PRIZES & SPONSORSHIPS

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VOICELESS BRIAN SHERMAN ANIMAL LAW PRIZE ($2,500)

The Voiceless Brian Sherman Animal Law Prize is one of the many ways we are honouring the memory and legacy of Voiceless Co-Founder, the late Brian Sherman AM (1943-2022) and his lifetime dedication to animal law and protection. The prize recognises the work of innovative legal advocates committed to the growth of animal law in Australia and reforming the law to promote animal rights. Reflecting the spirit of Brian, recipients must demonstrate innovative entrepreneurial spirit and out-of-the-box thinking in animal law.

We congratulate the 2022 award recipients, Mike Rosalky and Naaman Kranz.

Mike and Naaman established Australia’s very first generalist private animal law firm in 2018 – K & R Animal Law – and are dedicated to using the law creatively to promote animal rights and protect animals from unjust treatment. Through K & R, Mike and Naaman have helped a range of Australian animal protection organisations and advocates. They are committed to reforming the injustices that exist within our current legal structure by exploring exciting strategic litigation options to improve the lives of animals.

Please note that prize recipients were selected unanimously by the prize creators – Voiceless (Ondine Sherman, Kate Grigg), Dr Meg Good and Dr Sophie Riley. All decisions are final. Voiceless Board members, former/current Voiceless staff and recipients of any animal law prizes/scholarships (whether from Voiceless or any other source) conferred in the past two years are not eligible.

GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY – VOICELESS ANIMAL LAW PRIZE (PRIZE $500)

We congratulate the 2022 award recipient, Renae Sherwood.

Voiceless was proud to sponsor the Griffith Law School’s 2022 Animal Law Prize. Griffith University teaches the next generation of changemakers about the law relating to animals, with an emphasis on the relationship between law and the ethics of animal protection. We congratulate this year’s award recipient, Renae Sherwood, on her outstanding achievement.

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PAST PRIZES

EUREKA PRIZES (2005-2012) – RECOGNISING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH CONTRIBUTING TO ANIMAL PROTECTION.

2012

Winner: Professor Clive Phillips, University of Queensland Professor Clive Phillips conducts research that improves animal welfare and increases our understanding of attitudes towards animals. The research covers farm, captive-wild and companion animals. Key areas include the export of livestock from Australia, reducing under-nutrition in rangeland animals, improving conditions for captive wildlife and increasing respect for animals. 6 entries

2011

Winner: Professor Paul McGreevy’s Lab, University of Sydney Estimates from the Australian racing industry’s own data suggest that racehorses suffer more than a million whippings annually. While the industry seeks to justify whip use by claiming it enhances performance and safety, Professor McGreevy’s team’s data demonstrate that whipping tired horses in the name of sport is difficult to defend.

2010

Winner: Dr K-lynn Smith and Professor Chris Evans, Macquarie University Dr Smith and Professor Evans are using innovative playback experiments and three-dimensional, dynamic images to shed light on the complex communication of chickens. This new understanding of the chicken’s cognitive capabilities is helping to change public perception of chickens as simple, egg-laying automatons and reveals them for the intelligent, social creatures they are. 6 entries

2009

Winner: Dr Kishore Prayaga, Dr Max Mariasegaram & Stephanie Sinclair, CSIRO Livestock Industries. Dr Carol Petherick, Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries Revolutionising cattle breeding through impressive research into the genetics of breeding polledness in Brahman cattle while developing farmer-friendly strategies for dehorning.

2008

Winner: Dr Maxine Piggott, Post-doctoral Fellow, Monash University For outstanding research into the development of novel DNA methods to study wildlife populations without animal capture or handling. These new methods of species and individual identification from field collected sources of DNA (faeces or hairs) eliminate any risk of stress, injury or death to animals and are of particular benefit to endangered species.

VOICELESS EUREKA PRIZE FOR RESEARCH WHICH REPLACES THE USE OF ANIMALS OR ANIMAL PRODUCTS

2007

Winner: Associate Professor Maria Kavallaris, Program Head/ NHMRC RDW Fellow & Dr Sela Pouha Research Officer, Children’s Cancer Institute Australia & Dr Nicole Verrills, NHRMC Peter Doherty Fellow, School of Biological Science, University of Newcastle – For the breakthrough development of new models of drug resistance within cancer cells in childhood leukaemia. Undertaking innovative work in differential proteonomics, Kavallaris, Pouha and Verrills’ research promises new treatment approaches for drug resistant cancers.

