January 6, 2020 –  It is with great sadness that the global animal welfare organization, FOUR PAWS, announces the death of Founder and President, Heli Dungler, who died suddenly and unexpectedly yesterday, at the age of 56. Heli Dungler has decisively shaped animal welfare over the past 30 years and expanded FOUR PAWS into a global organization.

Heli Dungler was born in 1963 in Waidhofen an der Thaya in Lower Austria. In 1984, he started his career with Greenpeace, Austria. During this time, he nurtured a desire to actively promote animal welfare. 

In 1988, he founded the animal welfare organisation FOUR PAWS in Vienna and initially focused on animal protection issues such as fur farming, battery farms and circus animals. For decades, through negotiations with decision-makers around the world, he campaigned for higher animal welfare standards in agriculture, for legislative changes in the keeping of brown bears and for the protection of big cats and stray animals. 

Thanks to Heli's tireless work, today FOUR PAWS is renowned global animal welfare organization, represented in 15 countries and revealing suffering, rescuing animals in need and protecting them worldwide.