Petra Ingram

Brooke’s CEO tells Sarah Jenkins about the charity’s impact, changing attitudes and the effect of Covid-19 on animal welfare in the developing world

- Sarah Jenkins

“MY role right now is crisis management,” says Petra Ingram, as we speak remotely at the start of the UK’s Covid-19 lockdown, but in the time she has worked at Brooke – 11 years this month – the organisation has been transformed, and in the process has prevented several crises.

“Brooke has changed from a charity doing good work to one making a lasting difference to the animals and people who depend on them,” Petra explains. “When I joined, we were about hospitals and direct care. But over a decade we’ve developed into a charity that has a more lasting approach.”

Brooke’s work now focuses on building the capacity of local vets and health workers in the countries in which they offer support, so that they can provide training to people in the communities they help. The charity employs 150 vets worldwide whose role is to train more than 4,000 further local animal health workers and vets, increasing its impact.

“The people we employ are part of the day-to-day lives of the communities that we work in – they are part of the health system,” says Petra. “We’ve developed our community work to make sure that the necessary service providers are there, and that handlers understand what good care looks like.”

Brooke has allowed local respect and peer pressure to play a part in changing practices in countries such as India and Kenya.

“Groups are asked to assess the welfare of each others’ animals. Those we help get good, positive feedback from the community, which is what they want,” Petra explains.