Lesley O'Donnell

Lesley O'Donnell began her career with IFAW when the EU Office was established in Brussels in 1991. She served as European Coordinator until 1999, when she was appointed Acting Director of IFAW EU. In March of 2000 she was offered and accepted the position of Director, and as such leads IFAW's important campaigning work within the EU framework.

Lesley began her professional life In her native Scotland in the field of human welfare, graduating in Psychology and continuing with research on the ageing process and learning, leading to postgraduate study in Applied Social Studies and an early career as a Social Worker. On moving to Luxembourg and then Brussels, Lesley's interest in European Affairs was kindled, and she was involved in setting up and running a small news agency providing coverage of local radio and television for the UK.

European support of the historic Seals Directive made it clear to IFAW that Europe was a major focus for advocacy on animal welfare issues. Over many years the office enabled Members of the European Parliament to visit Canada to experience at first hand the newborn seals on the ice floes and to strengthen IFAW's political allies in defense of this legislation.

IFAW EU campaigned for the Leghold Trap Regulation, which banned the use of these cruel devices throughout Europe, and from 1995 IFAW was involved in a protracted struggle for implementation of an import ban on fur from across the Atlantic, where leghold traps were still in use. Unfortunately, the spectre of WTO led to the creation of an international agreement on trapping standards instead. Subsequent years saw intensive lobbying by IFAW and other groups to have animal welfare included as a Protocol in the revision of the founding Treaty of the European Union concluded in Amsterdam in 1997. This was a major achievement for the animal welfare movement in Europe as a whole, recognizing animals as sentient beings and requiring animal welfare to be considered in major fields of EU legislation. The Zoos Directive was another significant victory for animal welfare, and IFAW EU was a major advocate for Europe-wide legislation to regulate zoos.

More recently IFAW EU was able to lend significant political support to the Baja gray whales campaign, in the context of the EU-Mexico free trade agreement. The EU office then joined the German office in the campaign to prevent Airbus Corporation from developing an EU-protected site. IFAW was also involved in lobbying on legislation to prevent oil spills and supported a successful parliamentary move to have regulation black boxes fitted on all tankers.

Presently IFAW EU is campaigning to prevent the huge by-catch of harbour porpoises in EU waters, as part of a major reform of the EU's common fisheries policy. On the bushmeat crisis, IFAW EU is focusing on the close ties between the EU and the countries of Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific (the ACP) for development, trade, and political co-operation. IFAW regularly lobbies the EU on its position at CITES, especially on the ivory trade and elephants and seeks political support on IFAW's anti-whaling campaign.