Professor Amanda Whitfort, BA, LLM, MSc. International Animal Welfare Law, Science and Ethics is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong and a practising barrister.
Whitfort specialises in criminal law, environmental law and animal law. Her research on animal cruelty led to amendments to controls on animal breeding and a change in policy to the management of feral dogs in Hong Kong. She is the founder of the Species Victim Impact Statement Initiative www.svis.law.hku.hk/ a tool for wildlife crime prosecutions that has been endorsed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and referenced in 10 countries.
Whitfort is dedicated to the transfer of academic knowledge to positive law reform and since 2010 she has sat on the legal working party advising the Hong Kong government on animal management. She provides regular training for law enforcement and prosecuting authorities in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia and her research on wildlife crime is utilized in sentencing by the Hong Kong judiciary.