What if we respond to disasters to help animals, but our responses create unintended negative animal welfare outcomes or unnecessary barriers for future responses? The philosophy of “Do No Harm” is common knowledge within the humanitarian aid community, but it is an approach that is not well articulated across the emerging discipline of animal disaster response. In this presentation, Associate Professor Steve Glassey discusses the philosophical challenges in the modern world when responding to animals impacted by disaster, the delegitimization of animal rescue, how some response actions have long term negative impacts on animal welfare, and recommendations to create more credible and sustainable future responses.

]Steve is an international award winning emergency manager with a number of specialties including animal disaster management and was selected by Oxford University to be the subject matter expert on the topic for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia. He is cited by other global thought leaders such as Dick Green, Mel Taylor, Annie Potts, James Sawyer, Gerardo Huertas, and his reports have been championed by high profile figures including Craig Fugate and Gareth Hughes MP. As New Zealand’s pioneering animal disaster researcher, he remains globally connected and has mentored many aspiring academics and practitioners, and is often interviewed by leading news outlets on the subject. Steve is the former Chief Executive Officer of Wellington SPCA and has over 20 years experience in emergency management including as a Disaster Management Officer for the United Nations and General Manager (Emergency Management & Business Continuity Group) for the Ministry of Social Development (NZ). In January 2021, Steve was made Patron of Animal Evac New Zealand Trust . He is currently the Director of the CQ University Emergency Response Innovation Centre in Townsville, Queensland, Australia.

He also is the Chair for the GADMC Committee and works with Assoc. Prof. Mel Taylor, Mr. Gerardo Huertas and Ms. Christine Belcher to facilitate the conference.