The State - News from Nov. 24, 1985

Sido, a mutt saved from death by an act of the Legislature five years ago, died of heart failure in a Davis animal hospital, which she entered after a seizure on Nov. 14, her 16th birthday. “Up until the end, I was still hopeful that we were going to see another miracle,” said Richard Avanzino, Sido’s owner and president of the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The dog sparked controversy in 1979 when former owner Mary Murphy died and left a will ordering that Sido be put to death. But Avanzino opposed the order, triggering a legal battle that ended in a precedent-setting court ruling and a state law specifically sparing the dog’s life. Sido, a sheepdog-collie mix, was cremated, and Avanzino said he will keep the ashes in an urn on his desk.