SPEAKERS

Alex Janse was called to the Bar in 2004. She joined the Kamloops Crown Counsel office in 2005. She has been Regional Animal Cruelty Administrative Crown for the Interior and Kootenays since 2008 and Animal Cruelty Resource Counsel for British Columbia since 2011. In 2016, Humane Canada presented her with the Animal Welfare Leadership and Innovation Award for Animal Cruelty Prosecution. She has prosecuted more than 150 animal cruelty files.  

Brad Nichols graduated from Mount Royal University in 2003, obtaining a degree in Justice Studies. Shortly thereafter, he joined the Calgary Humane Society’s Animal Protection and Investigation team as a field officer, incorporating his love for animals and his interest in advocating for vulnerable victims. Over the past 18+ years, he has worked his way up the organization in roles of increasing responsibility, most recently to Director of Operations and Enforcement. He has investigated thousands of animal cruelty files and oversees an internationally recognized animal protection program. 

Debra Danco is Associate General Counsel in the Legal Department of C3P. Debra joined the Centre as an articling student in 2013, after completing her law studies at the University of Victoria. Prior to law school, Debra obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Alberta. In her role with the Centre, she regularly presents to legal audiences across the country, and leads C3P’s case law monitoring process, the production of its twice-yearly case law update, and legal-led submissions on law and policy.  

She is active in the Manitoba Bar Association’s Legal Research Section and Women Lawyer’s Forum and is currently on the board of the Gas Station Arts Centre. In her spare time, she loves getting out in nature and spending time with her dog Rosie. 

Deborah Wilson is the Morocco Director of European Link Coalition, an Accredited Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy practitioner with the British Psychoanalytic Council and a PhD Candidate, School of Human and Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield. 

With a veterinary degree from the University College Dublin and a Masters from the University of Florida specializing in Veterinary Forensics Dr. Doyle established Canada’s first veterinary forensic consulting firm in 2010. Having since been involved in large scale hoarding seizures, dog fighting investigations, and working with the medical examiners office on files involving human and animal victims. She provides services from crime scene analysis and photography to live exams and necropsies.  

Dr. Doyle brings a veterinary voice to the Canadian Violence Link Coalition which aims to educate the public and inform legislation around one health initiatives directed to target family and community violence. She was recognized with a community policing award in Calgary for her work training front line officers, social workers, prosecutors, and veterinarians on the overlap between animal abuse and other forms of violence. Dr. Doyle was the first person in Canada to be qualified in federal court to provide expert witness testimony in the field of veterinary forensics. She was honored in 2022 to be inducted into the UCD Veterinary College Alumni Hall of Fame for her career achievements thus far. 

Peter Sandøe was originally trained as a philosopher at the University of Copenhagen and at Oxford University. He has been professor of bioethics at the University of Copenhagen since 1997, presently with his chair divided between the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences and the Department of Food and Resource Economics. From 2020, he has been director of the Centre for Companion Animal Welfare. He is committed to interdisciplinary work combining perspectives from natural science, social science and philosophy.  

Besides co-authoring more than 200 scientific papers, covering a wide range of issues relating to animal welfare, he has written a number of books, including Ethics of Animal Use (2008, co-authored with Stine B. Christiansen), Companion Animal Ethics (2015, co-authored with Clare Palmer, and Sandra Corr), and Wildlife Ethics (2023, co-authored with Clare Palmer, Bob Fischer, Christian Gamborg, and Jordan Hampton), all published by Wiley-Blackwell. For more information about his research in the field of animal ethics, animal welfare, human-animal relations, and veterinary ethics, visit here. Peter is also an active participant in public outreach and debates, both nationally and internationally. 

Dr. Rebecca Ledger is an animal behaviour and animal welfare scientist, based in Vancouver, B.C. She has operated a pet behavioural therapy clinic since 1998, where she helps cats and dogs with behavioural problems, on veterinary referral. 

Dr. Ledger is one of only a few ABTC Registered Clinical Animal Behaviourists in Canada. She is also a Full Member of the Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors. 

