On this day in vegan history · October 14, 1998
The Critic Who Rescued 577 Burros Dies
A syndicated TV critic turned his sharpest lines on sport hunters, then spent a decade filling a Texas ranch with the burros, elephants, and chimpanzees nobody else wanted, and died on October 14, 1998, at 81.
The facts
- Died
- October 14, 1998, at 81
- Fund for Animals founded
- 1967
- Black Beauty Ranch founded
- 1979, starting with 85 acres
- 1980 rescue
- 577 burros saved from the Grand Canyon
Cleveland Amory made his name as a syndicated critic, tearing into television and Broadway for decades before animals took over. In 1967 he founded the Fund for Animals to fight hunting and build sanctuaries, and his 1974 book, Man Kind? Our Incredible War on Wildlife, turned that same sharp tongue on sport hunters, drawing a New York Times editorial and a CBS documentary in response. In 1979 he bought 85 acres in East Texas and built Black Beauty Ranch, named for the novel he had loved since childhood, then filled it a year later with 577 burros rescued from the Grand Canyon. Amory died in his sleep on October 14, 1998, at 81, having grown that ranch past a thousand acres and the Fund into an organization with more than 200,000 members.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
-
It was not long after reading Black Beauty for the first time that I had a dream that one day I would have a place which would embody everything Black Beauty loved about his final home.
Cleveland Amory, in his 1997 book Ranch of Dreams, quoted on Wikipedia
Source: Wikipedia -
We only want to cull them.
Cleveland Amory, on the hunters who mocked him, quoted in his Animal People News obituary
Source: Animal People News
Why it still matters
Amory proved a critic's wit and a checkbook could outlast a career: the Fund for Animals joined the Humane Society family in 2005, and Black Beauty Ranch, now more than 1,400 acres, is still taking in the animals nobody else wants.
Sources
This history is still being written.
Every morning the brief covers what moved veganism forward, and every day one more verified piece of that story joins this almanac. Free, and tomorrow’s lands in your inbox.
Free, every morning. No guilt. No preaching.