This year’s National Animal Welfare Conference was held in Ottawa, Canada. Josee Bermingham and Mark Hagen attended. The main Sponsor was again PetSmart Canada and Nutrience Pet food (manufactured by Hagen) sponsored the key note address by David Suzuki. Mark Hagen has been making donations to the David Suzuki Foundation for many years. This Conference, which is held every year in a different Canadian city, is organized by the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies who celebrated their 60^th year and has sessions on a wide variety of Animal welfare topics given by veterinarians, professors and scientists. While some talks have a so-called animal rights slant, the Conference is generally fairly balanced and is a great opportunity to network with others who do care about not just pets but also farm, lab and wild animals. Rumours are the next one will be in Calgary spring 2018.

image: Mark Hagen with David Suzuki