Dr. Ledger has an undergraduate Honours degree in Biology from the University of London, an MSc in Applied Animal Behaviour & Animal Welfare from the University of Edinburgh specializing in cat behaviour, and a PhD in companion animal behaviour and welfare from Brunel University, when she specialized in dog behaviour. She is a Chartered Biologist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. In 2012, she also completed the NAVC Course in Clinical Behaviour Medicine, in Florida. Previously, she has held the positions of Post-doctorate Fellow, studying the effects of psycho-pharmaceutical medications on animal behaviour; Researcher at the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition, researching the relationship between diet and behaviour in pets; Lecturer at Brunel University, and Visiting Scholar at the University of British Columbia, where she has supervised many students in animal behaviour and animal welfare at BSc, MSc and PhD level; and Manager and Acting General Manager of Animal Behaviour & Animal Welfare for the BC SPCA. At present, she is a faculty member of Langara College, teaching courses in animal behaviour, animal welfare and animal law in various programs, including the Animal Control Officers Basic Training and the Professional Dog Walking Program. She teaches courses in animal behaviour, veterinary forensics and ‘The Violence Link’ to Prosecutors, SPCAs and Police organizations across Canada. She is regularly retained by humane societies, pet owners, Crown and Defence counsel to provide expert opinion in legal cases involving animal cruelty, dog aggression and animal behaviour (>180 cases since 2010). She has pioneered the use of behavioural evidence in cruelty cases in the Canadian Courts and helped to establish the vast majority of case law regarding aggressive and ‘dangerous dogs’ in BC over the past 10 years. She has written >250 articles, including many peer-review scientific journal papers, in animal behaviour and animal welfare, winning an award for journalism for her long-running animal welfare column in the Vancouver Sun.

Dr. Roshni Ladny is a criminologist at Florida Gulf Coast University and conducts policy and program-informing research on the role of adverse childhood experiences in the development of violent behaviour and the link between animal cruelty and human violence. She is a certified domestic violence victim advocate in the State of Florida and has served as a clinical mental health counsellor for both child and adult victims and perpetrators of violence. Dr. Ladny also served as a volunteer for Gadsden County Humane Society in the role of community outreach coordinator.

Through this position, she and others conducted animal rescue, provided humane education to owners of neglected animals, and built fences and houses for chained dogs. During this time, she was granted special deputy status by the local sheriff’s office to help address animal cruelty and neglect cases, including dogfighting. One of the projects she is most passionate about is her ongoing work in international violence prevention advocacy through the all-volunteer organization, The European Link Coalition (ELC). The ELC informs both animal and child welfare policy at the global level by addressing childhood exposure to endemic animal cruelty and associated consequences for youth, animals, and societies. This project entails creating and presenting research to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and other relevant organizations to advocate for joint animal and child welfare policy.

Shane Bateman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Studies at the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) and works as an Emergency/Critical Care specialist at the Companion Animal Medical Complex. He was the Chair of the Board of the Guelph Humane Society from 2011 to 2021, leading the organization during the capital campaign and construction of a new $10 million shelter that opened in March 2021. 

From 2011 to 2021, Shane served as Regional Veterinary Director for Community Veterinary Outreach, a charity providing free preventive veterinary care for pets of individuals experiencing homelessness. He has also led initiatives delivering low-cost preventive care to First Nations communities in Southwestern Ontario from 2012 to 2020. His commitment to community engagement inspired the creation of the Kim & Stu Lang Community Healthcare Partnership Program in 2019 with an $11M gift to OVC. 

During a sabbatical in 2022, Shane earned a Master’s degree in Veterinary Forensic Science from the University of Florida. While new to veterinary forensics, his extensive experience in emergency medicine and animal welfare enhances his approach to this field. He is actively working to expand the curriculum at OVC to include veterinary forensic science, which now features a week-long elective rotation, thereby integrating this critical discipline into veterinary education and promoting animal welfare. 

Jace Huggins oversees one of the largest Humane Law Teams in California, along with investigations and case management, emergency response, officer training, dispatch and collaborations with local courts and law enforcement. Driven by compassion and a commitment to keep animals and people safe, Humane Officers assist when residents of 13 cities throughout San Diego County need help with pets or wildlife, enforce cruelty and neglect laws and respond to disaster situations. 

Jace has 22 years of experience in animal welfare and veterinary hospital management, including a decade working in humane law enforcement. Prior to joining us, he served as Chief Animal Control Officer for the City of Sacramento, Front Street Animal Shelter. Jace has overseen programs both in shelters and in field services side, having helmed Sacramento’s Homeless Outreach and Assistance Program; a free monthly vaccine and microchip clinic; and the “Promoting Animal Welfare and Safety” program. He is also a nationally elected Board member of the National Animal Care and Control Association. 

