I've been a member of the RSPCA for about 12-13 years, since I was 6. As as teenager I was a founding member of their teenage committee. This mostly involved redesigning the teenage membership package and magazine pages (there isn't a individual mag for teen members, as yet anyway, just a couple of specially dedicated pages in the adult mag). They now have a group of teenagers, one of which was me, who write the debates, articles and career interviews on these pages. Officially I'm not on the committee anymore as I'm too old but recently I got an E-mail asking me to interview and then write a piece on being an RSPCA parliamentary officer for them. The interview is shown below;
Q. What does a parliamentary officer do?
A. I lobby the government and the EU on animal welfare issues, making sure the RSPCA’s views are known and providing information.
Q. What does an average day at work involve?
A. I travel to Westminster a couple of days a week to have briefing meetings with various MPs. Other days are spent in the office, dealing with E-mails, checking what’s coming up in the current political business.
Q. What is the most rewarding part of your job and why?
A. Succeeding in getting a piece of law through that you know will benefit animal welfare
Q. How did you become a parliamentary officer?
A. I studied politics at Hull University, then worked in a MPs office for a while. I also worked as part of the political team at ‘Age Concern’, before moving on to work for the RSPCA.
Q. What skills do you need to be a Parliamentary officer?
A. You need to be politically sensitive and aware. It helps to have good communication and negotiation skills. Learn to think quickly, on your feet, as often you’ll be dealing with MPs who have completely different views to you and they tend to change the course of an argument quickly so it’s important to be able to keep up.
Q. What advice would you have for young people wanting to become involved with politics?
A. Go into it wholeheartedly. Get your name known, be opinionated and don’t be afraid to ruffle some feathers! E-mail or snail mail your MP expressing your views on subjects you’re passionate about, and you could also contact them for office work experience.
Q. Which animal welfare political issues concern you most?
A. At the moment badger culling and the use of animals in experiments.
(Surprisingly the same ones that concerm me most!)
Q. Which areas of animal welfare, do you think, have you most impacted on?
A. The Animal Welfare Act 2006 is the piece of legislation I’m most proud of getting through parliament because it provides a whole framework for current animal welfare, raised the profile of animal welfare and defines how the RSPCA operates
It will be published in the Spring issue of 'Animal life'.
For more information on badger culling click; http://www.rspca.org.uk/media/news/story/-/article/EM_Badger_Cull_plans_unscientific
And for animals in experiments; http://www.rspca.org.uk/sciencegroup/researchanimals/-/article/RAD_ResearchAnimals
I'm currently looking for another preferably monthly, retuable magazine on general natural history/zoology to subscribe to. All my other general conservation/animal welfare magazines are quaterly and I'd like something that keeps me even more up to date, as well as something else to look forward to receiving in the post. So if you of any, please let me know!
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