ANIMAL CONTROL & RESCUE
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1999:
“While it is argued by the Estate
that Howard Brand intended to prevent
future cruelty to his horses by ordering their
death,” Vermont probate judge S u s a n
Fowler ruled on March 16, “it would seem
to this court that a death sentence imposed
upon healthy, if aging, animals might be
considered cruel in its own right.” Fowler
thus overturned Brand’s will, allowing the
two horses to go to sanctuary. Brand, of
Essex Junction, Vermont, died on January 2
at age 88, soon after amending his will to
provide that the horses should be killed.
Fowler’s reasoning followed that of the
California state legislature when in 1979, at
request of the San Francisco SPCA, it overturned
a will which required the death of a
dog named Sido. The SF/SPCA placed Sido
in a new home, where he lived five more
years. Richard Avanzino, then president of
the SF/SPCA and now heading Maddie’s
Fund (see pages 12-13), credits response to
the Sido case with awakening his awareness
that the public would far more generously
support efforts to save animals’ lives than it
supports traditional animal control service.