An instructor for Code 3 Associates and HSUS, Jace has presented at multiple conferences such as NACA, AAWA, HSUS, CalAnimals, and Best Friends. He sits on both the AAWA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee and the NACA Culture and Collaboration Committee. 

Janine Kidd received a BSc (Psychology) from Brigham Young University (Utah) in 2003, and an LLB from the University of Alberta in 2008. She was admitted to the bar in Alberta in 2009. Janine always wanted to be a prosecutor but articled and practiced with a small criminal defense firm in Edmonton from 2008 until 2011. She became a Crown Prosecutor with Alberta Justice in 2011 and worked there for just over a year. In 2012, Janine moved to Nova Scotia and joined the Public Prosecution Service as a Crown Attorney. She began prosecuting animal cruelty offences in the Halifax Regional Municipality in 2013. Janine joined the National Centre for the Prosecution of Animal Cruelty in 2016. 

Kathy Duncan has worked in the Animal Care, Control and Welfare field for over 30 years in Ontario. She started as an Animal Control Officer and has held various roles in both non-profit humane societies and SPCAs, as well as open admission municipal animal shelters. Kathy is currently the Director, National Programs with Humane Canada.   

She was a member of the Municipal Law Enforcement Officer’s Association of Ontario for almost 20 years and a member of the Animal Shelter Professionals of Ontario (Formerly the Association of Animal Shelter Administrators of Ontario (AASAO)) for almost 30 years. She served as a member of the board of directors with the AASAO for over 17 years, 12 of those she served as President/Chair of the Board.   

Kathy has been actively involved in various provincial working groups including the Animal Welfare Task Force over the course of her career and is passionate about bringing improvements to animal sheltering and animal welfare.  

Kathy, along with her husband Paul, is the proud parent to two young adult children, and three Bouvier des Flandres dogs.   

Kerri Thomson is the Manager, Justice & Legislative Affairs Program, at Humane Canada. She is also a licensed member of the Law Society of Ontario with a post-graduate certificate in Victimology and is currently completing her degree in Criminology & Policing at Wilfrid Laurier University. 

When not working or studying, Kerri can be found taking photos of her garden, hanging out with her partner and adult son when he deigns to come home from school, and tending to her three cats: tabby girls Iris Desdemona and Ivy Lavinia, and Lemmy Axl Rose Kittenmister, the Not-So-Tiny Prince of Darkness. 

Kim Gramlich is the Founder and Chair of Justice Facility Dogs Canada.  She is also the Coordinator of the Delta Police Victim Services program where she began Canada’s first Justice Facility Dog program with her first accredited dog, Caber.  Kim now works with her second facility dog, Puma.   

Kim has worked in the Victim Services field for 29 years, she has a BA in Psychology and a MA in Leadership and Training with a specialization in Justice and Public Safety.  Kim is a is proud leader in her field, she is a passionate advocate for victims of crime and the imperative that we utilize innovative ways to support vulnerable persons as they participate in the Canadian Criminal Justice System. 

Monique St. Germain is General Counsel for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P), where she oversees the legal affairs of C3P and its legal department and leads initiatives to ensure victims of child sexual abuse and exploitation, have an opportunity to be heard and considered within legal processes. She has presented to a wide variety of legal and other professionals, including superior court judges, UN delegates, and Crown attorneys. She has appeared as a witness for C3P before various Standing Committees in both the House of Commons and the Senate, and as counsel for C3P when it intervened in the Supreme Court of Canada case, R. v. Barabash.  

Monique is the Past Chair of the Child and Youth Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association and the former Co-chair of the Manitoba Bar Association’s Animal Law Section. In 2017, she was named one of Canada’s top 25 most influential lawyers by Canadian Lawyer magazine.  

Tara Dobec was called to the Bar in 2001 and has worked in the Crown Attorney’s Office ever since. She worked in offices around the province but was finally able to return home, to Ottawa, in 2008. Her portfolio has included the Domestic Violence Lead, and she is currently the Youth criminal justice Act (YCJA), Youth Lead. Her passion, however, is animal prosecutions. After a high-profile case landed on her desk, she has taken up these prosecutions and is often called on for consultations across the province and Canada.  

She regularly lectures on issues of animal abuse to the Ottawa Police Service, university students, Crown attorneys and for the National Centre for the Prosecution of Animal Cruelty. She has developed training material for Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General. She is the proud parent of two wonderful children and three fur baby cats, a gecko named Fluffy and recently added a thriving fishpond to her pet family.