Shirley McGreal (born Shirley Pollitt; 4 May 193420 November 2021)"Shirley McGreal obituary"
''The Times''. Retrieved 16 January 2022. was a British

animal welfare Animal welfare is the well-being of non-human animals. Formal standards of animal welfare vary between contexts, but are debated mostly by animal welfare groups, legislators, and academics. Animal welfare science uses measures such as longevit ...

activist and conservationist. She founded the

International Primate Protection League The International Primate Protection League (IPPL) is a not-for-profit animal welfare organization founded in 1973 in Thailand by Shirley McGreal. IPPL's main focus is to promote the conservation and protection around the world of all non-human ...

Early life and education

McGreal was born Shirley Pollitt in Mobberley, Cheshire, on 4 May 1934. Her parents were Kate (née Pearson) and Allan Pollitt, a bank manager. She had an identical twin sister, Jean, with whom she developed an early interest in activism. She studied Latin and French at

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, ...

. She graduated in 1955. She studied postgraduate French at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Unive ...

. She received a PhD in education in 1971 from the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...

Animal welfare

McGreal's entry into the protection of animals was in 1971 when she was in Thailand. At the Bangkok Airport she saw crates with monkeys that were being shipped. She looked for an organization that could help her save such animals but found none. In 1973 she founded the International Primate Protection League. She settled the headquarters of the organization in

Summerville, South Carolina Summerville is a town in the U.S. state of South Carolina situated mostly in Dorchester County, with small portions in Berkeley and Charleston counties. It is part of the Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville Metropolitan Statistical Area. ...

and initiated a sanctuary for gibbon monkeys. She achieved bans on the export of primates in India and Bangladesh, and protested the use of the animals at a

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...

laboratory of the United States government and the US

Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute The Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) is an American triservice research laboratory in Bethesda, Maryland chartered by Congress in 1960 and formally established in 1961. It conducts research in the field of radiobiology and r ...

. She uncovered a smuggling operation where primates were being sent from other countries to Singapore for export. She exposed the operation in an article in the

Bangkok Post The ''Bangkok Post'' is an English-language daily newspaper published in Bangkok, Thailand. It is published in broadsheet and digital formats. The first issue was sold on 1 August 1946. It had four pages and cost one baht, a considerable amou ...

, which resulted in action by the Singapore government. She argued against euthanizing chimps that have been used in medical research, saying that they deserve "a decent retirement". Although she decried the use of animals in research, she conceded that the practice would continue and therefore advocated for better living conditions and quality of life for the animals. In 1983 she wrote a letter to the editor of the ''Journal of Medical Primatology'' criticizing the Austrian manufacturer Immuno AG, for its treatment of animals in its research. Immuno responded by charging McGreal with libel. Although it was argued that the letter was an opinion and therefore not libelous, McGreal settled due to the cost of continuing the suit.

Personal life and death

She married John McGreal, an engineer, in 1960. They lived in India and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

, where he was working for the United Nations. She died at her residence on the grounds of the sanctuary she founded in

on 20 November 2021, at the age of 87.

Awards and recognition

* Order of the British Empire, 2008 * Interpol Wildlife Crime Group and the Dutch Police League, 1994

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGreal, Shirley 1934 births 2021 deaths Alumni of Royal Holloway, University of London British animal welfare workers British conservationists British identical twins Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Mobberley University of Cincinnati alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni