Dr Heleen van de Weerd is a farm animal welfare consultant who works with clients
applying animal welfare knowledge to achieve improvements to animal’s lives as
well as business performance. She has more than 25 years of experience in
animal behaviour and welfare and has an international reputation for her
research and knowledge in this field.

She has conducted both fundamental and applied animal welfare research, especially
on pig and poultry production. She has published 29 fully-refereed papers and
60 abstracts and proceedings in the field of animal behaviour and welfare
science. Her research has been of direct relevance to UK and EU member state policy
makers.

Since
2012, Heleen has worked together with her husband Jon Day, in their Agri-food
consultancy business, Cerebrus Associates.
They bridge the gap between scientific
research and industry and connect their customers with the most relevant and
useful research and expertise for their business. Heleen gains a great personal sense of
satisfaction when she is able to facilitate improvements in the welfare of
animals, but she never loses sight of business performance and is aware of the
drivers of the various stakeholders in this field.

Heleen is an assessor on the Business Benchmark
on Farm Animal Welfare (www.bbfaw.com), a project co-funded by World Animal Protection and Compassion in
World Farming. Both these organisations work on pig welfare in China. She
currently works with World Animal Protection on improving the welfare of pigs
on Chinese pig farms.