Anna-Louise Shortlisted for Lifetime Achievement Award
Pollyanna’s daughter and business partner Anna-Louise is honoured to have been named as a finalist in the prestigious national Animal Star Awards, which have been described as the BAFTAs of the animal World! Anna-Louise has been selected from a field of over 50 entries as a finalist in the Lifetime Achievement category
The Animal Star Awards were founded by Mary Burgess, an animal lover who wanted to create an award to give recognition to animals & people who have achieved extraordinary things. The annual event celebrates people doing great things for animals, as well as animals that do extraordinary things for people. This year’s winners will be announced in a glittering ceremony at the Marriott Hotel in Portsmouth on the 19th October.
Anna-Louise is an acclaimed writer, photographer and conservationist, who has dedicated her entire life to the welfare of endangered, sick and vulnerable creatures. For fifteen years she ran a registered hospital for birds of prey from her home. Caring mainly for injured and orphaned raptors, she also rehabilitated British mammals, including foxes, hares and squirrels.
Alongside her late Mother she co-founded the Pollyanna Pickering Foundation, a small but effective non-profit organisation which campaigns internationally to prevent the exploitation of wildlife and raises funds to support animal welfare and conservation projects worldwide. Since Pollyanna’s sudden and unexpected passing last year, Anna-Louise has been committed to continuing and expanding the work of the Foundation. In the last twelve months alone the Foundation has funded a unit for rehabilitating orphaned otter cubs in Scotland, built a hedgehog rescue unit in Surrey, purchased camera traps for use in tracking snow leopards in the Himalayas, and helped to create a ‘shock free zone’ for wildlife in the rainforests of Costa Rica by insulating power lines – alongside many smaller projects.
Along with Pollyanna, Anna-Louise has undertaken a remarkable series of expeditions – covering all seven continents – to study endangered species in their natural habitats. She has travelled by dog sled in the High Arctic, camping on the ice at temperatures of -40, canoed through crocodile infested rivers, and been charged by a wild tiger in search of her subjects. She has trekked in the Bale mountains of Ethiopia to photograph the Simien wolf– the rarest wolf in the world, and the only wolf in Africa, there are none in captivity anywhere in the world. She was the first western woman ever to travel into a remote area of the Tibetan borderlands, where she worked in a hospital for sick pandas.
The resulting photographs and articles about her expeditions have appeared in publications worldwide highlighting the plight of threatened species and environments, and she is the author of five critically acclaimed books.
Anna-Louise is dedicated in her support of other charities, acting as Patron of societies including Cats in Need, North Derbyshire Animal Support and Parrotaid and she is a Trustee of the African/Asian Conservation Trust.
She also continues to work with Pollyanna’s incredibly legacy of artwork, which continues to be published by charities including the WWF, the Born Free Foundation and the RSPB, raising funds for the causes closest to both their hearts.