Awards & Honors, 1st quarter 2014

Geetha Seshamani (Limca Book of Records photo)

            The 25th annual edition of the Limca Book of Records honored 25 women for their contributions to Indian society,  including Geeta Seshamani,  founder of the Friendicoes Society for Eradicating Cruelty to Animals and cofounder of Wildlife SOS.  Friendicoes has operated a dog-and-cat shelter in Delhi since 1979,  and has fielded mobile clinics to help the working equines of Delhi and Agra since 1984.  Wildlife SOS,  founded with Kartick Satyanarayan in 1995,  led the successful campaign to end the dancing bear industry in India,  operating bear sanctuaries near Agra,  Bangalore,  and Bhopal,  and helping the former bear trainers and their families to find alternative employment.  Wildlife SOS is now pursuing a similar strategy on behalf of working elephants.

Kartick Satyanarayan

Wildlife SOS cofounder Kartick Satyanarayan on December 26,  2013 received the Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar National Award from Indian minister for the environment and forests M. Veerappa Moily.  In addition to his work as a pioneering sanctuarian,  Satyanarayan has done extensive undercover investigation of poachers and wildlife traffickers,  and led animal relief efforts first along the Bengal coast and later in the Andaman Islands after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Sarah Coburn, DVM (Pets Best Insurance Services photo)

Sarah Coburn, DVM,  of Barrow,  Alaska,  the only veterinarian within an 89,000-square-mile area,  was on February 18,  2014 named winner of the “My Vet’s the Best” contest,  sponsored by Pets Best Insurance Services.