Louise Wallis

Louise Wallis is a DJ, singer, and writer who is also known for her animal advocacy. She lives in London, England.

Louise Wallis was born in 1964, into a musical family in Birmingham, England. She was raised by her mother and maternal grandparents. Her grandfather Syd had his own band, notorious in the post-war years for raucous all-night parties, and her great grandmother Kitty was a celebrated pianist who played pubs and clubs into her 90s.

At age seven, Wallis acquired a step-father and a new brother; she also acquired a kitten, to soften the blow of a sudden move to Southampton. She sought solace in the company of animals, developing a particular passion for horses.

By the age of 18 she was a fully-fledged animal activist and vegan.

In 1990, as a Regional Campaigns Officer for the National Anti-Vivisection Society, she organised one of the largest national anti-vivisection marches ever held (25,000 people).

She then carried out undercover investigations in 1990. Seeing a job advert titled 'An Important Role working with Animals', she soon found herself working as a trainee animal technician with the drug company SmithKline Beecham. She applied for a job at a second animal research laboratory St Bartholomew's Medical School where she worked for several months before being sacked after, in all likelihood, a police tip off. In a bizarre twist of fate, Louise had moved into a flat on Burgoyne Road in north London, which had been vacated by another activist, John Barker, who was later unmasked as an undercover police spy. Nevertheless, Wallis's story made national press, and she was dubbed "Britain's No 1 Animals Rights Campaigner" by the Sunday Sport newspaper. With the National Anti-Vivisection Society she launched a 'Free the Beagles' campaign calling for the release of 24 dogs for whom she had cared at SmithKline Beecham; the company refused, and all 24 dogs were destroyed.

In November 1991 Wallis was elected president of the Vegan Society. She commissioned and produced the charity's first film, Truth or Dairy, starring Benjamin Zephaniah and directed by Franny Armstrong. She also created World Vegan Day in 1994, to mark the Society's 50th anniversary; the event has since been celebrated every 1 November around the globe. On 29 March 1995 she gave evidence on animal welfare at the infamous 'McLibel' trial, the longest-running case in English history, which involved two activists sued by McDonald's for distributing a leaflet called "What's Wrong with McDonald's?" In 2013, it emerged that this leaflet had been co-written by another undercover police spy, Bob Lambert.

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