About the Founder

I spent nearly two decades inside the systems that shape how humans treat animals, not as an observer, but at the centre of enforcement, policy, and ethics. As a senior inspector and department head at the National Council of SPCAs in South Africa, I held national authority under the Animals Protection Act, leading units across Wildlife, Farm Animals, Special Projects, and Research Ethics. That work put me at the sharp end of some of the most difficult cases in Southern African animal welfare, high-profile primate seizures, unethical research practices, and systemic neglect across wildlife and laboratory contexts. I contributed to national standards on wildlife translocation and zoo operations, established more than twenty Animal Ethics Committees across universities and scientific institutions, and helped bring World Animal Protection's Concepts in Animal Welfare into veterinary education. I founded Animal Handling Support Systems cc, developing humane handling equipment across Southern Africa, and advised South African National Parks and research bodies on ethical governance.

Enforcement changes behaviour. It rarely changes perception. What I observed across decades of frontline work was a persistent gap between compliance and genuine understanding, and it pointed to something that few policies do well. Animal Aware works in that space.