As a charity, we always appreciate being invited to speak or present at events and share our work with different audiences. In November I was lucky enough to be invited to speak at two events in one week.  

Legislation relating to animals with Public Policy Exchange

My first invite of the week was to speak at a webinar put on by Public Policy Exchange. This webinar was looking at ‘Raising Animal Welfare Standards: Tackling Rising Wildlife Crime and Creating a New Generation of Animal Lovers in the UK’. It brought together speakers from different areas of animal welfare and protection. From the title alone, this isn’t typically a webinar or audience that fits our work. However, the topic that we were invited to speak on was current government legislation relating to animals, and possible avenues for improvement, which is a key area of our policy work as a charity. I spoke on the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, and avenues for improvement to increase replacement and transparency in animal research. 

Inspiring students at my alma mater

My second invite of the week took me back to the University of Plymouth, where I did my bachelor’s degree in Animal Behaviour and Welfare. This was to speak with students at the School of Biological and Marine Sciences careers day, focusing on how my degree helped me progress into the world of work, specifically into my role with Replacing Animal Research, and give any advice for the students who were soon to be thinking of their next steps. This was a great opportunity to reach out to students who may not have been aware of Replacing Animal Research or may not have considered a career in policy or the charity sector.  

The importance of reaching different audiences

These two talks had completely different audiences and themes, but both were a great way for us to reach out to new audiences. The Public Policy Exchange webinar, being mainly focused on wildlife and animal welfare, put us in front of an audience who likely knew little about the law around animals in research.  

The University of Plymouth careers talk was a new audience for me personally, as this was my first time doing a careers talk and speaking with students like this, although speaking with students is not new to Replacing Animal Research. I had several students asking important questions about the use of animals in science and the work we do, so hopefully my talk has inspired them to think about this area in their future careers.  

But, in both cases, education is key to our work, and we appreciate any opportunity to highlight why what we do is important, and how we do it.  

If you want to find out more about my talk on improvements to the legislation to increase replacement and transparency, you can watch the full recording on YouTube.