Dr. Lianna is the founder and owner of Claire Place Veterinary Hospice, one of the first practices in Canada devoted to end-of-life care for companion animals. After 20 years in the field, Dr. Lianna has retired from clinical practice to focus on education. On the subject of animal hospice and palliative care, she is an author, speaker, educator, and mentor. She is past president of the International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care and is still active with their international committee. In an effort to improve animal welfare more universally, Dr. Lianna participates in volunteer missions to provide veterinary care to underserved communities both locally and in developing countries. A large focus of her career has been the care of all the people involved in the end-of-life stage for companion animals. Dr. Lianna has been the director of the Pet Loss Support Group of Ottawa for over 20 years and, as a certified yoga instructor, is now offering grief retreats to people living with loss. Recognizing that her true passion is the art of gentle euthanasia, Dr. Lianna joined the Companion Animal Euthanasia Training Academy (CAETA) in 2021 as the international director and instructor. Her goal is to expand the CAETA vision to a global scale, ever approaching the ultimate mission: to ensure that all animals, including humans, have the peaceful death that they deserve.

Dr Suzen, Vets2Home Founder & Owner, and UK’s leading hospice vet and pet euthanasia expert. Her caring home care vet team at Vets2Home – Peaceful Pet Goodbyes, has been helping families say goodbye at home peacefully with vet home visits in Sussex since 2005.

Dr Suzen graduated in 1999 from The Royal Veterinary & Agricultural University in her native Copenhagen, then left Denmark to become a mobile vet in England. She realised as a big animal lover herself, that saying goodbye with gentle dog euthanasia or cat euthanasia at home and the whole end-of-life journey with any beloved pet was the most important but difficult and challenging time for any pet parent.

Dr Suzen had a vision to offer a professional, compassionate home care vet alternative to the clinical experience commonly offered. Vets2Home was founded in 2005 based on these important values. In addition to running Vets2Home, she is the UK instructor of CAETA International. CAETA offers specialised training to vet colleagues interested in using state-of-the-art euthanasia techniques when delivering the goodbye experience. She is honoured to serve as the first European Member on the board of the non-profit International Association of Animal Hospice and Palliative Care (IAAHPC).

Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (Taiwan), Certified Hospice and Palliative Care Veterinarian (CHPV),
Member of the International Animal Association of Hospice and Palliative Care

Veronica graduated as a vet from National Taiwan University in 2006. She started her career as a small animal general practitioner and is also a professional animal communicator for 10 years. During this time she worked with families to address the mental and social needs of pets in the end-stage.

Following writing a book (Provisional Translation) “What Can We Do For Pets Before End-of-Life Nears： the importance of pets’ mental needs and human-animal bond” in 2020, she then pursued a profession as a certified hospice and palliative care veterinarian to further improve quality of life for pets on the physical basis. Veronica uses her unique blend of veterinary skills and animal communication knowledge to advocate for more awareness of palliative care issues in the veterinary industry.

Veronica has a sincere passion for the care of pet families so she completed grief counseling and hospice spiritual care training. She has delivered more than 20 workshops and lectures on EOL care, self-care, and death and grief.

Veronica has had more than 10 media interviews since 2015. She blogs at www.wanjouchangdvm.blogspot.com and holds a Facebook group of 5 thousand people.

Svenja Joswig initially studied European economics in Bamberg and then completed her studies in veterinary medicine at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, where she also received her doctorate in 2014. With her 15-year-old Labrador Momo, she for the first time increasingly dealt with the needs of geriatric animals. In various clinics in the USA and Germany, she deepened her knowledge of treatment and rehabilitation measures for this group of patients. This culminated in her training as a Certified Animal Hospice and Palliative Care Veterinarian (CAHPV), which she successfully completed in 2018 while working in various practices in Germany at the same time. She is the German representative of the International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care (IAAHPC) and now has her own practice in Hankensbüttel in the district of Gifhorn.

ABOUT ME:
I am a licensed veterinarian, specializing in geriatrics (geriatric medicine) for animals.

After the wish of my great 15-year-old Labrador mix dog Momo to grow old as nicely as possible, I specialized in veterinary geriatrics and after graduation also wrote my doctoral thesis in this area. My dog is now unfortunately already in dog heaven, but I would now like to help other animals and pet owners to master the age well and to make these sometimes difficult, but also valuable last years together particularly well.

With this goal in mind, I also advise other veterinarians on how to better respond to aging patients and their owners in their practices.

Shannon Axiak Flammer is a proud member of the AHPC Certificate class of 2021. After blindly climbing the academic ladder, she finally stopped and decided to invest time in the things that interest her most. Playing the cello was a childhood fantasy and now, just after a few years, she is playing with the Belper Orchestra (fake it ’till you make it!).
Another passion was herbal medicine, and she is currently becoming certified in Veterinary
Phytotherapy by the Swiss Society of Medical Phytotherapy. She recently founded her own mobile palliative care practice in Bern, Switzerland (palliative-vet.ch), and is thrilled that as a business owner she can unilaterally choose to wear pink.

Shannon received her DVM from Michigan State University (2001), followed by an internship at
Angell Memorial Animal Hospital in Boston. After working as a private emergency veterinarian, she completed a residency in Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia at the University of Bern with successful ACVAA board certification in 2008. Shannon served as European Editor-in-Chief of Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia from 2014-2018 and remains on the Editorial board.

As a part of the IAAHPC international committee she is committed to support colleagues with an interest in this necessary field.