Look To The Stars News: Bob Barker

Stars Get Behind A Big Problem

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:10:29 -0000

Lolita is a 42-year-old living in Miami. Originally from Puget Sound near Washington, Lolita was forcibly taken from her home in 1970 – when she was only six years old – and forced to perform for people who would pay money to watch her. Thirty-seven years later, Lolita is still living in cramped conditions.

Lolita is 22 feet long and weighs 7,500 pounds. She loves being wet, but lives in a tank only 80 feet wide and 20 feet deep at the Miami Seaquarium… a far cry from the wide-open spaces of her home.

Lolita is an Orca – also known as a killer whale – and the campaign to send her home has just hit an all time high, with a long list of celebrity supporters adding their names to a proposal to retire the aging mammal to her home.

The Orca Network is behind the campaign, with organization co-founder and president Howard Garrett recently announcing the support of actors Johnny Depp and Harrison Ford and rap stars 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg.

“Momentum is building,” said Garrett. “A publicity campaign is in the works being directed by people in Hollywood.”

The Orca Network is also currently organizing a benefit concert to raise money for the campaign, perhaps featuring other celebrity supporters such as Janet Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, and Placido Domingo.

“Lolita is a very special orca,” said Garrett. “Her survival is beyond all expectations. Of the 45 of Lolita’s extended family, the Southern Resident orcas, captured and delivered to parks around the world between 1965 and 1975, all the others were dead by 1987. She is known to be courageous, yet so very gentle. She has endured 37 years of confinement while performing two shows per day, without the company of any other orca since 1980. She deserves a chance to retire to her home waters and visit with her family once again.“

Other celebrities to add their names in support of the “Free Lolita” campaign include Robert Downey Jr, Bob Barker, Hayden Panettiere, Billy Zane, and Jean Claude Van Damme.

People wishing to support the campaign or learn more can visit the Orca Network website.

Bob Barker Donates $1 Million To Animal Ethics Program

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:12:07 -0000

Written by Delinda Lombardo

Bob Barker, best known for hosting CBS’s The Price Is Right, won 19 Emmy Awards during his 50-year television career before retiring in June, 2007. But retirement for Bob Barker simply translates into more time to pursue a cause close to his heart – the ethical treatment of animals.

The adored game-show host and animal activist recently announced that he is donating $1 million to his alma mater, Drury University, to establish an undergraduate animal-ethics program.

’’It’s incredible that I ever was able to go back to Springfield and give them a million dollars, because when I was there, I didn’t have 15 cents,’’ Barker told The Associated Press. ’’What I’m hoping is that this will become a model for other undergraduate schools.’‘

Even before Barker retired, he had already donated millions to create animal-ethics curricula at various law schools, including Harvard, Columbia and Northwestern, in the hope of encouraging aspiring lawyers, judges, and politicians to consider animal rights in their work.

’’If young people are introduced to the terrible exploitation and mistreatment of animals in society, it will help influence them in anything they do,’’ he said.

Barker has been a devoted animal activist for nearly 30 years, and has called for statewide legislation in California to make the spaying-neutering of pets mandatory in the state.

’’For 25 years, I’ve been closing every ‘Price Is Right’ by urging people to have their pets spayed and neutered, and it did help… But it hasn’t been enough,’’ he said. ’’When your education and encouragement fail, you have to have legislation.’‘

Barker founded the DJ&T Foundation in 1995, with a goal to fund low cost spay/neuter clinics and voucher programs as a way to help relieve animal over population. Since its inception, Barker’s Foundation has contributed millions of dollars to fund animal rescue and park facilities all over the country.

’’I can tell now I’ve been meant for this all my life,’’ he said. ’’I’m so busy, I don’t know how I ever had time to do ‘The Price Is Right.”

Making a Difference, Bob Barker’s Way

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 08:35:46 -0000

Written by Nadia Lias

After retiring from the longest-running daytime game show last year, Bob Barker, a nineteen time Emmy Award winner is going stronger than ever. Retiring did not slow him down; in fact he has been even more actively involved in what seems like almost every animal protection charity.

Barker – whose famous catchphrase in ‘The Price is Right’ was “Help control the pet population; have your pet spayed or neutered” – recently helped pass a pet bill which reduces the number of unwanted dogs and cats by requiring spaying or neutering. The bill is deemed necessary to ease the growing population of unwanted pets that cost state and local governments $300 million each year.

Placing animals’ needs up front, he additionally donated $1 million to Georgetown University Law Center for the study of animal rights law. His donation will be well spent on strengthening and expanding the Law Center’s animal rights law curriculum, providing opportunities for students to work in the field, supporting student-initiated animal rights projects and sponsoring conferences and symposia on subjects related to animal protection.

The passionate animal activist recently raised $19,919.08 through an eBay auction of his 35 years old original, corded microphone – an iconic fixture of television and American pop culture. Every last cent went to United Activists for Animal Rights, an organization that is near and dear to Bob’s heart.

