Roger A. Caras, one of the most prominent public voices for animal welfare as a popular writer, broadcast personality, ..., died Sunday in Towson, Md. He was 72 and lived on a farm in Freeland, Md. ...He died of complications of a heart attack he suffered in December, said his daughter, Pamela Caras Rupert.
A lover of animals from lab rats to llamas, Mr. Caras is credited with transforming the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals by expanding its national animal protection and public education programs to focus on population control, rather than euthanizing unwanted animals.
Under his leadership the society also acquired and expanded the nation's first poison control center for animals.
Perhaps most importantly, he started a spay/neuter program at the A.S.P.C.A. that has been copied by humane organizations around the country. Under the program, which encourages people to get their pets neutered as early as 8 to 12 weeks old, all pets put up for adoption by the society are first spayed or neutered.
In 1995 in New York, the national headquarters of the organization, the local chapter ended a 100-year history as the city's animal control agency, in which it had collected and killed up to 40,000 abandoned and derelict cats, dogs and other animals each year.
''We were the first in and just about the last out,'' Mr. Caras said as New York society joined a national trend. ''It was a mistake 100 years ago and it was a mistake last year.''
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[In] 1952, he resumed his studies at the University of Southern California, where he majored in cinema. ....Mr. Caras [then] began a 15-year career as a motion picture executive. But over that career, he found his true calling, the study of animals in their natural habitats.
Mr. Caras wrote more than 70 books on animals. His first, ''Antarctica: Land of Frozen Time,'' was published in 1962. Others included ''A Perfect Harmony: The Intertwining Lives of Animals and Humans Throughout History'' and ''The Bond,'' a series of essays about people and their animals. His most recent work, ''Going for the Blue: Inside the World of Show Dogs and Dog Shows,'' was published this month.
In 1964, Mr. Caras began his career in broadcasting as the ''House Naturalist'' on NBC's ''Today Show.'' He stayed for eight years.
From 1965 to 1968, he was an assistant to Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick on the movie ''2001: A Space Odyssey.'' Starting in 1969, his radio series ''Pets and Wildlife'' was broadcast on the CBS Radio Network. NBC Radio broadcast his ''Report from the World of Animals'' in 1973, and ABC featured his ''The Living World'' from 1981 to 1983.
In 1975, Mr. Caras moved to ABC-TV, where he spent 17 years assigned exclusively to animals, wildlife and the environment.
He also worked as an adjunct professor of English at Southampton College on Long Island and as adjunct professor of animal ecology at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine.
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Among his pets [during his last year] were 12 dogs, 9 cats, 5 horses, 2 cows, 2 alpacas and a llama. Of his career path, Mr. Caras once said, ''I was born to be exactly what I am -- a professional practitioner of show and tell with a deep concern about our planet and its future.''...
He was so prolific a writer we can be excused if we just reference his books that mention cats in the TITLE.
Sarang: the story of a Bengal tiger and of two children in search of a miracle (a novel), (1968)
Panther! (1970)
Harper's illustrated handbook of cats (edited by Roger Caras) (1985)
Mara Simba: the African lion (1985)
Celebration of cats (1986)
Roger Caras' treasury of great cat stories (1987)
Cat is watching : a look at the way cats see us (1989)
Cats of Thistle Hill : a mostly peaceable kingdom (1994)
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