Nina Austenberg

Nina Austenberg is a former director of HSUS's Mid-Atlantic Regional Office, based in Flanders, NJ.

In 2003, she was appointed by New Jersey Governor James McGreevey to serve on the state's Animal Welfare Task Force. In 2008, she signed a letter to the editor of New Jersey newspaper The Leader as the chair of the Domestic Companion Animal Council.

Austenberg was interviewed for a 1993 PBS broadcast of a documentary called "Throwaway Pets." On camera, she discusses her reasons for mandating that families spay and neuter their pets:

Many people will say, ‘We want to have the cat have one litter, so that you can see what life is about.’ We ask them to look at the shelter, and just look at what death is about. If you realize that the crying here—most of these animals will be euthanized – we can’t have, we don’t have time for the miracle of life of dogs and cats. We have to stop that right now.

On October 26, 2010, Austenberg confirmed for HumaneWatch that she is no longer employed with HSUS.