From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
Victoria Wellens, 58, died of cancer on
March 28, 2009. Executive director of the
Wisconsin Humane Society since 1994, Wellens
arrived with no background in animal work, but
had worked in child welfare. She inherited
dilapidated premises, a factionalized and
demoralized staff, a high rate of shelter
killing, animal control contracts with 19
cities, and adversarial relationships with other
humane organizations and local media. Her first
action was to make the Wisconsin Humane premises
child-friendly. Eliminating sharp-edged
furniture, harsh language, and any activity or
posters that would easily upset a child tended to
produce a more comfortable environment for staff
and volunteers. Dropping the animal control
contracts, which Wellens saw as the source of
most of the stress within Wisconsin Humane,
Wellens helped the cities to form the Milwaukee
Area Domestic Animal Control Commission.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2009:
Qannik, 8, a beluga whale, died from a bacterial blood
infection on March 27, 2009 at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in
Tacoma, Washington, his home since 2007. Qannik was the eighth
beluga to live at Point Defiance, where belugas have been exhibited
for about 25 years, and was the fourth to die there. His mother,
Mayauk, had two stillbirths at Point Defiance before she was
transferred to the John Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. There she
successfully birthed Qannik and a sibling. Qannik at Point Defiance
replaced Turner, 13, who died in 2006. Beethoven, 16, companion
to both Turner and Qannik, is to be returned to Sea World San
Antonio, his birthplace, where he will join the Sea World captive
breeding program. As none of the 34 other belugas now in captivity
in the U.S. need a new home, Point Defiance “has applied for three
California sea lions as part of the government effort to trap and
remove dozens of the animals, who are feeding on endangered salmon
on the Columbia River, reported the Tacoma News Tribune.

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