November 24, 2023
Learn more about the organization and work culture of Expertise for Animals.
Learn more about the organization and work culture of Expertise for Animals.
Organizations and activists from the fields of animal welfare, animal rights and animal liberation use different approaches and tools to achieve a common goal: A better world for nonhuman animals.
In today's industrialized animal agriculture, as in other areas of animal use, nonhuman animals are killed, abused, exploited and neglected. They are routinely inflicted with pain. They rarely receive adequate individual care.
Housing in stables and cages does not meet their needs. They suffer routine, institutionalized violence. This raises urgent questions about our human-animal relationship.
This presents us with a challenge on a staggering scale. Expertise for Animals is intervening in this process. Our team strengthens animal advocacy with animal-related expertise. So that they can work effectively for social change.
We advise organizations, decision-makers, activists and journalists on animal welfare and related issues. We provide information on non-human animals free of charge.
We promote and strengthen networking and cooperation between various stakeholders who critically address human-animal relations and/or the entanglement of speciesism and other forms of discrimination. We also carry out knowledge management in the form of databases, monitoring and analyses on animal-related topics.
We work with organizations and individuals that we find worthy of idealistic support within the framework of pro bono collaborations.
As a non-profit organization, our focus is on covering costs and not on profit.
To turn our ideas into effective practice, we promote a progressive organizational culture from the very beginning. As early as during the founding process, we focused on creating the organization together as individuals.
To this day, it is important to us that the individual person, their skills and their interests take center stage. Nevertheless, we share responsibility for the success of Expertise for Animals.
What does our organizational culture mean in our day-to-day work?
Our work includes planning, content-related and sometimes administrative activities. We divide the tasks among ourselves and support each other.
Depending on the main areas of interest, one or more people take on the tasks that arise. If there are compulsory tasks, we distribute them as fairly as possible within the team. We do not establish rigid hierarchies, but rather competence- and project-based hierarchies.
We take responsibility: for our organization, our work and our approach. For us, acting responsibly is part of being a values-driven organization. Our seven core values form the secure foundation for our work.
1. We take an anti-speciesist stance. We see our work as part of movements that reject all forms of oppression of humans and non-human animals and strive for a free and fair society for all.
2. Our aim is to understand the perspectives of non-human animals as well as possible in order to represent their interests in their best interests.
3. We work critically, based on knowledge and sources. We pay attention to diligence and transparency in our organization.
4. We constantly educate ourselves and expand our skills and knowledge. This ensures that we are always at the cutting edge of science.
5. We see networking and exchange with others, also interdisciplinary, as an enrichment and essential part of our work, so that we strive for mutual support and joint projects.
6. We pay attention to inclusive, non-discriminatory and barrier-free organization and communication.
7. We strive to reflect, accept criticism and exercise self-criticism, especially in areas where we produce and reproduce discriminatory structures in our work.
The core values illustrate our ethically responsible organizational philosophy.
They serve as a guideline for our behavior, work, attitudes and decision-making. We use them to ensure that our commitment has a moral compass.
We act as an interface between science and animal advocacy. With the help of our work, stakeholders and organizations can use current and recognized scientific research.
Our approach is part of an impact model. The model illustrates how and why our activities bring about positive changes for non-human animals.
It is particularly important to us that the findings are used in the interests of non-human animals. By this we mean that research findings are used to criticize the current conditions of animal husbandry rather than for their further optimization.
Expertise for Animals is one of the first organizations to dedicate itself specifically to this task.
We publish factual analyses and science-based evaluations
As part of our consultations this year, we created science-based content for project partners, reviewed and evaluated video material, supported campaigns and published our own publications such as our first white paper on the tethering of cattle. We became much more visible to the outside world through radio and podcast interviews.
We would have liked to have published more. But we work carefully and thoroughly. We take our time and space to meet our standards. We invest in our content work and in building up our infrastructure.
We are convinced that the quality of our work accounts for a large part of our impact. Expertise for Animals has set itself the goal of creating great added value for the animal movements.
We see ourselves as an integral part of the shift in values towards a just world for non-human animals.
We have been working for two years to strengthen animal movements with our animal-related expertise. Initially there were three of us, but now there are four of us tackling this task.
Eva has always been fascinated by the living environment and therefore decided to study biology. During her studies, she already focused on issues relating to human-animal relationships. By founding Expertise for Animals, she is drawing attention to the problematic human-animal relationship and working to drastically change it.
Marietheres studied veterinary medicine and then became involved in the scientific underpinning of animal welfare and animal rights work. She uses her skills to ensure that non-human animals can live free from violence, abuse and exploitation. By founding her own organization, she wants to bring about far-reaching changes for non-human animals.
Sophie-Madlin has always been passionate about non-human animals and decided to study veterinary medicine. In addition to animal welfare and behavioral research, animal ethics and the power relations in which humans and non-human animals live (together) play a major role. With Expertise for Animals, she increases the visibility and recognition of animal interests.
Stephanie has always seen herself as an advocate for non-human animals. In order to stand up for them more effectively, she studied veterinary medicine. She sees animal and human rights as one. At Expertise for Animals, she uses her experience to promote a change in values so that all sentient beings can lead a self-determined life.
With our non-profit organization, we are driving the change in values towards a society that fundamentally considers non-human animals instead of subordinating them to human interests.
To successfully break new ground as a young organization, we need your support. Help us to strengthen the animal movements and promote the use of scientific findings in the interests of non-human animals.
For a world in which all sentient beings have the freedom to lead a self-determined life and are respected as individuals!
