Ms Chalk was with RSPCA Australia for four years and moved to Animals Australia to take the position based in Melbourne, which had been vacant for some time.

Ms Chalk played an important role keeping media and stakeholders informed of the RSPCA’s views during the federal government’s abrupt closure of the live cattle export trade to Indonesia last June, sparked by a covert investigation by Animals Australia investigator Lyn White.

Ms Chalk started her new role with a bang, issuing a media statement calling for closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras to be installed in all Australian abattoirs, following a case of abattoir cruelty exposed in Wilberforce, NSW, last week.

In the statement, Ms White said it was "profoundly disturbing" that abattoirs (in Gippsland last December and now in Wilberforce) had an iron bar and a sledgehammer on hand to beat animals.

Animals Australia called on authorities to follow the lead of the UK where one in five abattoirs have CCTV cameras.

With Ms White’s reputation for uncovering and exposing animal cruelty now global, Ms Chalk said the focus of her role would be the management of all internal and external communications for Animals Australia.