The 2011 National Animal Rights Conference will host some of New Zealand's most prominent and inspiring animal rights campaigners who routinely speak out in defence of animals. We are excited to present our international guest speakers who are well-respected and accomplished campaigners within their fields. Most notably, Lyn White of Animals Australia. Lyn is a former policewoman turned leading animal cruelty investigator who has almost single-handedly exposed and shamed the Australian live cattle export industry. Of equal standing is founder and director of the Food Empowerment Project, Lauren Ornelas, and author and long-time activist Mark Hawthorne. We are thrilled to have Lauren and Mark joining us all the way from USA.

This exciting international conference is your opportunity to meet, listen to and join in discussions with leaders in animal advocacy. You will undoubtedly not find a more inspiring, motivating and challenging group of passionate individuals... until the next conference!

INTERNATIONAL SPEAKERS

LYN WHITE Communications director,
Animals Australia, AUSTRALIA
She is recognised and respected as one of Australia's foremost animal advocates and animal cruelty investigators. Formerly a South Australian police officer, Lyn then worked with the Animals Asia Foundation before joining Animals Australia in 2003. Since then Lyn has conducted numerous successful investigations in the Middle East and most recently Indonesia, into the cruel and barbaric treatment of animals being exported from Australia. Lyn's brave work has had a profound impact on the live animal export trade and outraged nearly the entire nation. Click here to read a story profiling Lyn's work in The Age.

LAUREN ORNELAS Founder and director,
Food Empowerment Project, USA
Lauren has been an active campaigner in the animal rights movement since 1987 and spent four years as the national campaign coordinator for In Defense of Animals. In 1999, Lauren launched Viva!USA where she investigated factory farms and ran consumer awareness campaigns that successfully persuaded a large retailer to stop selling duck meat. Lauren currently serves as campaign director for the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and founded Food Empowerment Project to help people recognise the power of their food choices.

MARK HAWTHORNE  Author and activist, USA
Mark is the author of Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism, which empowers activists to make the most of their skills and time on behalf of animals. In addition to his activism, Mark is a regular contributor to VegNews magazine and he can sometimes be found working on his second book. Click here to find out more about Mark's book.

GEORGE GUIMARÃES*
Dietician, activist, founder of VEDDAS, BRAZIL
George is the director of two vegan restaurants called VEGETHUS and the founder of VEDDAS (Ethical Vegetarianism, Animal Rights Defense and Society). VEDDAS stages educational activities, protests and lawsuits on a wide range of issues. As a dietician, his practice is dedicated to the research of vegetarian diets and counselling of vegetarian patients.

 
MARIANNE THIEMME* Party leader,
Party for the Animals, NETHERLANDS
Marianne is co-founder of the world's first animal rights political party successfully elected into parliament and is also an animal activist and author. In 2001 she was appointed as policy adviser for Fur for Animals (Bont voor Dieren) before launching Party for the Animals in an effort to position animal rights within the political arena. In 2006, Marianne successfully won a seat, along with her colleague, in the Dutch House of Representatives and elected party chair. She was re-elected for her second term in June 2010.

DR MARTIN BALLUCH** President,
Association Against Animal Factories, AUSTRIA
Martin is an Austrian physicist, philosopher, and prominent animal rights activist. He co-founded the Austrian Vegan Society in 1999, and has been president of the Austrian Association Against Animal Factories (Verein Gegen Tierfabriken) since 2002. Martin's group was instrumental in banning the use of battery cages in Austria from 2009. Peter Singer described Martin as "one of the foremost spokesmen in the worldwide animal rights movement for pursuing the non-violent, democratic road to reform."

NEW ZEALAND SPEAKERS

HANS KRIEK  SAFE director
Hans has been defending animals for nearly 30 years and has been SAFE's campaign director for the past seven years although his involvement with the organisation spans over 20 years. The former SPCA inspector is not shy of challenging those who decide to harm animals. Hans is one of New Zealand's most experienced and high-profile campaigners and is deeply admired and respected for being such a positive and inspirational role model.

YOLANDA SORYL  Coordinator,
Christchurch Vegetarian Centre
Yolanda is coordinator of New Zealand’s most active vegetarian community and national coordinator of Vegetarian Families for the New Zealand Vegetarian Society. Yolanda is an educator, mother of four vegan children and a lifelong advocate for justice and fairness for all.

ELIOT PRYOR  SAFE campaign director
Eliot joined SAFE in 2007 and was promoted to campaign director in 2010. In this time he has been involved with the successful banning of sow crates, the release of Jumbo from the circus, and the growing momentum of the organisation. Eliot has previously worked with Amnesty International and has spent over a decade working in a volunteer capacity for community groups.
 

