Matthew Payne

Matthew Payne is working with the Whale Sanctuary Project to develop education programs for children, teenagers and adults. Initially, he is developing an education packet for K-12 students that will become part of a more formal education program over the coming months.

Matthew currently works as a Community Engagement Officer for the UK animal welfare charity Cats Protection, where he focuses on programs to overcome resistance to the early neutering of feral cats in low socio-economic communities in the North of England.

He is currently managing a citizen-science based pilot project called the BD5 Cat Watch in the city of Bradford as part of Cats Protection’s innovative study into community cat populations in the UK. Through his work, Matthew develops and maintains effective partnerships with regional agencies, councils and other stakeholders within multi-cultural communities to develop greater partnership work. He also delivers presentations and workshops at conferences in the United Kingdom, Europe and North America on how Cats Protection makes the early neutering of owned and unowned cats the social norm in communities.

Before joining Cats Protection, Matthew worked for several years in education in the UK, where he taught in a range of age groups and managed a department of classroom teachers, support staff and parent volunteers as well as various subject departments. During that time, he volunteered for several wildlife conservation charities, developing educational programs and resources for a global audience while launching his own education conservation program called So What? in the North of England.

In 2013, Matthew self-published the fictional book A Father’s Pride for young people with the aim of raising awareness of the canned lion hunting industry in South Africa. In his 2014 biography My Lion’s Heart, conservationist Gareth Patterson called Matthew one of the “next generation of wildlife warriors.’’

In September 2019, Matthew is starting a Postgraduate Masters program in Behavior Change at Derby University in the UK.