Ceva Animal Welfare Awards 2017 Winners Announced!
7 years ago 
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The winners of the Ceva Animal Welfare Awards 2017 were announced in a glittering ceremony at the Burlington Hotel in Birmingham, following the most successful awards’ nominations’ process to date, which has seen record nominations of the highest calibre.
The awards recognise the achievements of remarkable people from the farming, veterinary and charity industries, who go beyond the call of duty to better the lives of animals around the world including veterinary and charity professionals, researchers and volunteers. The awards’ ceremony on 5 April in the run up to BSAVA (British Small Animal Veterinary Association) Congress saw praise bestowed on all the shortlisted nominees and winners were announced across seven categories.
Once again, an esteemed panel of industry professionals chaired by Chris Laurence MBE MRCVS were challenged with selecting the worthy shortlisted individuals and groups and the ultimate winners.
Speaking at the ceremony, chair of the judging panel, Chris Laurence, said: “Judging the huge number of nominations gets more difficult year on year as the numbers increase. It is stunning to see how many people give their lives to the welfare of animals and it makes us feel very humble to see the lengths to which many people go. The fact that we have found winners amongst so many deserving people and organisations was really hard work.”
Winners of the Ceva Animal Welfare Awards 2017 by category, are:
Chris Laurence Vet of the Year Award in association with Veterinary Times
· Jenny Stavisky from the University of Nottingham
Jenny is a senior lecturer in shelter medicine at the University of Nottingham. In addition to her teaching and research, Jenny founded the charity Vets in the Community (ViC) in 2012 to provide free veterinary care to the pets of the homeless and vulnerably housed people in Nottingham. The charity is based in the Big Issue office in Nottingham City Centre and has helped improve the lives of hundreds of pets owned by those of no fixed abode, who are often vulnerable.
Welfare Nurse of the Year Award in association with VN Times
· Samantha Shand from Quarrington Veterinary Surgery in Sleaford
Samantha works at Quarrington Veterinary Surgery in Sleaford, Lincolnshire. Every year Samantha comes up with exciting ideas to raise funds for charity. These include producing a calendar comprising of photographs and stories of memorable practice patients in order to raise funds for Hounds for Heroes and co-ordinating a children’s book entitled ‘Nine Tails of Quarrington’ whereby local primary school children illustrated stories about pets that had visited the practice with funds going to Cats Protection and NSPCC.
One of Samantha’s most recent projects has been re-writing the lyrics of a popular song to highlight the importance of getting pets neutered. Moreover, in the run up to Remembrance Sunday, Samantha created her own poppy wave by making poppies out of plastic bottles and selling them in a closed auction to raise funds for PDSA. Samantha also works as a volunteer fosterer and advisor for Cats Protection Sleaford.
Farm Animal Welfare Award in association with R.A.B.I and N.A.D.I.S
· Katrine Bazeley, a retired veterinary surgeon from Dorset, and Graham Duncanson, a retired veterinary surgeon from Norfolk (joint winners)
Katrine is a retired veterinary surgeon from Blackdown in Dorset. She is well-respected within the industry and held a variety of roles in both veterinary practice and academia before she retired; she still continues to be involved in young stock research and maintains a clinical involvement with Synergy Farm Health. She was also a committee member of the Goat Veterinary Society for many years, of which she is now an Honorary Life Member. Her legacy includes significant welfare work in both cattle and small ruminants and she has written several books.
Graham Duncanson is a retired veterinary surgeon from Crostwick near Norwich. Graham worked at Westover Veterinary Centre in Norfolk for 40 years. He has just returned from a marathon two year, 8,000km cycling challenge from Norfolk to Cape Town in South Africa to raise funds for the Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF) of which he is a trustee. With the aim of raising more than £10,000, Graham’s route took him through Western Europe and into Greece before flying to Ethiopia and cycling through Kenya, where Graham spent eight years as a Government veterinary officer in his early career. He then followed the Indian Ocean down the African continent’s east coast to Cape Town.
Graham has written veterinary publications to highlight the importance of good husbandry to maintain the health and welfare of animals including: ‘Veterinary Treatment of Llamas and Alpacas’ and ‘Veterinary Treatment for Working Equines’.
Charity Professional of the Year in association with PDSA
· Lesley Winton, founder of the Winton Foundation for the Welfare of Bears and Fostering Compassion
Lesley Winton from Tranent, East Lothian is founder of The Winton Foundation for the Welfare of Bears and Fostering Compassion. She runs both charities, while also working as a driving instructor.
