Eva Berriman

1985 -1986 Diploma of Teaching (TAFE) (In-service) (Dip T [TAFE]), Qld University of Technology

2000 - present. Retired from paid employment except for tutoring an Open Learning course in horse care and welfare.

2000 - present. Wrote, designed, and maintain Animal Welfare: Human-dependant Animals, a repository of articles emphasising horse and cat welfare issues:

1992 - 2000. Employed part-time in curriculum section and marketing services, TAFE Qld, as a writer/researcher of course materials and information for other TAFE publications, also curriculum development projects.

1991-1992. Wrote the book Horsekeeping: A Sane Approach to the Care and Management of Horses which heavily emphasised welfare issues.

1985 - 1990. Instructor, Animal Services, TAFE Qld. Taught biology in the vet nursing program and anything to do with horse courses (farriery, stud grooms/managers) and several rural programs. Researched and helped produce a series of horse management videos.

1969 - 1984. Owner/operator of various horse studs, specialised in mare infertility treatment, swabbing vet for 4 years to the major Brisbane racing and trotting clubs. Actively competed in many horse activities so have first-hand knowledge of welfare aspects. Spent 1974 in UK and Europe at various vet schools, racing stables/studs. Spent part of 1982 in Macau as nutrition advisor to the Macau Trotting Co.

1967 - 1969. Employed as clinician at the University of Queensland Veterinary School, some private practice.

I am a very strong animal welfarist with increasing animal rights/liberation leanings. Everything I have done with animals has been designed to prove by example that there is a kinder, more welfare-aware way to achieve the same or even better results. My main employment experience has been in the horse industry where I had some outstanding successes in the showring and on the racetrack, yet horses in my care were seldom or only minimally stabled and had access to as much roughage as they wanted (several studies have since shown that restriction of roughage is the main cause of painful stomach ulcers seen in almost all intensively stabled horses). Despite being a vet, my horses were never subjected to any of the so-called "routine stable treatments" so rampant in the racing industry, the therapeutic value of which, I believe, is negated by the stress to the horse through apprehension, discomfort and actual pain at times, and the unnatural handling. Vets are as much to blame for promoting these treatments as the horse trainers. Aside from common-sense training and feeding regimes, ridiculously simple things like rugging horses appropriately (not overrugging) and allowing unlimited access to water will largely negate the need for regular and painful/stressful blood testing and electrolyte therapy especially by stomach tubing - stress itself is a major cause of electrolyte imbalances. On the stud scene I handled a variety of stallions over many years and again proved by example that the mating procedure could be carried out much more naturally to the benefit of both stallion and mare while also achieving improved fertility. Mares were never hobbled and twitched for service, stallions did their own teasing, they were never restrained with severe equipment or prevented from natural foreplay or nonsensically disciplined for "acting naturally".

I no longer have any association with the horse industry, many aspects of it are unnecessarily cruel and exploitive and it is traditionally resistant to change and education. I believe that racing in particular is destined for a slow but certain death due if nothing else to increasing competition from other forms of gambling. I am much more involved nowadays in cat welfare issues. In fact since the early 1990s I have been a very active advocate for cats, particularly in the cats versus wildlife debate. I’ve had letters and articles published in leading newspapers and magazines and done metropolitan radio and newspaper interviews on this and other AW issues.

As an Animal Consultant, I would like to offer my services as a researcher of information on any animal welfare, animal rights or alternatives issue for campaign or article writing purposes. Examples of published works are available on request.