In Remembrance of Heather Carpenter (1964–2024)
By Paul Shapiro
In 2007, a woman wearing a Dogs Deserve Better t-shirt approached me after a talk I’d given in Florida. “It’s great that you care about farmed animals,” she said. “But what are you doing for dogs who live on chains?”
So began a close friendship that would last nearly two decades. I didn’t know it at that first meeting, but Heather Carpenter and I would go on to be part of a crew of animal advocates waging ballot initiatives to protect farmed animals across the country.
As a coworker, Heather had an unparalleled work ethic, making herself available day and night, weekday and weekend, for animals. In 2008, when we were gathering signatures to put Proposition 2 on California’s ballot, someone complained about collecting signatures outside a late-night concert. Heather’s response was blunt: “When factory-farmed animals get out of their cages at night, we’ll take the night off too.”
Our professional work together focused mainly on farmed animal ballot drives in states like California, Ohio, Oregon, Washington, and Massachusetts. But reviewing our years of texts and emails, it’s clear that our mutual love of pitbulls was the cornerstone of our personal friendship. (Her Instagram posts are essentially a tour of all the pitbulls in her life.)
Heather was all-in for any campaign she joined — from farmed animals to greyhounds to mourning doves — but pitbulls owned her heart. We each had three-legged pits — mine was George and hers was Buster Brown, a dog I loved to pet-sit. Both of us fostered pitbulls as part of our non-work lives. (In fairness, my wife Toni really spearheads our fostering efforts, but Heather was always thrilled to get videos of our foster pups.) In 2023, Heather visited The Better Meat Co. in Sacramento with other animal heroes, wearing a shirt that simply read, “Save Pups.” Instead of reminiscing about old campaigns, we spent much of the time sharing updates about our dogs’ lives, swapping photos and videos.
There are few people I’ve worked with who were as completely devoted to the service of animals as Heather. Preventing cruelty was her profession, her pastime, and her passion. She was selflessly dedicated to animals, whether it was her four rescued pits or animals exploited in human industries. In her memory I’ve made a donation to the rescue from which she regularly fostered, Hearts Alive Village.
Heather’s sudden departure from the world this week is a huge loss for her friends, and an even bigger one for the animals she fought so hard to protect. While her parents have already passed on and she never had human children, Heather is survived by her sister and a large number of “chosen family” in the animal movement who loved her. Her four dogs are also being cared for.
Facebook reminds me annually that Heather was one of my first friends on the platform (in 2008). Over the years of our friendship, she would stand by me through both the peaks and valleys of my life.
We were together in 2008 when we found out Oprah was going to do an episode about Prop 2. So perhaps it’s fitting to end this remembrance with a quote from Oprah: “Everyone wants to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.”
Heather was that kind of friend — both to me and to the animals for whom she fought and loved. May her memory be a blessing.