MARK EDEN  Coordinator, WARN
Mark has devoted the past 20 years to supporting practical grassroots activism in New Zealand and has been involved in investigations of factory farm cruelty. He has founded or co-founded several Wellington-based organisations including Wellington Animal Rights Network, National Anti Vivisection Campaign and Save the Beagles Campaign. Mark is considered one of the leading figureheads within the animal rights movement, and is often called upon for media interviews to debate against vivisection in New Zealand.

DEIRDRE SIMS  Spokesperson and co-founder, New Zealand Open Rescue
Deirdre has been actively involved in animal advocacy and protection for the last decade. She has worked for SAFE and the SPCA and has volunteered for a number of organisations including Auckland Animal Action, Save the Beagles and South Pacific Animal Welfare. In 2006 Deirdre co-founded New Zealand Open Rescue, an organisation that investigates factory farms, exposes abuse and rescues animals. In 2009 New Zealand Open Rescue took ex-pork industry spokesman Mike King into a typical pig farm and exposed the horrific abuse inherent in the pork industry. 

MARIANNE MACDONALD  SAFE board member
Marianne has spent many years undertaking school presentations for SAFE, trains other speakers and has been a member of SAFE's board since 1999. She is a master practitioner and trainer in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), and has a business as a neuromuscular massage therapist, NLP consultant and hypnotherapist. Marianne's passion is for creating positive change, both in individual people's lives and more importantly, for animals.

SHAWN BISHOP  Founder
The Animal Sanctuary, Matakana
Shawn is the founder of The Sanctuary Charitable Trust - a refuge for abused animals, rescued battery hens and injured native birds. She is also the director of Leadership UnLimited, a business which specialises in the training and development of leadership skills.

CARL SCOTT Inspiring animal advocate
Carl was an ordinary, non-assuming guy until he embarked on his month-long cage protest to take a stand for battery hens. Within a week he had thousands of fans on his Facebook page from all around the world. His page received over 750,000 views and he was called a "hero", "champion" and a "king among men" by fans. The former territorial soldier instantly became an inspiring ambassador for budding and veteran activists.

VERNON TAVA LLB, LLM (First Hons). Research Fellow, New Zealand Centre for Environmental Law, Faculty of Law, University of Auckland.
Vernon tutors at the University of Auckland Law School and the School of Planning and Architecture. He speaks regularly on animal welfare law in New Zealand and the emerging area of recognition of legal personality in non-human nature. 

GLYNN OWENS  Psychology professor, University of Auckland
At 60 years of age, Glynn continues to maintain an active and optimum lifestyle. Since turning vegan over 35 years ago, he has obtained an Oxford university doctorate, pursued an international judo career, trained as a pilot and a clinical psychologist and now lectures in psychology at Auckland University. Glynn will share some insight tips of the art of staying vegan in a non-vegan world.
 

MENGZHU  Animal Freedom Aotearoa
Mengzhu was introduced to animal rights as a member of Auckland Animal Action and is a founding member of Animal Freedom Aotearoa. She has now been involved in grassroots animal rights activism in Auckland for over six years and is interested in building alliances between various social movements to achieve total liberation for all.

MARGARET TAYLOR  Activism support manager, Amnesty International
Margaret's role supports the organisation's activist teams on the ground across New Zealand from Invercargill to Auckland. During more than two-decades of human rights activism she has been recognised for her roles ranging from media coordinator to governance. She was campaign manager for the Ahmed Zaoui: Freedom or Fair Trial campaign and is a passionate advocate of the power of the individual to create positive change.

CHRIS HAY Action Unit Head, Greenpeace
Since joining Native Forest Action's campaign to stop logging on the West Coast's last remaining native forests in the late 90's Chris has dedicated his life to campaigning, with a particular focus on non-violent direct action. For the last 11 years Chris has been working with campaigners and activists to organise non -violent direct actions in defence of the Earth for Greenpeace in New Zealand and abroad. Along with his work in NVDA, Chris has also participated in strategic campaigning advisory groups for Greenpeace International. Chris has an MA (hons) in Political Philosophy.

JOHN MINTO  Unite Union Movement organiser
John Minto is a New Zealand based political activist known for his involvement in various left-wing groups and causes, most notably Halt All Racist Tours. A 2005 documentary on New Zealand's top 100 history makers listed him as number 89. Today he is involved with the protest group Global Peace and Justice Auckland and the Unite Union. He also wrote a weekly column for The Press and was formerly editor of the (now defunct) Workers' Charter newspaper.

STEVE ABEL Climate change campaigner, Greenpeace
Steve Abel has spent his adult life variously focused on music, social and environmental activism and travel. Abel was involved in protests by Native Forest Action against logging on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. He later worked as a campaigner for Greenpeace from 2002 to 2006 during which time he was prominent in the New Zealand movement against genetically engineered food crops. Abel was also involved in actions against the proposed coal fired power station Marsden B in Northland, New Zealand including a nine day occupation in 2005 and the operation of a pirate radio station Heatwave FM which broadcast from Ruakaka in November 2006. The Marsden B proposal was later abandoned.