Roger Caras; Author and Broadcaster Was an Advocate for Animals

Roger A. Caras, an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster and advocate for animals who wrote 70 books and was president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, has died. He was 72.

Caras, who lived in Freeland, Md., died Sunday at a suburban Baltimore hospital of complications from a heart attack.

The longtime announcer at the Westminster Kennel Club’s annual dog show at New York’s Madison Square Garden had missed last week’s show because of illness.

“The ASPCA is deeply saddened by the loss of a true champion of all animals,” said Dr. Larry Hawk, ASPCA president and chief executive. “Roger Caras was considered by many to be one of the premier animal advocates of the 20th century, spending a lifetime as a champion for wildlife, companion animals and the environment.”

For 17 years until he was named ASPCA president in 1991, Caras was a familiar figure to television audiences as an ABC News special correspondent, reporting on animals and the environment.

His cinematic essays on interesting animals and their relationships to humans took viewers to all corners of the world.

Sometimes his work was disturbing, such as when he reported on the cruelty inflicted on animals used in medical research and the slaughter of African elephants for their tusks.

Caras’ love for animals began while growing up in Methuen, Mass., his hometown. He took his first job in 1938, working for 10 cents an hour cleaning stables that housed abused horses.

After graduating from Huntington Preparatory School in Boston, he served in the Army at the end of World War II.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in cinema from USC and held various studio posts. He was press agent to a number of movie stars, including Joan Crawford, and from 1965 to 1968, he worked with Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke on “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

A prolific author who lectured widely, Caras wrote his first book, “Antarctica: Land of Frozen Time,” in 1962. His last, “Going For the Blue: Inside the World of Show Dogs and Dog Shows,” was published last week by Warner Books.

In 1988, he left New York and moved to Thistle Hill, a 35-acre farm in Maryland.

There will be no services.

He is survived by his wife of 47 years, the former Jill Langdon Barclay; a son; a daughter; a brother; and four grandchildren.