Humane Society director seeks laws to prevent abuse

Fox, a native of New York, attended Bates College in Maine, majoring in environmental studies. By her senior year, she had focused on animal protection.

She went on to law school at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore., which offers a concentration in animal law. Fox finished her law degree at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., so she could be close to her now-husband, Jesse Fox, who was working there. She got a job with the Humane Society and later was appointed Massachusetts state director.

“I love New England and was thrilled to find a way to be here and also work for such an impressive organization,’’ she said.

Fox said she vacationed on Plum Island with her family when she was a child.

“It always was a special place,’’ she said, “and, magically, it worked for our jobs.’’

Fox works from home. Her husband is a lead designer for Independent Fabrication, a custom bicycle company in Newmarket, N.H. The couple lives with two cats and tours the area on their seven bikes.

Fox has been working on several legislative bills, including one to ban horse slaughter in Massachusetts and prohibit the sale or export of horses for slaughter for human consumption.

She said Congress has not funded inspection of slaughter plants, meaning they can’t operate in the United States.

But, she said, 100,000 horses a year are shipped to factories in Canada and Mexico. The meat is sold in several countries in Europe, where it is considered a delicacy.

“I do see the horse protection community is really coming together and forming horse welfare councils,’’ Fox said. Locally, Mary Martin, who runs New England Equine Rescues North, “is remarkable in the way she is doing this work. We need her on the North Shore.’’

Fox also is working on national legislation that would make it a crime to be a spectator at dog or cock fights. She also is involved with a state bill that would prevent cruelty to farm animals by banning confinement cages for egg-laying hens, breeding pigs, and calves.

“One of the reasons I like working on legislation is it’s the best tool we have to prevent animal cruelty before it happens,’’ Fox said.

According to Fox, the hardest part of her job is having to bear witness to animal cruelty.

“But at the end of the day,’’ she said, “it gives you that extra fire to wake up and go out and try to protect them.’’