Mourners Offer Eulogy for Slain Zoo Animals

On a windy cliff in this seaside community, more than 200 mourners crowded around a floral display Wednesday to remember the six wild cats allegedly slain by big-game trophy hunters on a Monterey County ranch last summer.

Amid the eulogies came angry denunciations of Floyd Lester Patterson III; his wife, Dawn Patterson, and taxidermist Eugene Oravsky--the three charged last week with importing aging zoo animals and making them available for shooting at close range for a $3,500 fee.

The mourners, clad in dark clothing, gathered at Lover’s Point to bid a final farewell to the dead cats as animal rights activists delivered brief speeches after observing a moment of silence.

“To take an animal who has been on display to the delight of everyone and then to let it meet a terrible end represents a breakdown in our society,” said Michael Blake, author of “Dances With Wolves” and winner of an Academy Award for the film’s screenplay. “These animals had a name and they had a relationship with people. We can’t live in a country where this is allowed.”

With sea gulls squawking overhead and waves crashing against the rocks below, preservationist Margaret Owings paid a tearful tribute to each species of feline slain during last summer’s shooting, from Bengal tiger to mountain lion.

“They were once wild and elusive, elegant and evolved in their beauty,” said the founder of the Friends of the Sea Otter Society. “Those macho hunters are blatant egoists. They are the poison of society.”

Some onlookers had even stronger words for the well-to-do clients of the Pattersons’ alleged operation. Former Assemblyman Peter Thomas of Seaside suggested that if he could meet one of the hunters, he would cut off the hand that pulled the trigger.

“The guy doesn’t deserve any kindness or sympathy from anyone,” he said. “I’ve probably heard all the alibis and excuses there are, and let me tell you, there is no excuse for what these people did. None whatsoever.”

Lisa Oates, a gardener and housekeeper from Pacific Grove, wore a jet-black gown and veil and suggested that the ranchers and their customers “should repent for their evils.”

D’Anne Alders, a volunteer coordinator for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Prunedale, said she was appalled at the hunters’ actions.

“I can’t believe a fellow human being would shoot an animal in a cage and then mount its stuffed head on the wall to show it off,” Alders said. “It’s unfathomable.”

The turnout for the memorial was taken by conservationist Nina Rubin as an encouraging sign that resentment might turn into a positive force.

“I think people need to be educated about how animals are treated so they can do something about it,” she said. “Maybe then, instead of giving those hunters a $5,000 fine, which is a slap in the face, people can demand harsher penalties.”

The Pattersons and Oravsky face maximum penalties of $5,000 fines and a year in prison on each of the misdemeanor charges.

Despite the somber tone of the ceremony, organizers used the occasion to celebrate wildlife by distributing free Monterey pine seedlings to the crowd.

“The seedlings represent the sanctity of life and the connection between the plants and animals,” said volunteer Pam Bonsper of Carmel. “It’s a way for people to love and nurture something living in the absence of an animal.”