Animals 24-7

News on dogs, cats, horses, wildlife, zoonoses, & nature

Geoffrey Deckers & Marion Bienes brought animal rights to the Netherlands

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Holocaust survivor Bienes inspired organization builder Deckers Award founded in Deckers’ name––see Comments,  below. Geoffrey Deckers,  51,  co-founder of the Dutch animal advocacy organization Een Dier Een Vriend [An Animal, A Friend],   died suddenly on June 29,  2020. Deckers suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on November 20,  2017,  but appeared to have made a full recovery. As […]

Trixie the whale shark dies young at the Georgia Aquarium

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Three whale sharks left of six brought from Taiwan in 2006-2007             ATLANTA, Georgia––Trixie the whale shark,  who could have lived up to 130 years in the wild,  died on November 27,  2020 after just 14 years at the Georgia Aquarium. Trixie,  believed to have been about 32 feet long,  still about eight feet short […]

Virunga ranger, Taiwanese doctor, & PETA staffer lived & died for animals

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Virunga National Park Ranger Bagurubumwe Chuhoze Deogene,  47,  Mira Fong,  74,  and Jennifer Woods,  58,  died on October 10,  September 6,  and August 22,  2020,  respectively,  having in common almost nothing in their life histories except their dedication to animals. Bagurubumwe Chuhoze Deogene Joining the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature in 1996,  at […]

Jan Salter, 82, mastered the arts of animal & human aid in Kathmandu

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Founded leading Nepal humane organization past age when most people retire             KATHMANDU,  Nepal––Jan Salter,  82, artist,  humanitarian, and founder of the Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre in Nepal in 2004,  died in Lyme Regis,  United Kingdom,  on April 29,  2018. Word of her death did not reach ANIMALS 24-7 until nearly 90 days later. Born Janette […]

Shimon Shuchat, 22, & Dick Goddard, 89, had animal advocacy in common

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New York City activist & Cleveland weather forecaster were each legends in their spheres             NEW YORK CITY,  CLEVELAND––One of the youngest prominent animal advocates in the Northeastern U.S.,  Shimon Shuchat,  22,  and one of the oldest,  Dick Goddard,  89,  died a week apart,  on July 28 and August 2,  2020,  in New York City […]

Anna Briggs lived for animal rights & no-kill before the movements existed

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Quiet personality long set an example,  yet did not emerge as a leader of causes Anna Catherine Briggs,  101,  died on February 15,  2011 in Berryville,  Virginia,  21 years after publishing her autobiography,  For the Love of Animals. For the Love of Animals,  a 122-page paperback, was written essentially as a fundraising device,  distributed chiefly to […]

Mary Lou Simms, Lori Golden, & Linda Lord focused their lives on animals

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Geese, cats, dogs & potbellied pigs were beneficiaries of their work Mary Lou (Andrews) Simms,  a journalist for 60 years,  best known as author of more than 30 exposés of purges of non-migratory Canada geese,  died on July 19,  2020 in hospice in Tallahassee,  Florida,  from complications of a brain tumor. Simms died one day […]

Three recent deaths of people who cared about animals in very different ways

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Conservation theorist Michael E. Soulé, 84;  activist Linda Ann DeStefano, 76;  Bill Jenkins, 53             Michael E. Soulé,  84,  widely identified as the “father of conservation biology,”  but an enthusiastic advocate of “compassionate conservation” by the end of his life and career,  died on June 17,  2020. “Conservation is engaged in the protection of the integrity […]

Guerrillas gun down 12 gorilla guards & five others in Virunga, DRC

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Resurgent Ebola and COVID-19 escalate threats to already high-risk habitat VIRUNGA NATIONAL PARK,  Democratic Republic of the Congo––At least 17 people,  including 12 Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation rangers whose primary duty is protecting critically endangered mountain gorillas,  were killed in an April 24,  2020 ambush attack. No gorillas are known to have been caught […]

Takaya the “sea wolf” headed for home, but hunter shot him

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Lived for eight years almost within sight of British Columbia provincial parliament             VICTORIA, B.C.,  Canada––Takaya,  10,  the “sea wolf” star of the 2019 CBC Nature of Things documentary “Takaya: Lone Wolf,”  was on March 24,  2020 shot by a hunter near Shawnigan Lake,  British Columbia,  possibly after being chased and/or mauled by the hunter’s […]