Betty White is fondly known for her comedic television roles since the early fifties including her own talk show called The Pet Set. She was everyone’s favorite funny lady on the memorable hit sitcoms The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls. Betty White has also been an animal enthusiast since she was a child. One of her pet projects since the 1970’s has been to bring awareness, support, and help to raise funds for the Morris Animal Foundation.
In 1948, Dr. Mark L. Morris had devoted most of his career to animal health but felt compelled to do more. He started Morris Animal Foundation, which sole mission is to fund humane veterinary studies in order to improve the health of companion and wildlife animals. Many of the studies funded result in breakthrough discoveries, including better diagnostic, treatment and disease prevention techniques.
With her devotion to animals, Betty White has actively donated her time to the Morris Animal Foundation, because she believes strongly in the work the foundation is doing. For the past six years she has worked with Joy To The World Collectibles, a company that designs handcrafted holiday ornaments to benefit several nonprofits, including Morris Animal Foundation. Betty White signs animal-themed ornaments, and a percentage of the profits from the sale of the ornaments is donated to the Foundation.
AF: Did you have pets growing up?
White: Everybody asks me – when did you get so interested in animals? I always have to “say in the womb”, because my mother and father were, if anything, worse than I am. We always had animals. When they brought me home from the hospital, we had an orange marmalade cat named Toby. My mother used to say “Toby sit at the edge of my crib, and if Toby hadn’t approached the baby, the baby would have been sent back to the hospital”.
AF: During your work on television, did you have animals on the set and any funny stories to share?
White: Well, I always had animals on my set… I started in 1954, no, 53, no 49, actually. I went network in 52, but I started in 1949. I had a five and a half hour a day, 6 days a week talk show and we had more animals on the show, I think than we had people. I’d always work them in somehow and through the years – I’ve always managed to. I did a series called The Pet Set for one season.
AF: You were way ahead of your time.
White: Well, yeah, I had celebrity friends like Jimmy Stewart, Doris Day, and Rock Hudson, a lot of people, with their pets. And then I would write the show around their interest in animals. Well, that’s like a kid in a candy store, you know? I made them interested in more wonderful animals than the show.
AF: And what kind of pets do you have now?
White: I have a Golden Retriever, 8 years old Kitta, and a little thirteen-year-old Shih Tzu, Panda, and I can’t tell you how old “Bob Cat” is because he came to me as a stray. But, he’s been with me for 8 years, so that’s my family.
AF: Do your cat and dogs get along?
White: Oh, we all sleep together. They eat together. We have a wonderful time.
AF: Tell me about Morris Animal Foundation and your participation in it?
White: I’ve been with them, since 1970 and it’s a health organization. They fund health studies into the specific health problems of dogs, cats, horses and wildlife. We helped develop the feline leukemia vaccine and the parvo virus vaccine for dogs. We have a long list of credits. We have two scientific advisory boards. One for companion animals and one wildlife scientific advisory board. The top veterinary scientists from institutions around the country evaluate the proposals that come in asking for grants. The boards read them all, evaluate them and then they discuss them, all on a volunteer basis. We fund as many of the top-rated ones as we possibly can. When I came to this organization, we were funding $700,000 a year. This last year, we did $4.5 million. I’m so proud of the Foundation.
AF: That is amazing! Can you tell me more about the holiday ornaments and how they benefit Morris Animal Foundation?
White: Joy to the World. Yes, we’ve been working together for about six years. Morris Animal Foundation gets a portion of the proceeds. I attend signing events in a different city each year around the holidays. This year, I’m going to Minneapolis in November. These events are wonderful because they sell ornaments and help introduce Animal Morris Foundation to lots of new animal lovers.
AF: How would you describe the ornaments?
White: They’re beautiful ornaments. Yes, they’re darling. Santa’s flying over in his airplane and he’s got all the dogs and cats around him! But this year, the artist has come out with smaller ones that are of various dog breeds and a really good likeness of the breeds, not just “almost a Bassett” or “almost a Shih Tzu”. They’re really adorable little ones. So, if you want an ornament that’s just a little more personal, you can buy the smaller one of your own breed, which is lovely.
AF: What will you be doing with your pets this holiday season?
White: We’ll just all be together. I spend a very quiet holiday season. I don’t have a lot of family, but I have dear friends. Close people come and my animals are so much a part of my family that friends always come to see the four of us, not just to see me.
AF: What do you think the relationship, the importance, of the elderly with animals is?
White: It’s so special. If you’ve come in from a bad day and you just have the touch of an animal to heal you. Even the medical community has come around to realizing that blood pressure goes down and the heart rate evens out when you handle an animal. It just kind of calms everything down. And as far as the elderly, family comes to see them maybe once in a while. But in between times, it’s the animal that makes them get up out of bed, makes them go…as long as they’re going to feed the animal, they might as well eat something themselves. Animals are wonderful caretakers. And fun. They have a sense of humor that never stops.
AF: If you were going to date a breed of dog, what type of dog would it be? If you exchanged the dog’s traits to the man’s personality?
White: A Golden Retriever, because they’re such good kissers! My favorite breed of dog is Pekingese, but he’d have to be a good dancer, for heaven’s sake {Betty laughs}.
AF: What do you think the importance of animals in your life as you get older?
White: It’s so special. If you’ve come in from a bad day and you just have the touch of an animal to heal you. Even the medical community has come around to realizing that blood pressure goes down and the heart rate evens out when you handle an animal. It just kind of calms everything down. And as far as the elderly, family comes to visit them maybe once in a while. But in between times, it’s the animal that makes them get up out of bed, makes them go…as long as they’re going to feed the animal, they might as well eat something themselves. Animals are wonderful caretakers. And fun. They have a sense of humor that never stops even during their golden years.
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