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WHO WE ARE

The organization 
Eyes on Animals is an animal-welfare inspection organization with headquarters in Amsterdam.  Eyes on Animals was created in 2008 to fulfill the urgent need of overseeing that current animal-protection legislation is being put into practice, that sanctioning systems are dissuasive and that loopholes in the legislation are filled. We have volunteer investigators who are regularly in the field conducting inspections and watching out for animal welfare problems. We work primarily in the Benelux, but also go to other countries where we think we could be of help.

      - Coordinator/Head of inspections: Lesley
After completing a Masters of Science in ethology and assisting a professor in farm animal behaviour research at the Agricultural University of Guelph in Canada, I worked at a farm animal sanctuary as general caretaker and environmental enrichment manager.  In 2001 I moved to Europe to work as a full-time inspector in France for a European animal welfare organization, focusing on animal welfare during transport. In 2008 I helped start up Eyes on Animals in The Netherlands where I now live.

      - Regular inspector: Margreet

I am a trained psychologist with a masters NLP. For many years I have been active in animal welfare; from volunteering at animal rescue shelters in Thailand to participating in events run by the local Political Party for Animals. In late 2009 I decided to reduce the amount of time I work at my private psychology practice in order to regularly volunteer for Eyes on Animals where I am now conducting inspections and assist in the office-work.

      - Eyes on Animals' legal advisor: Lenny Reesink
After having completed an LLM at the University of Leiden in 2006 I began my career as a lawyer at the Ministry of Justice in The Hague. Since February 2010 I work for the Political Party for Animals. My duty at Eyes on Animals is to review all violations to animal welfare that the inspectors observe in the field. I will then take any legal action deemed necessary to ensure that the situation for the animals be improved and the culprit dissuaded from repeating the offence.

WHY DO WE WORK IN THE FIELD?  

Unfortunately, the many legislative texts with the aim of protecting animals look good on paper but are all too seldom respected or sufficiently enforced in the real world.  We therefore work in the field to get a true picture of what is going on.  Should we observe violations or loopholes in the legislation we take the necessary action so that the animals are better protected. Our results from the field are shared with the EU and Benelux authorities, politicians, supermarkets and other retailers, lawyers, police and animal-welfare campaign organizations.   

We also see it as important in establishing a bridge of communication between animal-welfare people, industry and consumers.  The best way to improve a system is from within.  Thus, being present in the field, talking with industry and consumers, illustrating practical ideas on how to improve animal welfare conditions, are effective ways of not only alleviating some of the suffering, but also in sensitizing the industry and its consumers as a whole and therefore creating long-term improvements and changes in attitude. 

We also have established a TASKFORCE, made up of inspectors from animal-welfare organizations in Canada, France, Austria, Denmark and the United States.  The purpose of this taskforce is to quickly communicate improvements that have taken place in the field in one country to those working in other countries lagging behind.  This speeds up animal welfare improvements and prevents each organization from having to "re-invent the wheel".  We show the industry what companies are doing in some parts of the world that has led to less animal suffering, and via the taskforce we can insist that they follow suit.  Together the members of the taskforce can speak English, French, German, Dutch, and Danish, plus with our volunteers also Spanish and Italian, so the taskforce is the perfect medium to spread improvements quickly!  

WHY DO ANIMALS MATTER?

In the time of Descartes, animals were thought of as machines, things that moved or screeched a certain way when one applied different treatments!  This sounds horrible, but even humans at the time were being transported over long distances (from Africa to Europe and America), chained, sold in auctions and made to work without pay, because they too were considered inferior due to their dark skin.  Up until very recently, women around the entire world were not permitted to vote and could not own property.  The mentally ill were also treated very badly; society was ashamed of them and had them locked up. 

In many parts of the world, things have fortunately improved since then.  We are slowly learning that our moral rights are the same regardless of our many differences.  What is important is that we are all subjects-of-a-life and are sentient.  Although we may look different, we may have different languages, we may not all have the same IQ, and we may not share the same cultural habits, these things are not morally relevant.  Moral relevance has to do with the ability to feel, and the desire to live. 

In the 1960’s, people started questioning our treatment of animals, too.  Since then, scientists such as Dr. Jane Goodall and Dr. Grandin have conducted endless hours of observation and research into the behaviour of animals, and have discovered (what may sound totally obvious to some of us now) that animals have an emotional repertoire very similar to ours.  They express nurturing behaviour, jealousy, competition, anger, sadness, happiness, excitement, playfulness and many other emotions.  They have their own language in order to communicate within their group.  It may just sound like barking and grunting to us, but our languages likely sound just as absurd to them!  Physiologists have also long known that their bodies are made up similar to ours, with nerves, blood and organs. This is why animals can feel pain, and can suffer from diseases as we do.

It is these qualities that are morally relevant.  That is why we feel strongly that animals matter and have inherent value.  One can indeed judge a society by the way it treats those still considered the most “unequal”- animals.