Liezel van der Westhuizen is a true South African celebrity who has become a well-known household name as a TV presenter, blogger and radio personality. Out in the open she is a glamourous woman who has achieved a lot to earn celebrity status, from being the SADC Regional Winner for Africa’s Most Influential Women In Business and Government, third place winner in Mr and Ms Fitness SA Championship – Bikini Classic, to winning the Glamour Magazine Women Of The Year Award in 2013.

Liezel is also a voice for South Africa’s homeless animals, something she takes great pride in. She encourages everyone to open their hearts and their homes, and give South Africa’s homeless animals their ‘forever home’. Back home, she is just Liezel to her two dogs, Leia and Luke.

Animaltalk had the opportunity to speak to Liezel to find out where her love for animals started and why she feels so passionate about them.

You obviously have a passion for animals – where did it all start?

I grew up with a family who are all animal lovers. My grandparents lived on a farm with all sorts of pets and we were exposed to animal love from an early age. We were also taught the importance of animal rescue. My gran and my mom always had rescue pets.

You had pets as a child; please tell us more about them.

Growing up we had dogs and cats as pets, and I have special memories playing with our various pets when I was growing up. My first pets were dogs – an Alsatian named Evan and a Poodle named JuJu.