Half my life…

I was recently inspired by ProVeg Co-founder, Tobias Leenaert , when I read his life assessment as he had turned 50, and how grateful he felt about his achievements helping animals, advancing the plantbased movement and inspiring others to be better versions of themselves. I have 2 years to catch up to Tobias, but this is a good time to reflect on my milestone:

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Exactly half of my life (24 years) has been dedicated to helping other animals professionally. Strictly speaking, I started my Animal Management BSc (Hons) degree 30 years ago. I did animal care and animal behaviour research internships between 1994-1996. And going back even further, I already worked in boarding kennels and did some voluntary shelter dog walking from the age of 15. The moment I turned vegetarian, aged 12, an internal light had been switched on. A conviction that has guided me to do the most good for animals.

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After completing my Edinburgh MSc in Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare in October 1999, I returned to the Netherlands. Looking for animal welfare jobs back then was harder than nowadays, so I started as a volunteer campaign coordinator to raise awareness of the plight of neglected and abandoned sled dogs. I did my first national radio interview about a photo exhibition of those dogs in Greenland and Canada. We also launched possibly the very first petition of the new millennium on 3 January 2000, gathering over 700 hand-written signatures (this was all before the digital era!), to try to convince policy makers in Canada and Greenland to protect sled dogs in their animal welfare legislation. It was a perfect first job; learning to coordinate a team, speak to the media, organise campaigns and doing policy advocacy. I remember that my sister, with whom I lived temporarily, was concerned about the phone calls abroad, as she thought having her phone number associated with an animal protection campaign could trigger some investigation from authorities. She soon switched to a mobile phone, and I moved on and took up my first paid job as a lecturer and curriculum developer in Animal Care for the Further Education (16–20-year-olds) sector.

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Twenty-four years later, I feel incredibly lucky and privileged to have had such amazing opportunities to help animals, people, and the planet, and to travel to over 40 countries, primarily for work. The latter obviously also creates feelings of guilt given the carbon emissions from all those flights. I now travel by train, bus, ferry, and car for nearly all holidays in the UK and Europe, but unfortunately, I still fly regularly for work.

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I recently re-connected with someone who helped me publish my first peer-reviewed papers, and while I didn’t succeed in an academic career, I am very satisfied with my choices, and perseverance when faced with very challenging charity management situations.

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I believe that having had that broad experience in the education sector (at various levels for over eight years), doing research, advocacy, being involved in politics and launching and leading a political party, working long hours for relatively low pay, growing the vegan movement, followed by growing ProVeg’s global presence and achievements, helped me gain unique insights into effective advocacy, and empowering others to be their best selves.

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My role models are still strong animal advocates in their seventies, eighties, and nineties! I hope to follow in their footsteps. My husband, Andrew Knight , who I met over 21 years ago, is also a huge inspiration to me. He recently took a big leap of faith, leaving his university position to focus 100% of his time on research and advocacy into (vegan) pet food, rather than dedicating only 10-20% previously due to admin and bureaucracy. His studies from the past couple of months have been groundbreaking and have been covered in hundreds of mainstream media articles and broadcast pieces globally.

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As we’ve both been so busy, we haven’t trained/exercised as much as we’ve done in the past. A highlight and challenge was walking the 160k (100 mile) West Highland Way two years ago with big backpacks, a tent and all the gear (while previously we’d run around the Isle of Wight in 6 days). After a running hamstring injury three years ago going over too many hills and not listening to my body, my running pace and distance have been more limited, but I feel I’ve turned a corner, as I recently did a Parkrun (5k) in 22:50 without proper previous training. So, I just need to keep going.

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These are my ‘recipes’ for a fulfilling life, and I hope to pursue them for a long time to come, as the billions of land animals, trillions of sea creatures and the environment need our help more than ever.

Please join me in dedicating your life to the planet!