LOGIN
Ethics and Welfare Advisory Panel
Madeleine Campbell (Chair)
Madeleine is Professor of Veterinary Ethics at Nottingham University, and director of Empathy Veterinary Ethics. She is Chair of the Animal Welfare Committee which provides expert, independent advice to Defra and the Scottish and Welsh governments. Madeleine has extensive committee experience, most recently including as Chair of the British Equestrian Federation's Ethics and Welfare Advisory Group, an independent member of the FEI's Equine Ethics and Wellbeing Commission, Chair of the Greyhound Board of Great Britain's Welfare and Veterinary Science Committee, and appointments to the RCVS Ethics Review Panel and British Horseracing Authority's Ethics Panel. Madeleine's active research interests encompass ethical issues surrounding the use of animals in competitive sport, and the ethics of assisted reproductive technologies in non-human mammals. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed papers on veterinary and animal ethics, and of the book 'Animals, Ethics and Us'. In 2021, Madeleine was made a Fellow of the RCVS in recognition of her meritorious contributions to the profession, and particularly to veterinary ethics.
Megan Cooper (RVN)
Megan started her career as an animal keeper, working in zoological collections for 8 years during which time she gained Zoo Management FdSc. Having moved to the RSPCA as a wildlife assistant caring for a variety of British wildlife species during their rehabilitation Megan was inspired to retrain, qualifying as a Registered Veterinary Nurse in 2018. Megan now works full time across both branch and 24hr hospital small animal veterinary practice.
Emily Craven
Emily is currently studying for her PhD, and is extremely well connected to the current veterinary landscape having served three years on BVA’s Policy Committee. She is currently part of the Animal Welfare Committee and is a Trustee for both the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare and Humane Slaughter Association, as well as being on the committee for the Marshal Papworth Fund. Through all of these, she has contributed and worked collaboratively to both drive strategy and solve problems, making her extremely well placed to contribute to the work of the Ethics and Welfare Advisory Panel.
Colin Gilbert
Colin has devoted his career to promoting the interests of animals in the complex ethical context of their use in bioscientific research, and to increasing understanding of what good welfare means. Having published a number of papers on aspects of animal behaviour and welfare, Colin also co-authored a book chapter entitled "Veterinary ethics and the use of animals in research: are they compatible?" Having spent 30 years as a Named Veterinary Surgeon Colin also served a term as President of the Laboratory Animals Veterinary Association (LAVA).
Sarah Heath
As a veterinary specialist in behavioural medicine Sarah’s interest is in provision of comprehensive veterinary healthcare covering emotional and cognitive as well as physical health of non-human animals. With over 30 years’ experience of working in this discipline, Sarah has served as President of the European College of Animal Welfare and Behavioural Medicine, and is currently a member of the ASAB accreditation committee for Certified Clinical Animal Behaviourists (CCAB).
Fritha Langford (lay)
Fritha started her career as a research scientist, concentrating on the welfare of farmed ruminants. In 2011 she turned her attention to education and has been running the world’s largest online MSc covering welfare sciences, ethics and law in all animal spheres. In 2016 she decided to study for a PG qualification in Human Behaviour Change, and currently supervises multiple MSc projects and four PhD students in the human behaviour and animal welfare education research area.
Matt Leach (lay)
Matt holds a PhD in Laboratory Animal Welfare from University of Birmingham and MSc in Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare from the University of Edinburgh. He has over 25 years’ experience of animal-based research and over 15 years’ experience of animal welfare teaching at the Universities of Newcastle, Edinburgh, Bristol and Birmingham. Matt has been a member of the Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law Veterinary Society since 2000.
Andrew Prentis
Andrew has been a vet and BVA member for 40 years, with much of that time in companion animal practice in the UK and overseas. Since leaving clinical practice at the end of 2018, Andrew has been working with teams of researchers, analysts, economists, management consultants, vets and farmers on a variety of animal and environmental projects. Andrew also supports Vet Sustain and is a member of the Greener Veterinary Practice working group.