Oprah Tops Celebrity Philanthropy A-List

Sat, 12 May 2007 08:24:15 -0000

Written by Steve Purcell

A list of the 30 largest public donations made by celebrities in the past year puts Oprah in the top spot.

The Giving Back Fund, which encourages and advises on celebrity philanthropy, compiles its list each year. President Marc Pollick said, “Encouragement-by-example is the main reason for the Giving Back 30 list.”

Oprah gave $58.3 million to Oprah’s Angel Network and her recently-opened Leadership Academy.

Of the other celebrities high on the list, Barbra Streisand was in fourth spot, having given $11.75 million through her Streisand Foundation.

Tiger Woods took fifth place, giving $9.5 million to organisations including the Tiger Woods Learning Center funded by the Tiger Woods Foundation.

Giving Back’s Marc Pollick praised an increasing trend in celebrity donations, saying, “Ten years ago when Slate magazine first published the Slate 60 reporting on the most generous American philanthropists, the last donor on their list gave $5 million. This year the last donor donated $30 million to charity. This is the type of growth we are hoping to inspire within the sports and entertainment community. One cannot help but be influenced by the generosity of his or her peers.”

The full list and information about how it was compiled can be found at givingback.org. This site has previously reported on many of the list’s featured celebrities and their donations; a comprehensively linked version of the list appears below:

Position	Celebrity	Donation	Cause(s)
1	Oprah Winfrey	$58,300,000	Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, Oprah’s Angel Network, and other groups
2	Geoffrey Beene	$44,000,000 (bequest)	Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
3	Jack and Marie Lord	$40,000,000 (bequest)	Hawaii Community Foundation
4	Barbra Streisand	$11,750,000	Streisand Foundation, numerous civil liberties, environmental, and civil rights organizations “dedicated to democratic values”
5	Tiger Woods	$9,500,000	Tiger Woods Learning Center, Earl D. Woods Sr. Scholarship Fund, and other Tiger Woods Foundation programs
6	Rosie O’Donnell	$5,700,000	Katrina Relief efforts including Renaissance Village (a temporary shelter for Katrina victims), day care centers, a rehabilitation center in San Antonio, and a Habitat For Humanity sub division in Baton Rouge
7	Martha Stewart	$5,000,000	New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital for a center on healthy aging
8	Carmelo Anthony	$4,282,000	CAF Youth Center in Baltimore, AAU Basketball, Syracuse University Recreational Center, and other charities
9	Pat Boone & Shirley Boone	$3,000,000	Pepperdine University for the Graduate School of Education and Psychology Center for the Family
9	LeRoy Neiman	$3,000,000	The School of the Art Institute of Chicago to support a Master’s class in figure drawing
11	Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt	$2,415,000	School and Community Center in Swakopmund in Namibia, Daniel Pearl Foundation, Namibian hospitals, Doctors Without Borders, Global Action for Children and others
12	Nicolas Cage	$2,000,000	Amnesty International for a fund to help child soldiers
12	Dwayne Johnson (“The Rock”) and Dany Garcia Johnson	$2,000,000	University of Miami to name new Alumni Center living room
12	Paul McCartney	$2,000,000	Adopt-A-Minefield
12	Arnold Palmer	$2,000,000	Pledged to the Arnold Palmer Foundation ultimately to benefit the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute
16	David Geffen	$1,600,000	David Geffen Foundation
17	Susan Saint James and Dick Ebersol	$1,300,000	The Gunnery to help pay for a new dormitory in memory of their son Teddy killed in a plane crash
18	Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg	$1,250,000	Boston University to renovate facilities
19	Andre Agassi	$1,070,000	Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation
20	Tiki and Ronde Barber and family	$1,000,000	University of Virginia to support the McIntire School of Commerce, the Virginia Athletics Foundation, Childrens Hospital, a scholarship fund for African-American students, the Young Alumni Council, and to challenge young alumni to participate in the capital campaign
20	Bob Barker	$1,000,000	Georgetown University to endow a fund at its law school that will focus on the study of animal rights
20	Gloria Estefan	$1,000,000	Miami Paralysis Project
20	Dr. Phil McGraw & Robin McGraw	$1,000,000	Dr. Phil Foundation
20	George Steinbrenner & family	$1,000,000	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for Boshamer Stadium for baseball
20	Tony Stewart	$1,000,000	Victory Junction Gang Camp
20	Denzel Washington	$1,000,000	Save Africa’s Children
27	Mike Sexton	$560,000	Special Olympics, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, Children, Inc., Wounded Warrior Project, Ohio State University, and other charities
28	Lance Armstrong	$500,000	Lance Armstrong Foundation
28	Dolly Parton	$500,000	Fort Sanders Medical Center
28	Elizabeth Taylor	$500,000	New Orleans AIDS Task Force to purchase mobile medical unit for AIDS sufferers in New Orleans

Look To The Stars News: Bob Barker

Stars Get Behind A Big Problem

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Bob Barker Donates $1 Million To Animal Ethics Program

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Oprah Tops Celebrity Philanthropy A-List

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