The Winton Foundation for the Welfare of Bears aims to be instrumental in creating a world where no bear suffers at the hands of people. Through fundraising, campaigning and educational initiatives the foundation supports partner organisations directly involved in bear care, rescue and rehabilitation, particularly in areas susceptible to bear dancing, poaching, trade and entertainment.
Fostering Compassion was set up to help children who have had difficult and traumatic starts in life, many of which may struggle to express their emotions which can manifest as indifference towards animals as a ‘pecking order’ develops. Fostering Compassion hopes to play a part in helping to reverse this negative cycle by opening these vulnerable children up to the world of animals and nature through fun days out, activities and workshops. These all provide different and varied experiences that help to develop the child’s emotional literacy and resilience, helping them to find new and healthier ways to express their emotions.
Charity Team of the Year in association with Your Cat Magazine and Your Dog Magazine
· Dogstar Foundation, Sri Lanka
Dogstar Foundation is at the forefront of improving dog and cat health and welfare in Sri Lanka. Founded in 2006, the charity provides highstandard veterinary care for freeroaming dogs and cats in the Nagombo region of Sri Lanka. Dogstar focuses not just on neutering large numbers of dogs, but also on individual patient welfare. All dogs receive a standard of care equivalent to, if not exceeding, a UK veterinary clinic, something which is highly unusual in a dog population programme focused on largescale neutering. The Dogstar team understands its role in safeguarding humans from zoonotic diseases such as rabies, alongside educating local people in concepts of responsible pet ownership, as well as being completely committed to the welfare of the dogs and cats they vaccinate, spay and neuter.
The Dogstar team is involved in training other NGOs in skills such as netcatching of dogs, and have even developed their own humane net which is now being commercially produced and distributed, specifically for dog catching. The Dogstar team use mobile technology to ensure a strong evidence basis for their activity, and are committed to an evidencebased approach to improving dog health and welfare they have even audited the welfare of dogs as they experience the catchneuterreturn process and made changes to their protocols to optimise patient experience.
Volunteer of the Year Welfare Award in association with Blue Cross
· Dean Bland from Well Equine in Yorkshire
Dean Bland is a farrier from Silkstone Common in Barnsley, Yorkshire. He has worked tirelessly to volunteer and support equine welfare organisations and he has volunteered at all nine of the British Horse Society’s castration clinics to educate horse owners who have had no previous experience with a professional farrier on the importance of hoof care. Dean was also chosen as one of the farriers to support the Olympians at the Rio Olympics 2016.
International Cat Care Welfare Award in association with Agria Pet Insurance
· Pei Su from ActAsia
Pei Su founded ActAsia in 2006. ActAsia is a registered non-profit organisation with staff and volunteers working from offices in China and other parts of the world. Many of its staff, advisors and volunteers have extensive knowledge and experience in the field of animal welfare and humane education, and benefit from training by leading international animal advocacy organisations.
Asia is vast and not understood by many western welfare organisations. In many places, animal welfare is in its infancy, but in others it is growing fast. There are many issues which can be raised and attract much media attention, such as the dog and cat meat trade and bear bile farms. However, Pei Su, chief executive of ActAsia understands that to make lasting and widespread change, education is the key. Education is not sexy and a charity focusing on education does not get the same exposure or financial support as those which raise other more emotive issues. However, in the short time that ActAsia has been in existence, this small charity has introduced a ‘Caring for Life’ programme which teaches children not just compassion for animals, but integrates the ethos into compassion and empathy for humans and the environment, making it more acceptable in schools and encouraging individuals in Asia to take action through compassionate lifestyle choices. The charity also has a ‘Cure with Care’ programme which is raising standards in veterinary care in China through training, and teaching neutering to help vets control numbers of unwanted companion animals and also protecting against rabies. These programmes are well thought out and are laying the foundations for better welfare in Asia.
This year also saw an additional award for GSPCA (Guernsey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), in special recognition of the charity’s hard work in helping to raise animal welfare standards in Guernsey.
The winners were presented with their coveted awards on stage by the judges, alongside a representative from each of the category sponsors, which this year included: Blue Cross, PDSA, International Cat Care with Agria Pet Insurance, N.A.D.I.S and R.A.B.I, and media titles, Veterinary Times, VN Times and Your Dog and Your Cat magazines.
Cuneyt Seckin, managing director of Ceva Animal Health, commented: “The Ceva Animal Welfare Awards have gone from strength to strength, not only in terms of record levels of interest, but also in the quality of the people and organisations that are honoured, all of which work hard to raise animal welfare standards both in the UK and abroad.”
For further information on the Ceva Animal Welfare Awards visit www.cevawelfareawards.com.
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