SAM SIMON
PHILANTHROPIST, SHELTER DIRECTOR, VEGAN
1955 - 2015
It is with heavy hearts that we say goodbye to Sam Simon, the critically acclaimed television writer, producer and director of Taxi, Cheers, The Tracey Ullman Show, The Drew Carey Show & The Simpsons, which he co-created. Simon was an animal lover through and through and a dedicated philanthropist, allotting his $100 million dollar fortune to charity. Since 2002, Sam funded the Sam Simon Foundation, an organization dedicated to rescuing and retraining stray dogs who would otherwise be euthanized.
His dog shelter has been described as "the grandest... in the country," a 5-star, 6-acre campus in Malibu, California. The Foundation gives stray and abandoned dogs a new lease on life. As Simon explains, the foundation aims to "rescue dogs" and "train them to be service dogs, [to help] people with disabilities," primarily the deaf. It also provides a free mobile spay and neutering service for low-income guardians, free operations for ill canines, and trains pups to help soldiers returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan deal with PTSD.
The Sam Simon Foundation Spay & Neuter Mobile Clinic.
In 2011 Simon established and self-funded the Sam Simon Foundation Feeding Families program, a vegan food bank which provides food for people and animals in need; the program helps feed some 200 families per day.
Sam passed away earlier this month after a two-year battle with cancer. His foundation will continue to help both people and animals and continue his legacy of compassion by operating on a plant-based policy. You are missed, Sam!
Thank you for giving us so much food for thought. We hope your work will inspire other shelters to consider going veggie too!
Veganism is an answer for almost every problem facing the world in terms of hunger and climate change.
- Sam Simon
