The Vice-Chairman of the UK’s largest dog welfare charity, Dogs Trust, is celebrating after receiving an MBE for services to Animal Welfare in King Charles’ inaugural New Year Honours list.
Philip Daubeny, originally from Kent, is a passionate animal lover who has served Dogs Trust voluntarily for 27 years; 13 of those as Chairman and now Vice Chairman since 2015. He was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List in recognition of the huge amount of time and expertise he has given to improve dog welfare both in the UK and overseas.
During his time as a Trustee of Dogs Trust, Philip has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of dogs in the UK. He advocated the build of five new Dogs Trust rehoming centres to help provide a roof to even more dogs each year, and has worked on a further six major rebuilds, each with world class facilities, to ensure each dog can be fully assessed and rehabilitated before being made available for rehoming.
He is a most willing volunteer, equally at home rolling up his sleeves to volunteer on the front line, feeding dogs or helping paint a kennel as he is in a boardroom contributing to high level strategic decisions.
Philip’s devotion to improving the lives of dogs goes beyond the UK. He was instrumental in founding the Dogs Trust International Companion Animal Welfare Conference in 1996, an event which takes place annually in a different European City and is attended by delegates representing over 100 organisations from more than 40 countries each year.
He has sat on the board of Dogs Trust Worldwide since its inception in 2016 and in this role, is instrumental in the decision to provide grants to partner organisations that have run projects in over 60 countries. He is an active ambassador for international programmes with a particular interest in humane dog population control, veterinary advancement, education and the elimination of canine transmitted rabies.
In addition to his work for Dogs Trust, Philip is also a Trustee for Mission Rabies which runs dog vaccination projects in India, Cambodia and across several countries in Africa, and Soi Dog International which helps street dogs and cats in Thailand through spay and neuter and adoption programmes.
In response to the news he had been awarded an MBE for services to Animal Welfare, Philip Daubeny says: “It is a wonderful honour to have my work recognised by HM The King. It is a hugely proud moment, but my real hope is that being awarded an MBE for my work in animal welfare can help to jet-propel the work of Dogs Trust, Mission Rabies, Soi Dog International and all the programmes that run across the globe to increase humane dog population control, veterinary advancement, education and the elimination of canine transmitted rabies.”
Owen Sharp, Chief Executive of Dogs Trust, says: “We are delighted to learn that Philip has been recognised for his unfaltering enthusiasm and passion for dog welfare. His unrivalled leadership, personal generosity, humility, and his gentle powers of persuasion over the last 27 years have been at the forefront of growing Dogs Trust into the charity we see today and continues to benefit many other organisations across the globe.
“Philip continues to influence and inspire the attitudes of his peers across the globe, and thanks to the time he takes to listen and make an individual feel valued, he is admired and respected at all levels.”
