Blab! Vol. 18 and Topsy

by Kim W. Stallwood Posted on November 5, 2007

Blab! is an annual that features cutting-edge comics, illustration and graphic design.
Topsy is the name of the elephant we never want to forget. Her story is told through the art of Sue Coe and the words of Kim W. Stallwood and appears in the pages of Blab! Vol. 18. We’re proud to announce the publication of Blab! and the true story of Topsy, the elephant electrocuted by Thomas Edison in 1903.

From “Murdering Elephants”

The elephant whom we never want to forget is Topsy. We know more about how her life ended than we do about how it began. We can see from her photograph that she was an Asian elephant. Newspaper reports on her death in 1903 claim she was 28. This means she was probably caught in India, Sri Lanka, Indochina or Indonesia in the mid 1870s. Then, baby elephants were captured by shooting the mother. Hunters used muzzle-loading, powder-and-lead ball firearms. Multiple shots – sometimes as many as 50 – were needed to make a kill. Elephants rarely died quickly and never without pain and suffering. Hunters and the hunted symbolized the British Empire and the emerging economic power of the United States. The heroic exploits of so-called great white hunters and the dramatic accounts of how they hunted and killed wildlife were propaganda that justified the empire. “Trophy animals” symbolized the power and control the U.K. and U.S. had over nation states and their native peoples as well as their land and animals.

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J R Hyland RIP

by Kim W. Stallwood Posted on November 5, 2007
The Rev. Janet Regina Hyland worked tirelessly for humans and animals.

The Rev. Janet Regina Hyland envisioned a world where people and animals were treated with equal respect. Hyland, 63, who died Oct. 9, worked with prisoners in Texas, migrant families in Southwest Florida and animal rights groups throughout the country to help improve the lives of the struggling and the voiceless.

“She was always involved in social justice causes,” said her sister, Jean Burns of Sarasota.

Hyland’s 2000 book, God’s Covenant with Animals, offered a biblical interpretation for compassion toward animals and became popular with animal-rights activists nationwide. A vegetarian for more than three decades, Hyland became active in Sarasota in Defense of Animals after she and her sister moved to Sarasota in 1985.

“She truly was an activist,” said Sumner Matthes, vice president of the animal rights organization. “If we were going to conduct a demonstration and we needed people to wave signs, she would do whatever was needed.”

Born Nov. 30, 1943, Hyland was raised a Roman Catholic and served in the Air Force as a young woman. She worked for the diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Virginian, while living in Virginia, and later moved to Texas, where she took part in prison ministry through the Assemblies of God, an evangelical Protestant church.

She also studied theology and was ordained a nondenominational minister in 1984. She founded Viatoris Ministries in Sarasota as part of the International Ministerial Fellowship, an association of independent Christian ministries, and for many years published “Humane Religion” every other month and wrote many of its articles on human rights, animal rights and women’s equality.

She was often known by her middle name or, in the publishing world, by her initials. She was scheduled to take part in an international vegetarian conference in San Francisco in September when she learned she had an advanced stage of breast cancer.

Sarasota minister championed rights of humans and animals

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Washoe RIP

by Kim W. Stallwood Posted on November 4, 2007

Our beloved friend Washoe passed away Tuesday evening, October 30, at 8:00, after a brief illness. At the time of her passing she was at home at CHCI, with her family and closest friends.

Washoe was 42 years old, a long life for a female chimpanzee. Most females in captivity live an average of 33.5 years.

Washoe was born in Africa, around September of 1965. She is the only one of the four chimpanzees at CHCI to have been born in Africa. Her capture probably consisted of a hunter killing her mother and then taking her to market to be sold to a dealer. After she was brought to the United States for the Air Force, Drs. Allen and Beatrix Gardner adopted her for their research.

Washoe is the matriarch of this family and was the first chimpanzee to acquire a human language. Her name sign is formed with the fingers of a “W” hand flicking the ear on the same side. She was named for Washoe county Nevada where she lived with Drs. Allen and Beatrix Gardner until age five.

Friends of Washoe

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Some Good News for a Change

by Kim W. Stallwood Posted on November 4, 2007
Maggie enters the crate at Alaska Zoo in Anchorage that will take her to ARK 2000 at the Performing Animal Welfare Sanctuary. Photo credit: PAWS.

Maggie, the 25-year-old African elephant who captured the hearts of Anchorage for much of her life, arrived at her new Northern California home safely Friday after the successful journey dubbed “Operation Maggie Migration.”
By mid-morning, Maggie was swinging her trunk around her new barn, checking out the unfamiliar sights and sounds. By mid-afternoon, she was sunbathing and eating California green grass and chasing birds.
She was even trumpeting and mock-charging the other elephants, separated from her by a protective fence, said Pat Derby, president of the sanctuary that is Maggie’s new digs, run by the Performing Animal Welfare Society.

Maggie left Anchorage on Thursday night on a C-17 Air Force jet after months of planning to move her. The trip was a $400,000 operation, funded by a $750,000 donation from former game show host Bob Barker. The leftover money will be used by the Performing Animal Welfare Society to support Maggie.

The Elephant Has Landed

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