Meet MFA Canada

An accomplished athlete, Arden was a member of the varsity rowing team at Brown University and in his fourth year achieved Academic All-Ivy honours for combined excellence in academics and athletics. He has also trained and competed with the Canadian national team, winning a silver medal at the Under-23 World Rowing Championships in 2004.

Arden coaches young athletes at a local rowing club and has volunteered with a Toronto-based charity on its board of directors as well as on its nominating and governance committee. In addition, in 2010 Arden completed a food security internship in Thailand and Laos supervised by the Muhammad Yunus Centre at the Asian Institute of Technology. Arden is very excited to be involved with Mercy For Animals Canada because the strategies it employs have been demonstrated to be incredibly effective.

Professionally, Kimberly has appeared on screens and stages across the world – from Africa to the U.S. to France. As a broadcaster, she has done shows on W Network, WE TV, CBC Television and Radio, and CTV to name a few and has a degree in broadcasting from Ryerson University. As a coach, she has helped hundreds of people live a more conscious and ignited life.

She's thrilled to be a part of Mercy For Animals Canada and looks forward to helping to cultivate more compassion and action for farmed animals in this country.

In her role with Mercy for Animals Canada, Twyla works closely with undercover investigators to obtain video footage and other evidence of animal abuse at factory farms, hatcheries and slaughterhouses. She also works with attorneys, veterinarians and animal welfare experts to review covert footage and draft criminal complaints, and then with local, provincial and federal law enforcement agencies to secure animal cruelty convictions against individuals and facilities that abuse animals.

Twyla has rescued and been fortunate to share her life with numerous farm animals, including Wilbur, the pig she rescued off the highway after a trailer accident, Marlene and Natalie, unsold chicks about to be stomped at a livestock auction, and Sophie and Katie, two injured and traumatized turkeys who escaped the catchers hired to load them for slaughter.

In 2009, Camille decided to dedicate her career to animal protection issues by studying law. Having recently earned her law degree, she currently works as an articling student at a criminal defence firm, where she is fortunate enough to be able to do pro bono work on behalf of animals. Camille has a particular interest in using the legal and political systems to achieve animal protection goals. She intends to practice animal rights law, harnessing the power of the legal system to protect animals’ interests – particularly the voiceless victims of industrialized factory farms.

Camille’s animal advocacy work includes having documented the commercial seal kill on the ice floes of Canada’s East Coast for three years, and working in issues as diverse as factory farming, horse slaughter, puppy mills, trophy hunting, captive marine mammals, circuses, and shark finning.

In addition to Camille’s work on animal issues, she is committed to environmental protection and a fair, just society. Her passion for a sustainable, more equal world has led her to work on countless election campaigns at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels. She is also a former board member of the National Capital Vegetarian Association, past president of the University of Toronto Student Animal Legal Defense Fund club, and a former member of the federal Green Party’s governing council. Camille writes a weekly political column for The Hill Times newspaper, and is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post Canada.

When not working to help animals, Camille enjoys sailing, reading, cycling, digging in her organic vegetable garden, and cooking delicious vegan meals.

As a young child growing up in France, Stephane has always had a keen interest in animal welfare, attending numerous conferences particularly on laboratory animal welfare and vivisection. But it was not until later in life that he realized the profoundly disturbing social, moral and ethical implications of factory farming and decided to become more engaged. He has attended many animal rights conferences and is currently pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Animals and Public Policy at the Humane Society University where he has written various papers on animal behavior and consciousness as well as policy papers on animal welfare legislation. He firmly believes that farmed animal protection will be one of the defining social movements of the 21st century.

In addition to his passion for farmed animal protection, he also loves flying (he is a fully licenced commercial pilot) and has recently started competing in triathlons. One of his goals is to use these races as a platform to showcase the performance benefits of a fully vegan diet. He resides in the Toronto area with his wife, children and rescue rabbits.

Anna has long been motivated to act on behalf of individuals whose suffering goes unnoticed. She has represented refugees at Downtown Legal Services, where she also led volunteers through their casework and served as a board member. As a rape crisis counsellor, she supported and advocated for sexual assault survivors. She has also worked in poverty reduction and agricultural management, examining farming practices through the Wetlands Alliance Program in NE Thailand and Laos.

