While the majority of day-to-day work at Tiny Paws is carried out by Suzi and our team of amazing volunteers who help with cleaning out and other jobs, like all charities, we have a group of Trustees. As Tiny Paws has grown over the past five years, we recently brought in two new trustees. They have brought with them a host of experience and ideas we can draw on, along with helping out with the increasingly large administrative burden of running a rescue. Let’s meet the team!
Suzi
Animals have always been Suzi’s main passion. She was introduced to the importance of protecting animals and nature by her parents at a young age. As a child had a keen interest in nursing sick and injured wildlife alongside her Dad. Suzi graduated with a BSc in Zoology from the University of Liverpool. She went on to obtain a Masters in Conservation Biology with Ornithology from Manchester Metropolitan University.
Suzi’s affinity for animals and the environment led her to become involved with animal rights and veganism. She has now been vegan for almost 17 years.
Together with Niccy and Ben, she formed Tiny Paws MCR in February 2019.
Suzi manages all day-to-day aspects of the rescue – animal care, vet trips, admin, emails, adoptions, surrenders, social media, volunteer management, you name it, she does it! She has a full-time admin job too, so it is a lot of work. It’s certainly a life choice and can be testing at times. Changing the lives of lots of little guys makes it worthwhile.
Suzi’s Favourite animals are Mice and her Hobbies and interests are Tattoos, bouldering and walking with our rescue greyhound Bobby.
Suzi says: “My favourite thing about running Tiny Paws is seeing animals thrive in natural-style enclosures and enjoy species-specific, natural-style diets. Where rodents and rabbits are cared for in captivity, I’m a big advocate for housing these amazing animals in a way that allows them to live as naturally as possible, with the opportunity to display their innate natural behaviours – we may not be able to give them back the true freedom they’d have in the wild, but we can enrich their lives to the best of our ability.
Ben
Ben studied Environmental Biology and volunteered for Environmental charities including Friends of the Earth in Swansea before becoming involved in environmental and political activism in Bristol. He has been vegetarian for 15 years and vegan for nine. Ben moved to Manchester seven years ago. He has built aviaries, runs and even multichamber hamster hides that we use at Tiny Paws and is our resident foraging expert. Having a keen interest in botany, he completed a plant identification course in 2019 and leads our forage walks, educating the public on identifying safe plants to feed to small animals!
His favourite animal is the rat, due to their inquisitive nature. His hobbies include foraging, listening to music and audiobooks, and board gaming. He works full-time at the University of Manchester.
Nicola
Nicola has long had a passion for animals and advocating for their rights as individuals. Volunteering with grassroots groups since age 14, Nicola went on to study BSc in Animal Welfare. Soon after, a volunteer placement helping to care for monkeys at the UK’s Monkey Sanctuary, turned into a role in fundraising and public awareness.
Nicola has worked for numerous animal charities, working on a wide range of issues including zoos, circuses, fishing, wild animal ‘pets’ and more. Nicola previously worked as interim Director of the UK animal rights NGO Freedom for Animals, which included managing the UK’s first-ever campaign advocating for the rights of animals exploited in aquariums. She now leads the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition, which brings together animal advocates from across the world to tackle the issue of animal cruelty content online.
Nicola also loves Irish dancing, spending time with family, travelling, and meeting animals living in their native habitats. Nicola loves all tiny paws, but she has a particular love for mice and fishes! She currently lives with her partner Gareth and two fishy companions, Goldeen and Finn.
Isobel
Born and raised in Manchester and a lifelong animal advocate, Isobel became vegan in 2010. She went on to be involved in activism on a range of animal rights issues. Since 2019 Isobel has been a travelling house and animal-sitter caring for a wide range of animals of all sizes across the UK and beyond, including holding down fort Tiny Paws when Suzi & Ben have been on rare holidays!
In 2021 Isobel became Campaigns Officer for UK charity Freedom for Animals.
Her favourite small animal is the Degu and she rescued abandoned degus between 2009 and 2019. Her hobbies include walking, bird watching, foraging, cross-stitching, and reading.
Amy
Amy has always felt very passionately about animals and doing what she can to protect them. She first became vegetarian when she was seven, and has now been vegan for over 16 years. Amy graduated from the University of Leeds in 2012 with a degree in English Language and Literature.
She has volunteered and worked for many wonderful charities and has been a fundraiser for twelve years, including working for animal rights and animal protection charities. Amy currently leads fundraising at a health and wellbeing charity in Rochdale.
Her favourite animal is the guinea pig and has adopted two guineas from Tiny Paws, Isaac and Billy. Amy enjoys walking and exploring, especially the Lake District, reading, and cooking.
