Hugo Weaving and Ondine Sherman during the awards ceremony

On Monday 24th November, Voiceless hosted a red-carpet Awards Event at The Mint, a beautiful Historic Houses Trust venue in Sydney.  The evening celebration was attended by many leading members of the Australian community including animal advocates, parliamentarians, lawyers, scientists and members of the entertainment industry.  The evening also marked the launch of Voiceless's much anticipated report, From Nest to Nugget: An exposé of Australia’s chicken factories, by Former Premier of NSW, The Honourable Bob Carr.

2008 grant recipient, Annette Guice from Animal Liberation Qld, with trophy

Voiceless Ambassador, Hugo Weaving, presented each of the grants, with more than $140,000 worth of prizes and awards announced.  The Animal Club ‘Humane School Prize’ was presented by Youth Ambassador Claire Maddox, and Voiceless Animal Advocates (VAA) Ambassador, Triple J’s Lindsay McDougall, announced the winner of the inaugural VAA Student of the Year Award.

 Guests Margaret and Holly Throsby with Lindsay McDougall and Brian Sherman

Lara Goodridge from Four Play String Quartet entertained attendees in the early part of the evening, while two young students from Clifton Hills Primary School in Perth read a thoughtful and moving poem about the deprivation experienced by meat chickens in factory farms as an introduction to Mr Carr. All guests were also invited to put on a chicken mask to symbolically represent the hundreds of millions of chickens which are raised in factory farms and slaughtered in Australia each year, and to spend a few moments thinking about how it would feel to be a chicken in a factory farm.

Voiceless team and friends: Sarah Kossew, Lindsay McDougall, Imogen Bailey, Hugo Weaving, Ondine Sherman, Brian Sherman, Cybele Stockley, Katrina Sharman, Sarah Wade, Elizabeth Usher, Elaine Morris. All photos on this page courtesy of Sue Murray/Imagine It.

As in past years, the Sherman family is joined by a number of supporters and sponsors who have contributed to the 2008 Grants Program.

Bio-Distributors is sponsoring a $15,000 grant towards a project addressing the suffering of factory farmed animals.

Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics is sponsoring a $5,000 grant for a project addressing animal testing by the cosmetics industry. 

The 2008 Voiceless Judging Panel consisted of:

Ondine Sherman - Co-founder and Director, Voiceless

Brian Sherman AM - Co-founder and Director, Voiceless

Lorraine Jokovic - Chief Operating Officer, Loud

Katrina Sharman - Voiceless Corporate Counsel

Elaine Morris - Voiceless General Manager

Dr Daniel Ramp - ARC Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Road Ecology Research Group, University of New South Wales

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