An internationally-recognised animal welfare expert hopes to plug gaps in New Zealand's animal welfare emergency response that are threatening the lives of thousands of animals in times of disaster. The Bob Kerridge Animal Welfare Fellowship has announced the 2019 recipient of its annual endowment, awarded to support individuals and organisations who wanted to make a difference to animals and their welfare. Palmerston North-based researcher and vet technologist Hayley Squance will receive $10,000 to research animal welfare in wildfire response, analysing the recent Port Hills and Tasman wildfires as part of her wider PhD project entitled 'Enhancing multi-agency collaboration for Animal Welfare Emergency Management.' An internationally-recognised expert in animal welfare emergency management, Squance has previously worked as team leader of Massey University's Vet Emergency Response Team, first activated as a responder during the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes and also assisted with emergency animal response during Thailand's 2011 floods. Now working as Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) national animal welfare emergency management coordinator, Squance was deployed to help coordinate the response to the Tasman wildfires.

Source: Stuff May 10, 2019 00:22 UTC