How The Simpsons Co-Creator Sam Simon Is Facing His Own Tragedy

September 29, 2014 11:14 AM

Diagnosed with terminal cancer two years ago, and given only months to live, Sam Simon is still alive and still racing to spend the fortune he made as co-creator of The Simpsons on causes he loves, whether he is rescuing grizzly bears (and chinchillas and elephants) or funding vegan food banks. Sam Simon and philanthropy previously on Metafilter
posted by ellieBOA (7 comments total)

Side note: That chinchilla thing was a boondoggle. It was a perfectly well kept, humane, decent chinchilla ranch, breeding chinchillas as pets, run by an older couple, who wanted to retire. They sold it to a buyer who represented themselves as a chinchilla enthusiast wanting to take over. The buyer was actually PETA. They sent out all kinds of press releases claiming they had "rescued" these chinchillas, complete with a video with spliced in footage from completely different chinchilla breeders, ones that *did* breed for furs, and claims of mistreatment and abuse.

They then handed all the chinchillas over to the San Diego Humane Society and said "OK, find homes for these guys! Good luck!" and went on to their next fundraiser.

So... fuck PETA. Fuck them for taking advantage of this guy's end-of-life generosity to stage a deceitful publicity stunt, and, well, just fuck those guys in general.

(Sourice: the chinchilla subreddit when all this went down; there were a number of livid posters who were familiar with this ranch first hand and had bought pet chinchillas from them and learned a lot about caring for their pets from the couple who owned the place.)
posted by edheil at 11:35 AM on September 29, 2014 [8 favorites]

Mod note: Added previously link; we're going to let this one roll.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 11:35 AM on September 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the post.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 12:16 PM on September 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

Side note: That chinchilla thing was a boondoggle.

While I often find PETA's antics to be narcissistic or even offensive on occasion, I believe this is referring to the same situation this past August - and if so, the actual Humane Society involved has a distinctly more positive take than the redditors.
posted by aught at 12:39 PM on September 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

Sounds like a damn good man. Sad that he has to go while Seth MacFarlane has to stay.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:05 PM on September 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

With no wife or kids, what else is he gonna do? I have a lot of clients in that boat, and they're all giving all or nearly all to charity. It's great they're doing it, but it's not really heroic.
posted by jpe at 7:06 PM on September 29, 2014

I think it's perceived as heroic as Simon's pet charities tend to be very much with a vegan agenda, and a person of his wealth and stature dedicating that much money to animal rights tends to be very noteworthy. I can't think of anyone else with the kind of dough being very vocal and high profile about a cause that tends to attract people who just think, "Fuck PETA."

(For the record, I'm a vegan who thinks the same of PETA, tbh.)
posted by Kitteh at 5:01 AM on September 30, 2014