vet at age 13, Wright studied

small animal medicine, but under financial

duress became junior partner in an agricultural

practice in Thirsk, where he continued to treat

animals until 1990. Adopting as pseudonym

the name of a Scots soccer goalie, Wright

wrote unsuccessfully, as a hobby, for many

years before producing two successful vol-

umes of reminiscences of his veterinary career

at age 53. Sales were initially slow, but they

inspired a hit BBC television series, even

more popular in the U.S. than in Britain, and

combined into a single volume, retitled A l l

Creatures Great And Small, became a best-

seller. Wright went on to produce six more

books, including Every Living Thing, which

at his death had been on The New York Times

bestseller list for 22 weeks.

Obituaries

OBITUARIES

March 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1995:

Naturalist Gerald Durrell, 70, a

longtime resident of St. Helier, France, died

January 30 in London of complications after a

liver transplant. Younger brother of the late

novelist Lawrence Durrell, Gerald was actu-

ally the more prolific author, producing 37

titles including many best-sellers, from T h e

Overloaded Ark (1952) to The Aye-Aye And I

(1993). My Family And Other Animals

(1956), a memoir of his boyhood on the

Greek island of Corfu, influenced a genera-

tion of young readers including the editor of

ANIMAL PEOPLE, who got a copy as a

birthday gift at age 8 and read it to tatters.

Born in Jamshedpur, India, Durrell’s first

word was reputedly “zoo.” He joined the

Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire, England––

Obituaries

OBITUARIES

January 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

Brigid Brophy, 66, British author and feminist, died August 7 in London after a

12-year battle with multiple sclerosis. Best known for her successful crusade to require British

libraries to pay royalties to authors whenever their books are checked out, leading to the pas-

sage of the 1979 Public Lending Rights Act, Brophy was a vegetarian and animal advocate

throughout her adult life. Her first novel, Hackenfeller’s Ape (1954) attacked vivisection. “I

am the very opposite of an anthropomorphiser,” she wrote in Don’t Never Forget. “I don’t

hold animals superior to or even equal to humans. The whole case for behaving decently to

animals rests on the fact that we are the superior species. We are the species uniquely capable

of imagination, rationality and moral choice––and that is precisely why we are under the

obligation to recognize and respect the rights of animals.” Later, Brophy added,

“‘Sentimentalist’ is the abuse with which people counter the accusation that they are cruel,

thereby implying that to be sentimental is worse than to be cruel, which it isn’t.” In all,

Brophy’s aphorisms on animal rights occupy six pages of The Extended Circle, Jon Wiynne-

Tyson’s “Commonplace Book of Animal Rights.”

Obituaries

OBITUARIES

January 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1995:

Susan de Treville, 44, board mem-

ber and cofounder of The Mountain Lion

Foundation, also founder of the California

Wildlife Conservancy, died in October after a

prolonged struggle against brain cancer. A

San Diego resident, she left two young daugh-

ters, Joy Wallen and Amanda Sitton. Wrote

colleague Sharon Negri, “She was a skilled

biologist with a passion and love for animals.

From 1972 through 1976, Susan and Larry

Sitton conducted lion telemetry research in

Hunter Liggett, a rugged, mountainous range

in Big Sur, and were the first in California to

study range sizes and male/female lion interac-

tions. While big cats were her first love,

Susan also published two children’s coloring

books, worked on coastal and water quality

issues with the Environmental Defense Fund

and the Coastal Conservancy, and managed

her own consulting business. Susan’s two

daughters have scattered her ashes in mountain

lion terrain in the Hunter Liggett study area.”

Obituaries

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