Liberate

It was hard to know how to go about writing this article and we realised that we actually couldn’t do one. Many of us have shared different experiences with Suzy and to limit this to a purely Animal Action perspective would be to disrespect what other have shared with Suzy but also the other aspects of Suzy’s life. What follows are peoples thoughts, feelings and memories of Suzy, these have been taken from Indymedia and some have been emailed to AAA.

Communiqué from Auckland Animal Action . . .

In the early hours of Sunday the 24th of February our little Suzy gained entry to another world and sadly left ours.

For nearly ten years, Suzy has been an active and essential component of Auckland Animal Action, working tirelessly for the animals. There was not a day that she was not plotting, checking things out or taking action. She truly understood the saying ‘actions speak louder than words’ and dedicated her life to animal
liberation.

Where many people limit their involvement to group organising, stalls and demonstrations Suzy always took it that step further. Not only was she always bringing home injured animals she had found but she would always be keeping tabs on animals in the neighbourhood who seemed to be being mistreated. She was always on hand to step in and find them a new home. And then of course there were the seemingly endless trips into the country driving around just to see what was happening. On the odd occassion these would last days rather than hours.

While she has been unwell for years Suzy never let this get the better of her and pushed herself to do all that she could. It has only been in the last year that she had been forced to take a less involved role in AAA actions. It should be said that she was still highly involved in organising and even when she was at her mum’s supposed to be resting, there would always be a number of text messages and phone calls at all hours of the day with instructions, ideas and opinions. It is safe to say Suzy could not sit still for long.

Some of us in AAA were also lucky enough to not only call Suzy our comrade but also our friend. Those of you who know Suzy will know that this is not an easy feat, but when you finally managed to get her to open up she was so much fun. Hanging out with Suzy there was nothing but laughs, oh and lots of food.

Suzy was also a mother to four beautiful puppies all of whom owe their lives to Suzy. Abbey, Zoe, Zarah and Daisy meant everything to Suzy and it is obvious in the way that they get so happy when they see her that they love her too.

It is hard to imagine life with out Suzy and it would be easy to curl up in a ball and shut out the world but Suzy would have a fit. You just know that she would emotionally blackmail you with ‘but what about the animals?. Fortunately, Suzy has been a great mentor to many of us and has empowered us with the skills, initiative and dedication to continue the fight. She now has many of us blackmailing ourselves with ‘but what about the animals?’.

In every action we will remember Suzy; her passion, her courage and her commitment.

With love and great sadness,

AAA