Henry Bergh Leadership Awards Announced

Today on Animalwise Radio, Nathan Winograd announced the winners of the 2009 Henry Bergh Leadership Awards.

Foor those not familiar, Henry Bergh was a 19th century animal advocate that launched the first humane movement in North America and founded the ASPCA. While during his life, Bergh fought hard against animal cruelty (which was rampant at the time) and fought to save the lives of animals.

This year's award winners fall into a couple of categories:

Directors at No Kill Shelters in North America -- Bonnie Brown of the Nevada Humane Society (Reno,NV) and Susanne Kugut, of the Charlottesville SPCA (Charlottesville, VA)

In Austin, Ryan Clinton has made a huge difference for animals in the community. His group in Austin became involved in the recent political elections and got animal-friendly politicians in office - -and then followed it up by having the city council members unanimously sign a resolution ebracing the No Kill Equation.

Mike Fry and Beth Nelson promote the No Kill movement weekly on their Animal Wise radio program. The two also run Minneapolis' largest No Kill shelter.

Joan Schaffner -- a legal prrofessor at George Washington University - hosted the first ever National No Kill Conference in Washington DC (the 2010 date has also been announced to be August 14-15 in DC). 

Claire Davis has been working in King County, WA to reform horrific conditions in the animal shelter there.

I think these awards are a great idea -- as too often advocates work really hard to make a difference in their communities for animals -- often very anonymously.  While each of these people is very deserving, it should also be noted that they are just 6 of hundreds of people around the country who are now working toward the same goal of saving the lives of ALL animals using proven methods for accomplishing the goal.

I also think it's interesting that the accomplishing the goal takes many forms -- whether it be running the actual shelter, being an advocate on the outside pushing for change in their current shelter,  providing education or being involved politically to get the political clout to make a difference. All are very important.

Congrats to this year's very deserving winners.  More info on each of the winners over at Winograd's place.

Comments

[anonymous]

Actually, Beth Nelson is not involved with the running of Animal Ark shelter. Mike Fry is the director.

Winograd's idea of giving these awards and reclaiming the image of Henry Bergh back from the ASPCA (which has not operated in the ways Bergh would have hoped when he founded it) is a good one. I think it's a bit sullied by the fact that there's a bit of log-rolling going on here (just as when authors provide blurbs for each others's books). Animal Ark recently invited N. Winograd to its annual dinner and presented him with an award. Winograd appears regularly on the show run by the director of Ark. Winograd then gives the director of Ark an award for his show. Animal Wise Radio might be the most deserving player in a small field, but it looks a little "off" this way.

[Brent]

Anon -- I confess that I don't really know Beth - I may have met her once, briefly, but am not certainn. I tend to agree that the overall impact of the Bergh awards is a bit tainted, from the outside, by the appearance of being the "in" crowd. That said, it is probably, at least in the first round of this, a product of Winograd associating himself a lot with the people that are doing things the right way...because each, individual recipient is truly deserving.