Bob Barker - Animal Rights

Animal Rights

Barker became a vegetarian in 1979. That same year, he began promoting animal rights. He was named national spokesman for "Be Kind to Animals Week" in May 1985. On A&E's Biography program, he credited his wife, Dorothy Jo, with causing him to become more aware of animal rights and becoming a vegetarian, because she had done so. Bob remarked that Dorothy Jo was way ahead of her time as far as animal rights were concerned and that shortly after her death in October, 1981, he took up animal rights in order to keep doing something that she had done.

Barker began ending some episodes (later every episode) of The Price Is Right with the phrase: "Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered." After he retired, Drew Carey continued his signature sign-off advocating neutering. Fellow game show hosts Jack Barry and Bert Convy eventually followed Barker's lead in promoting animal rights on the air.

Barker hosted the Miss USA/Universe Pageants from 1967 to 1987. In 1987, he requested the removal of fur prizes and stepped down as host when those in charge of the pageant refused.

Bob Barker's DJ&T Foundation, founded in 1994 and named after his wife and mother, has contributed millions of dollars for animal neutering programs and to fund animal rescue and park facilities all over the United States. He worked closely with Betty White as an advocate for animal rights. However in 2009, reports indicated that Barker threatened to not attend the 2009 Game Show Awards (but was seen in the audience), where he was to receive a lifetime achievement award, because White would be attending. The reason for the conflict, according to the report, was over the proper treatment of an elephant at the Los Angeles Zoo. White instead did not attend and pre-recorded her comments that she was scheduled to make about Mark Goodson.

In 2004, Barker donated $1 million to Columbia University School of Law to support the study of animal rights. The gift has funded an adjunct professorship in animal rights law at Columbia and helped fund a student clinic in environmental law.

Barker also supported United Activists for Animal Rights, and together with the group, publicly accused several media projects and the American Humane Association of animal mistreatment or the condoning of animal mistreatment, a tactic which resulted in a major lawsuit against him and the group, accusing him of spurious allegations.

In June 2009, Barker wrote Chief Michell Hicks of the Cherokee asking that their reservation's bear exhibit be closed. On July 28, 2009, he visited the reservation and saw one of the three zoos, calling the bears' living situation "inhumane". PETA set up the visit after Barker heard from Florida congressman Bill Young, whose wife had been "appalled" by what she saw. Annette Tarnowski, the tribe's attorney general, said a federal inspector had found nothing wrong in May 2009 at two of the zoos, and that the tribe had dealt with the few violations at the third. Hicks made no promises and threatened to ban PETA if they made more trouble.

In January 2010, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society announced that it had secretly purchased and outfitted a ship to interdict Japanese whaling operations in the Southern Ocean using $5,000,000 provided by Barker. The ship was then named the MY Bob Barker, and its existence was first revealed when it helped discover the location of the Japanese whaling fleet. In 2010, Barker began funding the cost of a helicopter, named the Nancy Burnet (after the president of United Activists for Animal Rights); the helicopter accompanies the society's fleet.

In March 2010, PETA announced that it received a $2.5 million donation from Barker to help establish a new office in Los Angeles.