A 25-year-old Houston man named Andrew Pasek who died on Aug. 29 while attempting to rescue his sister’s cat during Hurricane Harvey is being lauded as a hero.
Pasek was electrocuted by a live wire in floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey while trying to check on his sister’s trapped cat, D’Artagnan, according to his family.
“He was just trying to be my hero,” Alyssa Pasek told PEOPLE of her brother at the time. “He just really wanted to go and be the one to call me and tell me, ‘She’s okay, she’s fine, don’t worry.’”
Now, PETA is honoring the former Eagle Scout with a memorial leaf on the animal welfare organization’s Tree of Life at its Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters on Friday, reports Chron.com. The small golden leaf simply states: “In Loving Memory, Andrew Joseph Pasek, Animal Lover and Hero.”
“The world lost a kind soul when Andrew Pasek lost his life to keep an animal from suffering,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement. “PETA hopes his legacy of compassion will inspire people to care for animals during times of crisis.”
