SAN MATEO DAILY JOURNAL -- In the last 17 years since he has been at the helm of Peninsula Humane Society and SPCA, Ken White has seen a tortoise survive a car driving over it, cared for in his home some 150 reptiles seized by law enforcement after being smuggled into the country and watched a peregrine falcon injured by a gunshot become rehabilitated and released into the wild.
White said his love for animals started at an early age when he was growing up in Brooklyn in a small, one-bedroom apartment with parents who liked to keep their home clean and didn’t allow him to have a pet. He said he graduated with a creative writing master’s degree at San Francisco State University in 1977 with two dogs and no idea what he wanted in life, and soon found work as an assistant teacher for students with behavioral challenges at a private school.