FAACE cofounder & president Tony Moore, 79

(Beth Clifton collage)

Tony Moore, 79, cofounder and president of Fight Against Animal Cruelty in Europe, died of lung cancer in Southport, U.K., on December 27, 2013. Then a 39-year-old theatrical performer, Moore married his wife, actress Vicki Moore in 1973, when she was 17, and formed a touring cabaret act with her.

Becoming a vegetarian the following year, Vicki Moore preceded her husband into animal advocacy, as a committee member of the Southport branch of the RSPCA, 1978-1988. Visiting Spain in 1987, Vicki Moore rescued a donkey who was to have been killed as part of a village festival in Villanueva de la Vera, Spain, but a few days later at another village, Canet de Berenguer, she was unable to save a bull whose horns were covered with pitch and set ablaze.

The Moores formed FAACE as umbrella for an international campaign against “blood fiestas,” participant bullfights, and eventually also arena bullfighting, rodeo, hare coursing, fox hunting, live transport, horse racing, and vivisection. Vicki Moore, while videotaping a June 1995 bull run in Coria, Spain, was tossed into the air 11 times and gored in the chest, back, groin, and legs by a bull named Argentino. In a coma for three weeks, Vicki Moore suffered a punctured lung, the loss of a kidney, and eight broken ribs. She continued to advocate for animals, but required repeated surgeries, and died from complications of her injuries on February 6, 2000.

Beth & Merritt Clifton.
(Geoff Geiger photo)

Tony and Vicki Moore in 1996 shared the Lord Houghton Award for outstanding service to animal welfare, presented by Animal Defenders International. Following Vicki Moore’s injuries, and especially after her death, Tony Moore expanded his activism. Among his successes was helping to win passage of European Union legislation in 2009 that prohibits the sale of products made from dog or cat fur.

After retiring from acting, Tony Moore was for some years a resident warden at the Southport Centre for the Deaf.