A Tribute to Animal Rights Activist Dona Spring

July 21, 2008

The longest serving U.S. Green Party member in public office, Dona Spring, recently passed away just days after she publicly spoke out against a plan to cut down a stand of old growth trees— Memorial Grove in Berkeley, California. I happened to be at that event, and can report that she put aside agonizing pain to bravely fight for this cause, and so many others that she believed in. She was a tireless champion for animal rights and the environment, despite the fact that debilitating arthritis left her a quadriplegic towards the end of her much too short life. Countless people and other animals benefited from her work.

Among her many accomplishments:

• She campaigned nationally against what she referred to as the "frivolous" use of animals for experimental purposes.

• She helped to pass a bond to establish a state of the art, no-kill animal shelter.

• Her leadership as a city council member led to reductions in the use and disposal of chemical toxins, including reducing the flow of heavy metals into storm drains.

• She improved recycling programs, leading to better curbside service, and she educated the public about reducing waste, lessening reliance on fossil fuels and eating lower on the food chain.

• Spring believed that trees, plants and wildlife add to our quality of life, so she worked hard to ensure city development programs would incorporate related matters.

Words cannot adequately convey how much she sacrificed to make her vision of a better world a reality for us. You can catch just a glimpse of this by watching her last major public speech here. The atmosphere at that event was quite tense, with police surrounding the site as protesters and officials exchanged heated words.

I also invite you to watch the below short film about her life. So many of us put off volunteering or working on community projects because of various good excuses- time, money, health and so on. But Dona Spring should inspire all of us to follow our hearts and our deepest desires by doing what we can with what each of us has to offer. She will be greatly missed.

Comments

[sjburnt]

Animal rights? What rights would those be?

I am sorry that the lady died.

[Jen Viegas]

Not so little things that we take for granted, like the right to live and to not be forced to endure suffering for often unnecessary research. (Information on companies that do not test on animals may be found at: http://search.caringconsumer.com/)

"Animal rights" falls under the larger issue of ecological wisdom, which the Green Party includes as one of its 10 key issues.

"Human societies must operate with the understanding that we are part of nature, not separate from nature. We must maintain an ecological balance and live within the ecological and resource limits of our communities and our planet. We support a sustainable society which utilizes resources in such a way that future generations will benefit and not suffer from the practices of our generation. To this end we must practice agriculture which replenishes the soil; move to an energy efficient economy; and live in ways that respect the integrity of natural systems."