Thinking About My Heroes

Today I'm thinking about my heroes who are, or were, active in the fight to rescue or protect animals.

When I think about my heroes who fight for animals, or who seek to better understand and thus protect them, these are the top 13 names (in no particular order) that come to mind:

• Dame Jane Goodall, PhD, is considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees. Her pioneering studies of the social and family interactions of chimpanzees in Tanzania began in the 1960s. Today, at age 84, she travels the world speaking about conservation and animal welfare issues. www.janegoodall.org
• Dame Daphne Sheldrick is the late founder of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, Nairobi, Kenya. Her organization continues to rescue and care for orphaned elephants, raising them until they can be released to live in the wild. www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org
• Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, known as the Notorious RBG, the court's most liberal justice and a long-time advocate of women's rights
• The Kenyan men who are responsible for the daily care of the orphaned elephants, feeding them, watching over them, and sleeping in the stockades with them are so committed to the care of the traumatized babies.
• Iain Douglas-Hamilton, PhD, CBE, has been studying elephants in Tanzania and Kenya for more than 50 years. In 1993, he founded the Save the Elephants organization that supports research, education and anti-poaching initiatives. I have been honored to meet Iain a couple of times, and he joined us for dinner one night. www.savetheelephants.org
• Saba Douglas-Hamilton, Iain's daughter, is a well known wildlife conservationist and documentary film maker and public speaker in her own right. I know Saba from her time as manager of Elephant Watch Camp.
• Dian Fossey, PhD, was an American primatologist and conservationist best known for her studies of mountain gorillas. She was murdered in her research camp in Rwanda.
• Theresa Strader founded National Mill Dog Rescue in 2007 to rescue unwanted dogs from puppy mills. To date, the organization has rescued more than12,000 dogs. www.milldogrescue.org
• Jeff Young, DVM, is the founder of Planned Pethood Plus. He and his staff operate a veterinary clinic in Denver, Colorado, that provides veterinary services to all, regardless of ability to pay. They also visit other countries to hold free spay/neuter clinics, as well as donating veterinary services to a variety of wildlife rescue organizations.
• The Black Mambas, an all-female anti-poaching team, protects South Africa's fragile rhinoceros population through a boots-on-the-ground approach. The group also sponsors the Bush Babies environmental education program. www.blackmambas.org
• Steve Irwin and family. He was killed by a stingray barb to the chest in 2006, but his wife and two children are carrying on his wildlife conservation work. They continue to operate the Australia Zoo. www.australiazoo.com.au
• Michelle Oakley, DVM, is a Canadian-American veterinarian based in Haines Junction, Yukon. She treats animals from eagles to musk ox to dogs, cats and pigs in Alaska and in Canada's huge Yukon Territory.
• Jennifer Smith is the founder of Noah's Arks animal rescue in South Carolina. The organization provides emergency medical, surgical and rehabilitation to abused dogs. www.noahs-arks.net

If you're not familiar with some of these people, I invite you to learn about them and the wonderful work they are doing (or did until the time of their deaths).