ANIMALS COUNT ELECTED COMMITTEE OF NATIONAL OFFICERS
On 19 September 2009, at Animals Count's third political Party Conference, the following candidates were (re-)elected for the Committee of National Officers:
LEADER: Jasmijn de Boo, BSc (hons), MSc, DipEd (Tel: 078 80624310)
Jasmijn de Boo has worked in the field of international animal protection, formal and informal animal welfare education and promoting alternatives to harmful animal use within education and research, for nine years.
From 2003-2004, Jasmijn was actively involved in the Dutch political Party for the Animals. In December 2006 Jasmijn co-founded the UK political party Animals Count. Jasmijn contested the London Assembly elections in May 2008 (receiving 1,828 votes in the Lambeth/Southwark Constituency). In 2009, Jasmijn led the European Parliament election campaign in the Eastern region of England, with Alex Bourke and Richard Deboo, and Animals Count received 13,201 votes.
Jasmijn has extensive knowledge of animal behaviour and welfare, ethics, animal protection legislation, and scientific and programme design. She has lived in London for five years.
DEPUTY LEADER: Richard Deboo, BA
Not related to Jasmijn de Boo, Richard works as a professional in the corporate environment of The City of London. Richard has been a member of Animals Count since very shortly after its inception. Richard has taken a very active role in promoting the Party and taking part in many of its public events to date, including standing as a candidate for Animals Count in the 2009 European Election. Two weeks before the EU elections (at the end of May 2009) Richard became interim Deputy Leader.
Richard is an able and articulate communicator of the aims and policies of the Party and is a determined, motivated activist on behalf of the Party. Richard has a strong focus on the political process and has a long-standing interest and active participation in the political arena and is fully committed to making positive change on animal protection issues from the political and legislative angle.
TREASURER: Louise Cobham, QVN
Louise has worked as a financial administrator for asset management companies for 12 years. At age 30, Louise changed career to veterinary nursing, and she qualified in July 2008. During July and August 2009 Louise volunteered at a marine animal rescue organization (mostly seals) in the north of Scotland. Louise became involved in Animals Count in 2008 and was elected Treasurer in October 2008.
NOMINATING OFFICER: Fiona McNeill
Fiona has been teaching arts for ten years at a specialist arts college in Greenwich, during which time she organised sponsored walks for WWF and cross-curricular themes about the conservation of tigers and snow leopards. Fiona has also worked as interior designer, managing her own gallery and as a sales marketing representative. She became aware of Animals Count during the May 2008 London Assembly elections and became actively involved thereafter. She enjoys engaging supporters and would like to take Animals Count to the next level by helping the party contest the 2010 elections.
The following members were not elected but have been appointed by the leaders
SECRETARY: Nicola Gothard, BSc, MSc
The party conference was held before Nicola returned back to the UK from South Korea, where she was teaching English as a foreign language. Nicola has a background in animal welfare science and is keen to help Animals Count with outreach and communication.
SPOKESPERSONS
Andrew Knight, BSc (Vet Biol), BVMS, CertAW, MRCVS, FOCAE (companion animals, animals in research, testing and education, and animal welfare science)
Veterinary ethicist Andrew Knight is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, and speaks internationally on vegan companion animal diets, animal experimentation, animal use in biomedical education, animal welfare standards of veterinarians, and other animal protection issues. He has published a series of studies demonstrating the poor predictability for humans of animal experiments, and describing alternatives, which have attracted six awards, mostly for presentations at international scientific conferences. He works as a veterinarian in London.
Alex Bourke, MSc (activism, vegetarianism)
Alex Bourke, from England, is a leading international vegan activist, writer and publisher, with sales of over 60,000 of his books. In 1998 he started his own company (Vegetarian Guides). In 2001 he scripted and co-produced the 22 minute introductory film Animal Rights, which shows the British movement, explains the psychology of change, and proposes easy ways to get active.
Alex has worked with activists and international groups and he has given advice to hundreds of individuals, school talks, and appeared many times on TV and radio to explain how easy it is to be vegan, what we eat, how to find more vegans, and what to say to people who want to give us a hard time. From 2004-2005 he was Chair of the Vegan Society.