Women have always been at the front raw in the fight for animal rights. They have often been in direct conflict with huge financial interests in order to protect animals and some have even given their lives for their beliefs.
DIAN FOSSEY (Killed: 26 Δεκεμβρίου 1985)
Dian Fossey was an American zoologist, primatologist, and anthropologist who undertook an extensive study of mountain gorilla groups. Fossey was born in San Francisco, California. Her love for animals began as a child and she enrolled in a pre-veterinary course in biology.
Fossey began her field study in Congo in early 1967. She managed to get close to the gorillas by mimicking their actions and making grunting sounds assured them, together with submissive behavior and eating of the local celery plant. She continued with conservation work in Rwanda and fought hard against illegal hunting and kidnapping. Fossey helped in the arrest of several poachers, some of whom served or are serving long prison sentences. This is believed to be the motive for her murder on December 26, 1985. She was buried next to her beloved gorilla “Digit” who had been killed by poachers.
Fossey had been a controversial personality and her life and tragic death has made a large impact on our perception of wild life. Her 1983 book, Gorillas in the Mist, combines her scientific study of the gorillas with her own personal story. It was adapted into a 1988 film of the same name.
JILL PHIPPS (Killed: 1 Φεβρουαρίου 1995)
Jill Phipps was a British animal rights activist who was crushed to death during an animal rights protest in England.
Phipps had been loving animas since she was a child, and joined her mother’s campaigning against the fur trade from the age of 11. By her late teens she joined the Eastern Animal Liberation League, a group affiliated to the Animal Liberation Front. A local campaign in Coventry supported by Phipps and her mother succeeded in closing down a local fur shop and fur farm.
On 1 February 1995, Phipps was one of 35 protesters at Coventry Airport in Baginton, protesting at the export of live calves to Amsterdam for distribution across Europe. Ten protesters broke through police lines and were trying to bring the lorry to a halt by sitting in the road or chaining themselves to it when Phipps was crushed beneath the lorry’s wheels; her fatal injuries included a broken spine. Phipps’ death received a large amount of publicity, being brought up at Prime Minister’s question time in the House of Commons.
JANE TIPSON (Killed: 17 Σεπτεμβρίου 2003)
Jane Tipson was a conservationist and animal rights activist. She was born in the United Kingdom and moved to the Caribbean island Saint Lucia where she lived for three decades. She had been a co-founder of the Eastern Caribbean Coalition for Environmental Awareness, and was active in many campaigns against captive whale and dolphin tourism activities. Instead she was promoting whale watching and dolphin watching tourism. She was also the founder and president of Slaps, the Saint Lucia Animal Protection Society and owner of a local restaurant.
Jane Tipson was stopped on a private road that led to her home, and shot at close range in the back of her neck.It is alleged that she was victim of a contract killing for her work against the construction of dolphinarium tourist attractions by the Dolphin Fantaseas group.
JOAN ROOT (Killed: 13 Ιανουαρίου 2006)
Joan Root was a Kenyan conservationist, ecological activist and Oscar-nominated filmmaker. Born in Nairobi, Root was the daughter of a British banker who immigrated to Kenya to start a new life.
With her husband, Alan Root she made a series of acclaimed wildlife films. Their movies were narrated by such distinguished actors as Orson Welles, David Niven, James Mason and Ian Holm. Their 1979 Survival documentary, “Mysterious Castles of Clay”, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. The Roots introduced Dian Fossey to the gorillas she would later die trying to save. The couple divorced in 1981 and after that Joan Root became very involved in conservation projects at and around Lake Naivasha. She chaired and funded an anti-poaching “Task Force” in the area that enforced fishing restrictions, arresting fishermen and confiscating and burning nets, in an attempt to stop overfishing.
In the last years of her life she was subjected to harassment and threats and was murdered at her home by four men carrying AK-47s. Joan Root had directed in her last will and testament that her land be turned into an admission-free and unfettered wildlife preserve.
