THR: What change do you want to see in the world?
Simon: I want medical experiments on animals stopped. They don’t do anything, and they don’t work. Veganism is an answer for almost every problem facing the world in terms of hunger and climate change. It helps people’s health. Meat is the biggest greenhouse gas producer. There’s also the cruelty and suffering aspect. When people do meatless Mondays, and when people adopt instead of buying a dog, that’s a PETA victory.
THR: Do people ask why you don’t give to another cause?
Simon: Of course. The food bank — we distribute at the Tom Bradley Center on Pico and then further down off of Koreatown south of the 10 — is the one where we feed 200 families a day, and they go, “That’s great!” Then I say that it’s cruelty-free vegan food, and they go: “Ohhh. I see. What if the people aren’t vegan?” I tell them then they can go eat at your food bank.
THR: So you’ve decided to scale up the foundation?
Simon: We are going to expand all this stuff. We do a day in our mobile clinic where we do dog and cat surgeries for free except complicated procedures. For the first nine months, we couldn’t fill up the truck. But now it’s a huge success. It just took a while for the community to find out about it. And now I think we’re going to add another day for free surgeries. The Sam Simon Foundation is going to be very well endowed, and there’s a lot of stuff I want them to do.
THR: What allows you to do more?
Simon: The Simpsons money got bigger and bigger. When I left The Simpsons, no one thought that this thing was going to still be around. It’s the cumulative effect. It’s like, “Oh my God, 25 years later, and it’s still coming in.”
THR: Has having cancer changed your view of humor?
Simon: No. There’s some stuff on TV that I’m like, “With the time I have left, do I really want to watch Wipeout?” But I have a problem when it comes to watching Big Brother. I got my shows. TV for a cancer patient.
Article Appeared @http://tv.yahoo.com/news/terminally-ill-simpsons-co-creator-vows-away-fortune-050000029.html