By Delinda Lombardo on
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."
Copyright © 2008 Look to the Stars