2006

Winner: Dr Amanda Hayes, Shahnaz Bakand and Associate Professor Chris Winder, Chemical Safety and Applied Toxicology Laboratories, School of Safety Science, University of New South Wales –
How toxic is the air we breathe? Traditionally, this question is answered by having animals breathe contaminated air. Now, a team from the University of New South Wales has found a better, more humane and cheaper way to test for toxicity, by using human lung cells growing on a membrane.

2005

Winner: Dr Alecia Jenkins, Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, St Vincent’s Hospital For developing a new model to explore the mechanisms of angiogenesis using adult human arteries instead of animal arteries. Angiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels from old ones and is important for the treatment of eye diseases, vascular diseases and cancer.

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MEDIA PRIZES

MEDIA PRIZES (2009-2016) – RECOGNISING ACCURATE AND INFLUENTIAL REPORTING ON SALIENT ANIMAL PROTECTION ISSUES.

2009

• Airlie Ward, ‘Pig Cruelty’, Stateline Tasmania

2010

• Howard Sacre and Liam Bartlett, ‘Hidden Truth’, 60 Minutes, Channel 9
• Lesley Robinson and Tracey Bowden, ‘Puppy Farm’, 7.30 Report, ABC

2011

• Sarah Ferguson and Michael Doyle, ‘A Bloody Business’.
• Christine Jackman, ‘The claws Come Out’, Weekend Australian Magazine,
• Caro Meldrum-Hanna, ‘Bad Egg’, 7.30 Report, ABC
• Cheryl Balfour, series of articles on Eden Park kangaroo cull, Whittlesea Leader

2012

• Anna Krien, ‘Us and Them: On the Importance of Animals’, Quarterly Essay (Black Inc.)
• Sarah Dingle and Lesley Robinson, ‘Hunting rights hide horror for dugongs, turtles’, 7.30 Report, ABC
• Maria Taylor ‘New evidence of flawed science, wishful counting as kangas die for petfood’, District Bulletin
• Bronwyn Herbert and Lesley Robinson, ‘Disturbing footage prompts calls for duck farming changes’, 7.30 Report, ABC

2013

• Susan Cheney, “They shoot horses, don’t they?”, Good Weekend
• Sarah Ferguson and Deb Masters, “Another Bloody Business”, ABC1’s Four Corners
• Maris Beck, “The monkey farm”, The Sunday Age’s
• Timothy McDonald, “The quick and the dead”, ABC Radio National’s Background Briefing

2014

• Graham Archer, proposed Surveillance Devices Act, Today Tonight Adelaide
• Katrina Fox, Speciesism, ‘The Final Frontier’, ABC’s The Drum
• Sam De Brito, ‘Confessions of a Vegan’, SMH
• Lesley Robinson
• Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop

2015

• Anne Barrowclough, ‘The Dog that Shamed a Nation’, The Weekend Australian Magazine
• Fenella Souter, ‘Underdogs’, Good Weekend

2016

• Sonja Armstrong, Stephen Oliver and Matthew Evans, three-part series – ‘For the Love of Meat’, SBS
• Caro Meldrum-Hanna and Sam Clark, ‘Australian greyhounds deemed too slow exported to Macau, China against industry rules’, 7.30, ABC TV
• Please contact Voiceless in case of a missing recipient.

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WRITING PRIZES

VOICELESS WRITING PRIZE 2012

A selection of lively, engaging and often passionately felt stories and essays revolving around one of the more urgent social and philosophical issues of our times. – J. M. Coetzee, Winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature, Patron of Voiceless and Chair of the judging panel.

VOICELESS ANTHOLOGY

The 2012 Voiceless Writing Prize sponsored by Australian Ethical Investment, was a short story and non-fiction competition, open to Australian writers, with entries focused on animals produced for food or found in the Australian environment. A collection of ten shortlisted pieces were published by Allen & Unwin as a book and an e-book in 2012.

J. M. Coetzee, 2003 Nobel Laureate and twice winner of the Man Booker Prize, chaired the judging panel alongside Voiceless Managing Director, Ondine Sherman; Literary Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, Susan Wyndham; and former Director of the Sydney Writers Festival, Dr Wendy Were.

The joint winners of the competition, and the first two stories in the Anthology were:

Wayne Strudwick for Caged and Craig Simpson for Kangaroo. Strudwick’s Caged tells of the horror one boy faces when he encounters the suffering of thousands of caged hens and his struggle to protect them in the face of indifference. Simpson’s Kangaroo details the brutal and traumatic death of a kangaroo and its impact on one woman, changing her life irrevocably.

Apply for the Voiceless Grant Program

If you are a changemaker dedicated to protecting animals, we would love to hear from you. Click to read our eligibility criteria and expression of interest form to apply.

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