John Holland is an author, free lance writer and an industrial
consultant in the field of intelligent automation and knowledge engineering. He is the author of three books with his most
recent work being "Designing Autonomous Mobile Robots; Inside the Mind of an Intelligent Machine". He also holds numerous
patents in robotics, fiber optics and radio telemetry.
John is an advocate for horse welfare and humane treatment.
He frequently writes on the subject of horse slaughter from his small farm in the mountains of Virginia, where he lives with
his wife, Sheilah, and their 12 equines. Holland is co-founder of the Equine Welfare Alliance and serves as senior analyst
for Americans Against Horse Slaughter, an organization composed entirely of volunteers.
In 2005, he received the annual "Heart and Soul" award from
United Animal Nations for his volunteer work against horse slaughter.
Some slaughter advocates have estimated that as many as 170,000 such horses were abandoned just last year. This
valuable pool of unwanted horses could serve as a kind of “petroleum reserve” for the horse slaughter industry
if only they could be found. And for that matter, there are always the unicorns.~John Holland
