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June 24th, 2009
Our Town: Animals’ best friend
By Valerie Creque
Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 2, 2008 12:25 PM PST
Growing up in North London, Neil Trent, executive director of the Marin Humane Society, had dogs, cats, a hedgehog and a tortoise; it was what he called a “busy upbringing.”
“From the earliest memorable age, I knew I wanted to work with animals,” said Trent, 57. “I felt I had an empathy with them … I wanted to protect them.”
Trent said he sometimes brought home stray animals.
“I would bring them home for tea,” he joked.
Trent said his mother thought it was a phase.
It wasn’t.
Trent, who started at MHS in July, succeeds Diane Allevato, who held the executive director title since 1980.
Trent left his position as executive director of the Maryland-based Humane Society International, the international branch of the Humane Society of the United States. Trent brings more than 30 years of experience in the animal protection field to the Marin Humane Society.
With his passion fully realized, Trent hit the ground running with his start as an “animal cop,” or animal cruelty officer, with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Inspector Trent investigated reports of animals being mistreated.
“We had to utilize the ability to communicate with people,” Trent said. “Sometimes people would be very hostile,” he said.
Trent served a five-year stint as the regional director of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, where he managed offices in Costa Rica, Colombia, Brazil and Canada.
He even traveled to the Bahamas, where he trained other animal cops.
Throughout his career, Trent tackled such issues as livestock transport and slaughter and illegal poaching and trafficking in wildlife.
Trent disclosed a memorable incident where about 75 whales had beached themselves in Australia.
The leader of the pod, a group of whales, sent out a distress call, and “The rest of the pod came in behind it,” Trent recalled.
Hundreds of volunteers came out to lend a hand, Trent said.
“This was a very sad situation,” Trent said.
“Some were saved,” Trent said, adding that about one-third of the 12- to 16-foot whales made it back into the water.
“It was a traumatic time for everybody,” Trent said.
As he moved up the animal protection food chain, Trent’s job titles became more administrative, dealing more with people and less with animals.
Trent and his colleagues provided resources for animal protection organizations.
“So they have a voice for the animals in their own country,” Trent said.
Trent showed people that the improvement of animal welfare improved the welfare of people as well.
In one country, cows slated for slaughter were thrown onto the back of a truck and suffered bruises, were bludgeoned or stabbed.
Trent said there was a great deal of contamination in slaughterhouses; the animals were often slaughtered on the floor, which was strewn with the animals’ feces.
Bruised meat was also quite unappetizing.
“That meat is then put in the marketplace and consumed by people,” Trent said.
Trent showed them a more humane way to treat the animals; without bruises and contamination, the meat was more viable, which increased profit for the slaughterhouse.
“It was a win/win,” Trent said.
“Why should they treat animals better? What’s in it for them?” Trent said.
Trent had to find what he calls ‘the hook.”
“We had to find ways to make people want to treat animals better,” Trent said.
Trent travels to more than 130 countries took him away from his family; his wife Jane and sons William, 12, Oliver, 10, dog Abby and cats Spirit and Spider.
Living on the East Coast at the time, Trent came home to find a photo of himself on the refrigerator with a note that read, “Boys, this is your father.”
“I took that as a hint,” Trent said.
Trent began to look for a job that kept him close to home.
When the position at the Marin Humane Society became available, Trent went for it.
“I thought it was a good fit for me,” Trent said.
The position at MHS also brought Trent back to working hands-on with animals.
“I can get out of my office and get my animal fix,” Trent said. “I guess I’m back to where I started.”
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