Anna now focuses the majority of her efforts on advocating on behalf of animals because their suffering is profound, widespread, and largely socially accepted. She has been active with established and grassroots animal protection organizations as well as with her own campaigns, serving on the frontlines, in organizational governance, and as a researcher and writer. She continues to volunteer with the Toronto Vegetarian Association, the We Animals project, and Americans For Medical Advancement, and to provide legal information to local animal rights activists.

Anna shares her home and heart with her four rescue cats and her wonderful vegan husband.

An internationally recognized speaker on animal advocacy, grassroots activism, and factory farming, Nathan has spoken at a wide range of colleges, forums, and conferences.

Through his work with MFA, Nathan has been an outspoken advocate for animal rights, appearing in hundreds of newspaper, television, and radio interviews, including National Public Radio, The Los Angeles Times, and The Chicago Tribune.

Nathan works closely with MFA's diverse group of members, supporters, and employees to oversee, develop, and implement the organization's campaigns, publications, advertisements, and undercover investigations.

During the formative years of MFA, Nathan conducted numerous investigations and rescue operations at factory farms, livestock auctions, and rodeo events. Nathan led teams of MFA investigators into Ohio's four largest egg factory farms, exposing egregious animal cruelty and neglect, as well as directly rescuing dozens of animals in dire need of veterinary care. Nathan spearheaded the organization's efforts to rescue, rehabilitate, and find homes for over 500 hens rescued from a battery-cage facility dilapidated by a tornado.

Nathan has spoken with and worked alongside elected officials, corporate executives, heads of international organizations, professors, farmers, celebrities, and film producers to pass landmark farmed animal protection legislation, raise public awareness about vegetarianism, and implement animal welfare policy changes.

Overseeing MFA's hard-hitting pro-vegetarian MTV commercials, highway billboards, and bus campaigns in Chicago, New York, and Boston, Nathan has helped the organization open the hearts and minds of American consumers to the hidden cost of factory-farmed meat, dairy, and eggs. Through Mercy For Animals Canada he now looks forward to doing the same for Canadians.

VegNews magazine has recognized both Mercy For Animals and Nathan for making substantial contributions to the vegetarian movement, naming MFA "Non-Profit of the Year" and Nathan one of the "25 Most Fascinating Vegetarians" and one of the country's "Top 20 Activists Under 30 Years Old." In 2009, at the age of 25, Nathan became the youngest person ever inducted into the U.S. Animal Rights Hall of Fame.

Johnathan started his professional career as a video game programmer. Only a year out of high school, he landed a job creating a game for Nintendo. Since then he’s also worked on titles published by Microsoft, Sierra, Capcom, EA, and his own independent company, Veggie Games. Johnathan’s entrepreneurial drive gave rise to Steer Madness, a popular animal rights computer game of his own design, construction, and publication. More recently, he expanded into website and app development, finding himself designing and programming software systems for the world’s largest dating website, PlentyofFish.

Possessing the right combination of programming, design, database, and IT skills, along with his passion to make the world a better place for animals, Johnathan has settled very happily into his role at MFA Canada.

While completing his bachelor of arts degree in sociology at Montreal’s Concordia University, Lucas was president of the Concordia Animal Rights Association (CARA) and achieved many victories for animals. For several years he has been voted “Loudest Activist” in the Montreal Mirror newspaper’s Best of Montreal poll. In 2009, Lucas was nominated for PETA’s sexiest vegetarian competition. He was awarded in 2008 for PETA’s Matthew Eyton Animal Advocate Award, as well as the “Most Dedicated Executive” award from the Concordia Student Union for his work with CARA. For his contribution to sustainability and community involvement, Lucas was honoured with the 2007 Concordia University Eco-Sense award. As a councillor with the Concordia Student Union, he passed the Ethical Choice Policy which requires that a minimum of one vegan option and one third of all food options must be vegetarian at all university events. This policy passed unanimously.

Lucas currently lives in Toronto and is a passionate advocate for animal protection, delicious plant-based cuisine and sustainable living. In addition to his work in animal advocacy, Lucas is a body-care specialist at The Big Carrot Natural Food Market in Toronto. He has knowledge of over 5,000 cruelty-free products. Lucas’ love for vegan cooking can often be seen in The National Post’s “Gastropost” section, where he is a frequent contributor.