NEW SCOTLAND — The tributes came pouring in following the announcement: She was the best of us; she literally changed the world; she was compassionate and dignified, an amazing and unforgettable human being who left this world a better place. 

Dr. Holly Cheever, a beloved local veterinarian and outspoken defender of animal rights, died on Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, following a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. She was 75. 

“Mary Helen ‘Holly’ Cheever arrived on Jan. 22, 1950 in Cambridge, Massachusetts — the youngest of three born to Dan Sargent Cheever Sr. and Olivia Thorndike Cheever,” her son, Jesse Sommer, wrote in a tribute. “She was raised Unitarian amidst an expansive yet closeknit community of cousins who trace their American roots back to Ezekial Cheever’s arrival to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s.

 “In what would prove to be among the most defining tragedies of her life, Holly lost her mother to cancer in 1954.  She was only 4 at the time, yet Holly carried with her this grief for the rest of her life.  (The Altamont Enterprise published a column in 2018 describing the impact of this loss on her.) Her father remarried in 1956, at which time Holly welcomed the heaven-sent “Auntie” May Bryant into her life.       

“Holly met attorney Dean Sommer in 1978; they were married in June 1980 and promptly conceived four children in just five years.  Their first child, Jesse, was born in July 1982; he was followed by sisters Caitlin (December 1983), Robin (January 1986), and Brenna (March 1988). 

“She and Dean moved to the town of New Scotland in 1983 and immediately set about establishing a wildlife preserve on property that they fashioned into a sanctuary for abused and neglected animals. Throughout her 40 years in Albany County, Holly’s home was shared by dogs, cats, guinea pigs, goats, horses, cows, ponies, and chickens hatched in a slew of local grade-school classes.    

“As a result of Holly’s interfaith marriage, the family observed both Christian and Jewish traditions, yet its core moral ethos was and always will be vegetarianism. Her most fervent and desperate hope for humanity is that it ends the cultivation and consumption of sentient life, as Holly viewed all sentient lifeforms as being her equal and in need of human guardianship.

“In a story she relayed to Altamont Enterprise columnist Dennis Sullivan in 2015 about a cow she’d encountered years earlier: “There is a lot more going on behind those beautiful eyes than we humans have ever given [animals] credit for, and, as a mother who was able to nurse all four of my babies and did not have to suffer the agonies of losing my beloved offspring, I feel her pain.” 

Dr. Cheever’s son wrote in a 2019 column for The Enterprise, that “my mother was widely regarded as among the planet’s sweetest and most empathetic women. And no amount of evidence to the contrary — be it my reports of the insufferable organic “health food” to which she subjected me, or the capriciousness of her school-night curfews, or her unAmerican prohibition of Nintendo, or the indignity of being forced to make my bed on Saturdays — could convince the community otherwise.

Dr. Michael McCarthy, Dr. Cheever’s partner in founding The Village Animal Clinic in Voorheesville, wrote in a Facebook post, “Along with being a brilliant veterinarian, she was also a fierce advocate for animal health and welfare.”

Drs. Cheever and McCarthy opened The Village Animal Clinic in 2010.

“In so doing, we each fulfilled our professional dream,” Cheever wrote for The Enterprise in 2010:

“— First, to practice veterinary medicine with the overarching philosophy that our patients’ welfare was of paramount importance (therefore, no canine ear crops or tail docks and no feline declawing); 

“— Second, to offer our skills to combat the pet overpopulation problem, which is the root cause of all companion animal suffering (we partner with Guilderhaven to provide low-cost spay-neuter surgeries to rescued animals);

“— Third, to provide triage care for injured and orphaned wildlife pro-bono; and 

“— Finally, to serve as a community resource for students of all ages having the cherished aim of becoming a veterinarian ….”

Dr. Cheever began her career as a large-animal veterinarian in central New York, Dr. McCarthy wrote. Back then, the early 1980s, “there were very few female veterinarians in the field (let alone veterinarians treating dairy cows).”

“‘Dr. Holly,’” her son wrote, “viewed her patient population to be of the furry and feathered variety; their human companions were merely the gracious chaperones who ferried them to her for care. As testament to her nascent entrepreneurship, Holly founded Voorheesville’s Village Animal Clinic in the Town of New Scotland in 2010 after a long veterinary career in adjoining Bethlehem and Guilderland. 

“It was in caring for the community’s pet population that she became ingratiated to the entire Capital District. Following her passing, Holly’s family was stunned by the thousands of comments on social media expressing their condolences and sharing tearful anecdotes about the magnitude of her compassion for the four-legged members of their families.

“Dr. Holly occupied a lofty posture in town, having been welcomed into the homes of those who would turn to her to treat, save, and rehabilitate the family dog or the squirrel found injured on the side of the road. She was most praised for the genuine empathy and commiseration she displayed in the end-of-life care she afforded families that were compelled to say goodbye to their old and suffering animal companions.

“Holly’s mission in life was to end humanity’s abuse and disregard of animals; she refused to eat ‘anything with a central nervous system,’ and she dedicated her life to dozens of causes focused on alleviating animal suffering.

“She worked to remove elephants from circuses and carriage horses from the streets of New York City. She worked to ban canine tail-cropping and feline declawing.  She forcefully advocated against the brutality of foie gras cultivation and factory farming.

“Her work was both national (testifying before Congress) and local (introducing dozens of Voorheesville’s students to what’s really in a hot dog), and she never relented in the face of the (often enraged) critics she made uncomfortable by her uncompromising, unselfconscious, and unapologetic truth-telling.

“Dr. Cheever was an unparalleled talent with an unrivaled intellect and an unmatched capacity for compassion.”

Her list of accomplishments was as long as it was impressive: 

— Graduating summa cum laude from Harvard, she was ranked first in her class on graduation from Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine; 

 — Being named Veterinarian of the Year in 1991 by the New York State Humane Association, an organization for which she also served as vice president; 

— Writing as Good Housekeeping magazine’s veterinary columnist from 1997 to 2001; 

— Being a founding member of the Leadership Council of the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association — an affiliate of the Humane Society of the United States; 

— Testifying before Congress about animal abuse in circuses; in New York  about the carriage horse industry; and in many other animal-abuse cases across the nation;

— Teaching in a number of veterinary schools nationwide while also instructing the New York State Police about animal-abuse laws; 

— Earning accolades from the New York State Troopers, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the Humane Society of the United States for her work in helping to prevent animal cruelty; and 

— Being named the 2021 Capital Region Mother of the Year. 

“To the community,” her son wrote, “she was ‘Dr. Holly’; to her husband, she was ‘The General’; to her children; she was ‘Mum’; to her grandchildren, she was ‘Moo Moo’; and to the many animals who were lucky enough to find themselves in her care, she was their voice.  She is missed, both because she was so loved and because her advocacy was so crucial.”

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Mary Helen ‘Holly’ Cheever is survived by her brother, Dan Cheever Jr.; her sister, Olivia Cheever; her husband, Dean Sommer; and their four children, Jesse, Caitlin, Robin, and Brenna — “two of whom gave Holly the grandchildren (Weylin, Lilly, Griffin, and Ella) for which she’d been waiting since the moment her own youngest was out of diapers,” her son wrote. “She is now finally reunited with her own mother and the many guinea pigs who accompanied her on her journey through life.”

A memorial for Dr. Cheever will take place in the spring.