PETA’s First Annual Gregory J Reiter Animal Rescue Award
Greg and I rescued a total of seventeen animals during our life together – eleven cats, four dogs, and two horses. Of these, horses Henry and Caroline and dog Itchy came from PETA.
It was a particular honor that just ten days after Greg’s death, our friends at PETA informed me of plans to establish an annual Gregory J. Reiter Animal Rescue Award which includes a substantial cash prize.
PETA President Ingrid Newkirk – a friend and heroine of both Greg’s and mine – presented PETA’s first annual “Greg Award” in Washington DC on June 11, 2016 (timed to coincide with Ingrid’s birthday and Greg’s birthday week). The venue, as it happened, was Elizabeth’s on L, where Greg had taken me for my birthday dinner in 2015.
Award recipient Katie McCotter has adopted and fostered numerous rescued animals of many species. These are just some of the many examples of Katie’s kindness:
Adoptions:
Sherlock: A pig who was on his way to a slaughterhouse when he fell of a Smithfield truck and his life was changed forever. Full story here.
Butchy Boy: A lone goose who PETA fieldworkers spotted confined to a small, muddy pen with nothing but a little tub of filthy water to bathe in. Full story here.
Pippi: A Vietnamese potbellied pig who was previously spending her days confined to a screened in porch with no access to grass. Full story here.
Amanda: A stray chicken who was previously roaming the streets of Norfolk and had been picked up by animal control.
Pepper: An energetic black lab who was once chained 24/7.
Fosters:
Henry and Caroline (previously known as Root Beer Float and Baby Girl): Two horses whom PETA rescued from starvation. Katie cared for these horses in the initial weeks after their rescue, and then identified a nearby friend to provide two months of foster care before they came to Greg and me. Greg and I met Katie in May 2014, on the same day we first met Henry and Caroline. Full story here.
Sebastian: A miniature horse who was previously living in a ramshackle pen littered in his own waste. Full story here.
Big Boy: one of a group of 11 pigs whom PETA fieldworkers stumbled upon while delivering straw bedding and doghouses to needy dogs in rural North Carolina, until he could be placed at a sanctuary in Tennessee. Full story here.
Thank you and congratulations, Katie!!
~ Alysoun Mahoney
[…] Henry and Caroline were first spotted in April 2014 by a PETA fieldworker who was working in rural North Carolina on another case. The fieldworker learned that the horses’ owner had moved away months before and left the neighbor’s brother in charge of their care – but could see that both horses, particularly Henry (see photo), were severely malnourished and in poor health. PETA consulted an equine veterinarian, who recommended that the horses be removed because of chronic neglect – and given their close bond, that they be re-homed together. The fieldworkers then moved the two horses to a temporary foster home with Katie McCotter (who this year received PETA’s first annual Gregory J. Reiter Animal Rescue Award). […]
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