What do athletes and animals have in common? - Love Your Zoo 2026 Blog

This Love Your Zoo week, we're focussing on the journeys of the inspirational people who make zoos and conservation thrive. Next is Deana Stephens, Accreditation Officer at BIAZA:

I was asked to write a blog for BIAZA Love Your Zoo week, because my journey to this point has been described as ‘interesting’. If you call having a midlife crisis when your husband gets diagnosed with cancer during COVID interesting, boy do I have a story for you!

I have always wanted to work in the zoo industry. I remember being 8-years-old, fascinated by a Humboldt penguin following me at the window at Chessington Zoo. I ran to the keeper and asked how could I become a zoo keeper, to which they replied come back when you’re older and do a keeper for a day experience (great upsale skills from that keeper!), but alas, this simpler route was not meant to be.

As a teenager, I decided I wanted to be the person you saw running onto the pitch helping injured football players. I studied to become a Sports Rehabilitator (sort of a physiotherapist, with a specialist interest in musculoskeletal conditions, usually caused by grown adults running into each other). I had an amazing career that saw me work with Olympic athletes and coaches including running clinics for less affluent countries in the 2012 London Olympics, I worked with world record holders, worked in premiership rugby, worked with various football clubs across the leagues, worked in a variety of adapted/disability sports, I taught at numerous universities and ended with working in a London Major Trauma hospital. My career was varied, intense, high pressure, full of problem solving and helping people who were not necessarily able to help themselves or express the true extent of what they needed (sound familiar?).

Whilst working in major trauma, I decided to do something to help soothe the soul, keeping my inner child happy. I reached out to The Fenn Bell Conservation Project, emailing saying ‘I have 0 experience, but I work damn hard’. Fortunately, after a trial, they believed me, and took me on as a volunteer.

Fast forward to COVID. Major trauma dropped, with fewer cars on the road to cause mischief, and even gangs were socially distancing. As patients decreased, my time at the zoo increased. Until one day, Connor (Fenn Bell’s Curator) asked if I wanted to give being a full-time keeper a go. Turns out he’d been hinting for weeks, it went completely over my head- bare this in mind members if I screen you, avoid being subtle! At the time my husband had just undergone surgery for cancer, we were still waiting the all clear (I would tell anyone this is probably not the best time to make major life decisions, but I am glad I did).

I agreed to leave my entire hard-earnt career, to start all over again with a new one. However, I knew, if I was to do this, improving zoo/aquarium animal welfare was what I wanted to do. As it turns out, there is a heck of a lot of overlap between human and animal welfare! Fenn Bell supported me through my DMZAA (Diploma in the Management of Zoo and Aquarium Animals), enabled me to be a member of the BIAZA Animal Welfare Working Group, and supported my drive to improve both animal welfare on-site, and in the industry where possible. This gave me insight into the BIAZA community and opened my eyes to the compassionate, hardworking machine this industry is, as we all work towards the same goal. I had five enjoyable years at Fenn Bell before I joined the BIAZA Office team, where I have been for nearly two years now. My role as a BIAZA Accreditation Officer enables me to support our members with improving welfare, the goal I set from day one, on a scale beyond what I imagined when I changed career.

My route into this industry has by no means been ‘the norm’, but if it wasn’t for this direction, I would not have half of the understanding and resilience I do today. Realistically, my titles have changed, but my job descriptions have not, I still get to problem solve, embrace variety, advocate for the vulnerable and make a difference (oh and pay off student debt for degrees that on paper just cause confusion in job applications now!).

I cannot vouch enough for taking a risk and learning how skills can be transferable. In reality, you work more than you play, so if you have the opportunity to keep your inner child happy, do it (just maybe not during a major life crisis!... oh and my husband is fine now for anyone wondering).

- Deana Stephens, Accreditation Officer, BIAZA

All blogs reflect the views of their author and are not necessarily a reflection of BIAZA's position